Molly Palella (née Hulseman), honored as part of the Ivy League Coaching Staff of the Year in 2026, has helped the Yale women's lacrosse team to unprecedented levels of success. The Bulldogs have made three straight trips to the NCAA Tournament -- including quarterfinals appearances in 2024 and 2025 -- and five straight Ivy League Tournament championship game appearances. They have won two of the last three Ivy League Tournaments and two of the last three Ivy League regular season titles.
The 2026 season saw Yale win the Ivy League regular season title with a 6-1 conference record. The Bulldogs went 13-5 overall and were ranked as high as No. 5 in the ILWomen national poll. They won seven straight games to start the season, including an 11-6 win at then-No. 5 Michigan. They advanced to the Ivy League Tournament championship game for the fifth straight season, then earned an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.
For their roles in the Bulldogs' recent accomplishments, Palella and fellow Yale assistant coach Colleen Smith were recipients of the annual IWLCA Outstanding Assistant Coach Award in 2024. In 2024 the Bulldogs set the school record for wins (17), including a pair of wins in the NCAA Tournament. They also claimed their first outright Ivy League Championship (they shared the title in 1980 and 2003) by going 7-0 in league games during the regular season. They then won the Ivy League Tournament for the first time in school history. Yale was ranked as high as No. 1 in the RPI and No. 6 in the ILWomen/IWLCA national poll. The Bulldogs established school records for goals, assists, points, caused turnovers and draw controls. Palella works extensively with Yale's draw control unit.
The Bulldogs have been building towards this level of success for several years. They were ranked as high as No. 13 in the national poll in 2023. Their 2022 win total (11) was, at the time, their best since 2008. They tied what was the school record for Ivy League wins in a season (six) and earned a spot in the Ivy League Tournament for the first time. They went on to beat Cornell for their first Ivy League Tournament win. That season featured several other milestone victories, including the team's first win vs. Penn since 2004, the team's first win at Cornell since 2004 and the team's first win vs. Dartmouth since 2015. The Bulldogs earned a national ranking and broke the school records for goals and draw controls. The team's second-place finish in the Ivy League represented, at the time, its best finish in the standings since 2007.
Palella, who played in the NCAA Tournament four times while at Loyola, joined the Yale staff in the summer of 2017. In her first season, she helped Izzy Nixon lead the Ivy League in draw controls per game, breaking the Yale single-season record in the process.
Prior to joining the Bulldogs Palella spent two seasons as an assistant at Michigan, where she worked primarily with the defense and draw control specialists. In her final season -- the Wolverines’ fourth as a varsity program -- they set the school record for draws (244), making a dramatic improvement from their total the previous season (189).
Palella’s stint at Michigan came on the heels of a successful playing career at Loyola, where she was a four-year starter and totaled 70 goals along with 29 assists. The Greyhounds went 58-26 during her tenure, advancing as far as the NCAA quarterfinals in her senior year. They won the Big East regular season championship in 2012 and then won Patriot League championships in 2014 and 2015. An attacker/midfielder, Palella was the recipient of the team’s Reverend Francis J. McManamin Unsung Hero Award as a senior.
During her time at Loyola, Palella assisted with several camps and clinics and was also member of Loyola's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology in May 2015.
Palella has also served as a coach, personal trainer, tournament coordinator and camp counselor for Sports Made Personal in Chicago, Ill. In that role, she has trained girls from ages 6-19 at varying levels of ability. She was also the head coach of two age groups for the Team One Lacrosse Club in Chicago.
A native of Chicago, Ill., Palella attended Loyola Academy -- the same high school as Smith.
