W. Soccer has new coach for next year

The Athletic Department announced yesterday that Florida State assistant coach Darren Ambrose will be the new head coach of the women's soccer team.

The position was left vacant on March 9, when first-year head coach Andy Nelson left to take over the top spot at Stanford after leading the Quakers to their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance.

Ambrose -- who, while at Florida State, worked under former Penn head coach Patrick Baker -- has no prior experience as a collegiate head coach.

He has, however, been around the block as an assistant.

Before signing on at Florida State, where his main duty was to coach the goalkeepers, Ambrose was assistant men's and women's coach at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn.

In his three years there, his teams had a combined record of 77-33-3, won a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) championship and made two NCAA appearances. Ambrose's goalies were consistently rated near the top in the region.

While he has no collegiate head coaching experience, Ambrose, while in Memphis, enjoyed a good deal of success as head coach of some youth soccer teams.

He led his Under-17 team to a State Championship in 1998. That same year, he took them to Europe, where they won the women's open division of the Dana Cup in Denmark.

Before his time at Rhodes, Ambrose was an assistant at UCONN under legendary head coach Joe Morrone.

Ambrose -- a standout goalkeeper in his playing days -- finished with a 41-13-4 career record at South Carolina-Spartanburg. He was a two-time all-South Region selection in 1991 and 1992, and, in 1991, he was second in the nation with a goals against average of .52.

Ambrose will take over a Quakers squad on its way up. The Quakers went undefeated at home last year, as they allowed no goals at Rhodes Field.

The Red and Blue lost to James Madison in their first-ever tourney appearance, 1-0.

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