BUFFALO, N.Y. – Slippery Rock University head women's lacrosse coach
Taryn Burkholder will be recognized Sunday evening by the Buffalo Sabres as a "Female Sports Leader" during the NHL team's Girls and Women in Sports Night against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Burkholder, who is a Buffalo native, will be recognized on the video board during the game in celebration of her achievements as a female leader.
The Burkholder name is well known in hockey circles, especially in western New York. Her father, Dave, won a national championship as a collegiate player and went on to win nearly 250 games as head coach at Niagara University, where he was a three-time conference Coach of the Year across two different conferences.
Now in her fifth season as the head lacrosse coach at Slippery Rock, Burkholder has launched The Rock into national prominence with the best four-year stretch in program history. She was named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division Coach of the Year in both 2024 and 2025 and she and assistant coach
Jordan Anderson were named the Atlantic Region Coaching Staff of the Year in each of the last two years as well.
Burkholder led Slippery Rock to a then program record 15 wins and the first postseason win in the modern era of SRU lacrosse in 2024 and followed that up by winning the 2025 Atlantic Region title, reaching the national semifinals and setting a new program record for single-season wins with an 18-3 record.
This spring, she has The Rock off to a 3-0 start with wins over three teams that won their respective conference titles and reached the NCAA Tournament a year ago. SRU is ranked No. 3 in the current USA Lacrosse Magazine Division II national poll and No. 7 in the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association poll.
Sunday's Sabres game will cap a busy weekend for Burkholder in her hometown. Slippery Rock is set to play at D'Youville University in Buffalo Saturday at 1 p.m.
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