MICHELLE ANDRE
Head Coach
Michelle Andre enters her eighth season as Rowan’s field hockey coach in 2023, having established the Profs as one of the top teams in the nation. Her Rowan record stands at 115-30, but in the last four seasons, Andre’s Profs have made three appearances in the NCAA Semifinals and won three conference championships, while going 76-11.
The 2022 season saw the Profs go 21-2 and finish the year ranked third in the nation. Rowan captured its second consecutive NJAC Championship and then made its second straight appearance in the NCAA Semifinals, while serving as the host of the championship. The program reached a milestone as midfielder Kristiina Castagnola was named the NFHCA Division III Player of the Year, becoming the first female athlete in Rowan history to earn national Player of the Year honors in her sport.
The 2021 Profs returned from the year off due to the pandemic, and responded with the second-best season during her tenure, as they went 18-3, reached the NCAA Semifinals, won the NJAC Championship and finished the year ranked fourth in the nation. The squad put together a 16-game winning streak and recorded six straight shutouts along the way. Rowan added two more All-Americans to its storied history, Kristiina Castagnola and Molly Gorczyca, while Castagnola was the Region’s Player of the Year and the NJAC’s Midfielder of the Year, and Gorczyca received the conference’s top defender award. Andre was named the NJAC’s Coach of the Year for the third time in her career while Rowan was recognized as the Region IV Coaching Staff of the Year by the NFHCA for the second time.
The 2019 team went 15-5 and reached the NJAC Championship game, while achieving a final national ranking of eighth. The Profs earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament for their second straight appearance.
In 2018, Andre’s Profs broke the school record for wins in a season with a 22-1 mark, won the NJAC title and advanced to the NCAA Semifinals for the fourth time in school history. Andre was tabbed the conference’s Coach of the Year and Rowan was recognized as the Region’s Coaching Staff of the Year. Rachel Galante and Julie Johnson earned All-America First Team honors with Galante being named the South Atlantic Region Player of the Year and the NJAC Offensive Player of the Year, and Johnson taking the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award.
In 2017, Rowan posted a 13-6 record and advanced to the NJAC Championship Tournament for the seventh year in a row, following a 12-7 campaign in 2016 which saw Jacqui Rosati earn All-America Third Team honors and Bridget Boyle being chosen as the NJAC Rookie of the Year. In Andre’s first season back at Rowan in 2015, she guided the team to a 14-6 record, including a 5-1 NJAC mark, and had an All-America Second Team selection with Marisa Marini and the conference’s Rookie of the Year with Galante.
An All-American as a player at Rowan, Andre returned in 2015 to serve as the Profs’ sixth head field hockey coach. That followed stints as the head coach at Stockton University and the University of Rochester as she now owns a 210-142 record in her 18-year career.
While at Stockton from 2009 to 2014, Andre compiled a 42-68 record but oversaw great improvement in the program, as the Ospreys posted 28 wins from 2011 to 2013, exceeding the win total of the previous six years combined. Stockton earned a spot in the NJAC Championship in 2013 and posted a school-record 12 victories, as Andre earned the conference’s Coach of the Year Award.
Andre served as the head coach at Rochester for five seasons from 2002 to 2006 where she posted a 53-43 record. In her debut as a head coach, she led the Yellowjackets to a school-record 12 victories and the program’s first winning season in 10 years. Rochester improved on that mark with 13 wins in her final season and in those five years, guided two All-Americans and 12 All-Region honorees.
She also served as an assistant coach at Rowan during a successful run in which the Profs went 96-23, captured two NJAC titles (1998, 2000) and reached the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament twice (1998, 2000) and the NCAA Quarterfinals four times (1999, 2001, 2007, 2008).
Andre was a two-sport standout in field hockey and softball at Rowan from 1994 to 1998, earning All-America and All-Conference honors in both sports. She was the named the 1997 NJAC Midfielder of the Year, the Field Hockey Club of South Jersey Division III Offensive Player of the Year and a First Team All-America. With 94 career points, including 38 goals, Andre was the Profs’ all-time scoring leader at the time of her graduation and still ranks among the top 10.
She earned similar honors as a third baseman for the Profs’ softball squad, being named to the All-America Second Team in 1996 and earning All-Region and All-Conference recognition three times each. Still ranking as one of the program’s leaders with a career batting average of .374, Andre helped the Profs to four consecutive NCAA Tournament berths, and the regional title and trip to the national championship in 1995.
Andre, who was also an All-Region honoree at goalkeeper for the Rowan women’s lacrosse team in 1999, received her bachelor’s degree that year and then earned a master’s in higher education administration in 2002. She was inducted into the Rowan-Glassboro State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009 and was also honored with induction into the Pennsauken High School Athletic Hall of Fame.
Originally from Pennsauken, NJ, Andre has previously served as the chair of the NCAA Division III Field Hockey National and South Atlantic Regional Advisory Committees and the NFHCA Division III Group Representative.
ERIN SMALL
Assistant Coach
Rowan alumnus Erin Small is in her seventh season as an assistant field hockey coach at Rowan in 2023.
Small was a two-sport athlete for the Profs, as a goalie with the field hockey team from 1995 to 1998 and a catcher on the softball team from 1996 to 1999.
She graduated from Rowan in 2000 with a bachelor’s in health and exercise science and went on to teach health and physical education, while serving as the department chair at Gloucester City High School.
Small was the head field hockey coach at Gloucester City High School for 14 years and enjoyed great success. She accumulated a record of 178-62-34, won six division championships and two South Jersey Group Championships, and in 2008, was named Coach of the Year by the South Jersey Times.
Currently the head softball coach at Audubon High School, she was named the 2010 Coach of the Year by the South Jersey Softball Coaches Association.
DANIELLE ALTERSITZ
Assistant Coach
Danielle Altersitz joined the Rowan field hockey coaching staff in 2023 as assistant coach.
A former standout at Montclair State from 2006 to 2010, she was named the Most Outstanding Player at the 2009 ECAC Championship won by the Red Hawks. Altersitz also earned an NJAC Defensive Player of the Week honor during her senior season.
Following her senior season, she competed for the United States at the 18th Maccabi games in Israel in 2009, helping the U.S. to a silver medal, and to a bronze medal at the 2011 European Maccabi Games in Vienna, Austria.
She took that international playing experience and transitioned into coaching becoming the assistant coach with Maccabi USA Field Hockey and participating in the 14th European Maccabi Games in Berlin, Germany in 2015 and then guided the U.S. to a silver medal at the 20th Maccabiah Games in 2017.
The native of Swedesboro, NJ, has served as the assistant club director and head coach for the South Jersey Edge since 2010 and is a STEM/Math teacher at Kingsway Regional Middle School.
A 2010 graduate of Montclair State with a degree in biology, Altersitz and her husband, Andrew Finger have one son, Barrett.
KRISTINA CASTAGNOLA
Assistant Coach
After making her mark on the field, former field hockey standout Kristiina Castagnola moves to the sidelines, as she was named an assistant coach with the Profs in July 2023; She becomes the first full-time assistant coach for Rowan’s field hockey program.
Castagnola closed out her career this past season, making school history with her selection as the NFHCA Division III Player of the Year, becoming the first female athlete at Rowan to win her sport’s top player award. She was also named the Honda Division III Athlete of the Year for field hockey and was one of 11 national finalists for the Honda Division III Athlete of the Year.
One of the most honored student-athletes ever to play at Rowan, Castagnola was a three-time All-American, with the past two years as a first-team selection. The program’s leading scorer with 163 points (66 goals, 31 assists), she was named the Region IV Player of the Year and the NJAC Midfielder of the Year for two consecutive seasons. A four-time All-NJAC First Team selection and four-time All-Region honoree, she was named the NJAC Female Athlete of the Year in 2023 for the second time.
“We are excited to have Kristiina join our staff. She is coming off a heralded career at Rowan and she will be a valuable asset to the program,” said head coach Michelle Andre. “Her experience in coaching club, training and her knowledge of Rowan, as well as her passion for Rowan, will be a great addition to our program.”
Castaganola was named to the CSC Academic All-America Women’s At-Large First Team in 2023, after receiving third-team honors the previous year, and was chosen as the Philadelphia Academic All-Area Overall Performer of the Year in both 2022 and 2023.
During her career, the Profs went 76-11, won three NJAC Championships and reached the NCAA Tournament all four years, highlighted by three trips to the NCAA Semifinals, including back to back appearances in 2021 and 2022.
Since 2020, she has been the social media manager and a head coach for the Uprise Field Hockey Club in Southern New Jersey, which is annually one of the nation’s top clubs.
Castagnola was a graduate assistant in Rowan’s College of Education this past year and previously served as a resident director in the school’s Holly Pointe Commons in 2021-22.
The native of Voorhees, NJ, received her master’s degree in higher education administration from Rowan in May, after earning a bachelor’s degree in communication studies in 2021.
