SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Former American International College head coach Julie Zoolkoski was named Wednesday as Head Field Hockey Coach at Slippery Rock University.

“We are excited to have a person with Julie's experience and enthusiasm join our staff,” Rock Director of Athletics Paul Lueken said. “She has shown the ability to build a program from the ground up and to help it grow and mature, so we expect good things to happen in the years to come with her as our head coach.”

Zoolkoski inherits a Rock program that won seven games in four seasons under former head coach Stacey Hart and is coming off a 3-16 season in 2009. Ironically, one of The Rock's wins last fall was a 5-0 season-opening triumph over American International.

Zoolkoski joined The Rock staff after serving four seasons as AIC's first-ever field hockey head coach. She led the Yellow Jackets to two wins in each of their first two seasons before increasing the win total to five games in 2008 and six games in 2009. Included in the 2008 win total was a 3-2 victory over No. 6 St. Michaels, the Yellow Jackets' first-ever win over a nationally ranked opponent.

She also served as Assistant Compliance Coordinator at American International and was a member from 2008-10 of the NCAA Division II North Region advisory committee, the National Field Hockey Coaches Association's All-American Committee and the North/South All Star Committee.

Prior to being named in May 2006 as head coach at AIC, Zoolkoski served one season as an assistant coach under former Rock student-athlete and head coach Jenny Dumas at Washington & Jefferson College and two seasons as an assistant at Amherst College.

Zoolkoski was also the director of the Revolution Field Hockey Camp in Pomfret, Conn., from 2008-10; head coach of U-14 Action Sports in Greenfield, Mass., from 2006-09 and head coach for the USA Field Hockey Futures Program, Great Lakes Region, in the spring of 2005. She has worked at numerous field hockey summer camps, including camps at Amherst, Stanford and William and Mary.

A 2003 graduate of The College of William and Mary, Zoolkoski was a three-year starter in field hockey for the Tribe. She led the Tribe to a Top 20 national ranking in each of her three seasons and a pair of appearances in the NCAA Division I Tournament. As a senior, Zoolkoski was named to the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) all-Tournament Team and received the CAA Commissioners' Academic Award in 2002.

Zoolkoski earned her B.S.B.A. in marketing from William & Mary in 2003 and her master's in education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2005.

A native of Mountaintop, Pa., and graduate of Crestwood High School, Zoolkoski is engaged to Allegheny College Head Baseball Coach Kelly Swiney.

Zoolkoski's first game as Rock head coach will be Sept. 8, when SRU hosts Seton Hill University in a 7 p.m. game at N. Kerr Thompson Stadium.