Merrimack hires Ashley Durepo, who draws old friend in opener

Ashley Durepo (Concord, N.H.) has been named the head coach at Merrimack after a successful stint at Southern Maine. (USM Athletics)

As a standout player at the University of New Hampshire a little over a decade ago, Ashley Durepo (Concord, N.H.) was a key part of good teams that were annually in the hunt for an America East championship and national tournament berth.

A four-year starter, she helped lead the Wildcats to a spot in the NCAA tournament in 2008 after falling to Boston University in the conference championship game in OT.

Her hiring as the new head coach at Merrimack College, which had been rumored for weeks, became official on Tuesday, and she now takes over a Warriors team that has plenty of work to do and ground to cover before it will be considered a legitimate conference title threat.

Durepo replaces Julie Duffy, who parted ways with the program in December after guiding it during its first season in Division 1 in 2020 and going 1-6. Her first practice with the team was Thursday morning.

Her first game? A little over 24 hours after that — Friday afternoon at UNH.

“I love it,” she said Thursday, after practice. “I’m hitting the ground running so why not play a game like that? It will be great to get some film and see what we look like.”

Durepo spent the last three years as the head coach at Division 3 Southern Maine. In August, her part-time position was elevated to full-time, and she was focused on a future there.

At USM, since taking the head job in August 2017, Durepo improved the team’s winning percentage and led it to its first Little East championship game since 2013. In her last full season, her 2019 team set program records for the highest goals-per-game average and most assists, and she was named the LEC Coach of the Year after going 10-6.

“Everything was going really, really well at USM,” she said. “I heard through a colleague of mine about the Merrimack job. It was mostly for professional reasons but some personal reasons. I’ve always wanted to get back (closer) to New Hampshire.”

“We are thrilled to announce Ashley Durepo as the new head coach of our women’s lacrosse program,” stated director of athletics Jeremy Gibson. “Ashley’s coaching experience, dedication to her student-athletes and overall passion for women’s lacrosse will serve her well as she begins her Merrimack career.”

Durepo, currently the only coach on the Merrimack staff, said she has been impressed by her players’ resilience. Senior attacks Ally DaCosta (New Bedford, Mass.) and Haley Bartlett (Gilford, N.H.), and senior midfielders Meg Dzialo (Hampton, N.H.) and Isabella Tersoni (Framingham, Mass.) have been named captains.

“This is a real solid group,” said Durepo. “They were without a coach for a time so they’ve stepped up noticeably as leaders. I’ve joked with them that they’ve all been promoted to assistant coach.”

Before her time at USM, she helped start UMass Lowell’s program from the ground up. She arrived in the summer of 2013 and helped the River Hawks for two seasons after their 2015 debut. She began her coaching career as an assistant at USM in 2010.

“I didn’t know (then) that coaching would be my full-time career,” she said, “but I know I loved it.”

Additionally, Durepo has been the head coach and/or recruiting coordinator for a trio of travel lacrosse programs since the summer of 2006. Her most recent experience has been as the head coach of Maineiax Lacrosse Club of Portland, Maine, since August 2017.

A two-time All-State player at Concord High School, she graduated from UNH with a bachelor’s degree in sociology in the spring of 2009 with a minor in business administration.

@MikeZhe603
[email protected]