Head Coach Carol Knerr returned to the sidelines for her 21st season leading the Amherst field hockey team in 2022. After spending the 2000 season as an assistant and sharing head coaching duties with Chris Paradis in 2001 and 2002, Knerr assumed sole control of the field hockey program in 2003.

The 2022 team went 12-4 and were ranked as high as 4th in the national coaches poll.  Knerr eclipsed 200 career wins in 2021 en route to an 11-5 overall record, the team's 14th straight season with a winning record. Since Knerr's arrival in 2001, Amherst has amassed a 216-117 overall record in 21 seasons over 22 years (the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Amherst set the program record for wins with 15 in 2011 and earned berths in the NCAA Division III Tournament in 2009 and 2011, reaching the quarterfinals in 2011 and finishing the season ranked 10th in the NFHCA Division III Poll.

In 2013, Amherst suffered a pair of overtime losses to start the season before erupting for 13 straight victories resulting in a 9-1 mark in league play and the program’s first-ever NESCAC tournament top seed. For her efforts, Knerr was named the 2013 NESCAC Coach of the Year.

Since 2004, Knerr has seen 45 players garner NFHCA Division III All-Region honors including five selections in 2011, four each in 2007, 2012 and 2013, six in 2015 and three each in both 2016 and 2017. She has also had a total of 16 players secure NFHCA Division III All-American honors including at least one first team honoree in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016. The Mammoths have also had 42 All-NESCAC selections during Knerr’s time with the program, including 20 first team recipients and 22 second team members, in addition to goalkeeper Rachel Tannenbaum ’15 (Berwyn, Pa.) who was tabbed Rookie of the Year in 2011.

Before coming to Amherst, Knerr spent a year and a half as a two-sport assistant coach at Ivy League power Dartmouth College, where she helped lead the Big Green to an ECAC Field Hockey Championship - and an Ivy League title and subsequent trip to the NCAA quarterfinals in women's lacrosse - in 1999.

The Wyndmoor, PA native was a standout women's lacrosse and field hockey player at the University of Richmond, where she was a four-year starter and captained both sports before graduating in 1998 with a degree in leadership studies and a minor in sports science. Leading the nation in saves as a senior while garnering all-conference honors, Knerr closed out her field hockey playing career ranked seventh all-time in NCAA Division I history with 975 career saves.

She also served as an assistant women's lacrosse coach at Amherst from 2000-12, helping guide the team to the program's first-ever NCAA Championship title in 2003.

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