Head Coach Jennifer Rizzotti has built the University of Hartford women’s basketball program into an America East power in just nine years, winning four conference tournament championships over the past seven years and making four trips to the NCAA tournament.
Least season, Rizzotti led the Hawks to their third-straight America East regular season championship and third-straight 25-win season, fourth-straight postseason appearance and the program’s third ever win over a ranked opponent (Michigan State). The 2007-08 squad finished the season with a school record 28 wins after defeating Syracuse for the program’s second trip to the NCAA Second Round, where they fell to Texas A&M, who advanced to the Elite Eight.
Rizzotti, a two-time America East Coach of the Year (2005-06, 2006-07), had three of her players receive postseason conference honors, including Danielle Hood and Erica Beverly on the all-conference first team. Sophomore Diana Delva was named to the all-conference second team. Junior Lisa Etienne was then named the America East Championship Most Outstanding Player after leading the team to its third America East Championship in four years.
In 2005-06 she led the Hawks to the program’s first-ever victory in the NCAA Tournament. Hartford defeated 19th-ranked Temple in the opening round and advanced to face Georgia in the round of 32. The win over Temple was the first in school history against a nationally ranked opponent.
Hartford finished the season with a 27-4 record, setting a then school record for overall wins and conference victories (15). The team also reeled off a school-best 15-game winning streak during the regular season. After earning the school’s first ever regular season title, the Hawks captured their second-straight America East Championship in front of a home crowd in West Hartford, CT.
Rizzotti was named America East Coach of the Year in a vote of her peers, only the second time the honor had been awarded to a Hartford women’s basketball coach. Also receiving top honors after the regular season was senior Erika Messam and freshman Erica Beverly. Messam became the first player in school history to be tabbed America East Player of the Year, while Beverly earned Rookie of the Year honors, also a first in school history.
Rizzotti’s recruiting philosophy has proven to be successful as she continues to bring quality players to the program. In 2005-06, Beverly broke the school’s single season rebounding record with 270 boards and was named to the all-conference second team and the all-rookie team. MaryLynne Schaefer, also a rookie in 2005-06, set a then single season record for three-pointers with 56.
Rizzotti, who is the winningest coach in school history, earned her 100th career victory in a December 2005 match-up with Seton Hall. She is only the fourth Hartford coach – men’s or women’s – to reach that milestone.
Under her watch, the team also earned its first-ever votes in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll during the 2003-04 season and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll during the 2005-06 season. Last season, Hartford received the most ever votes in both polls, 46 in the coaches poll and 24 in the AP poll.
Rizzotti’s coaching excellence has not gone unnoticed at the national level. During the summer of 2006, Rizzotti joined fellow Division I coaches Doug Bruno (DePaul) and Carroll Owens (Northern Illinois) to coach the USA U-18 National Team. With the USA team, Rizzotti won a gold medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championships held in Colorado Springs at the US Olympic Training Facility.
In 2004-05, a jump shot from Messam, with 4.2 seconds to play in the title game, propelled Rizzotti and the Hawks to their second ever America East Championship and a date with Rutgers in the NCAA Tournament first round in Storrs, CT. At the time, the Hawks’ 22 wins were the most ever by any team, men’s or women’s, in the Division I era at Hartford.
In 2003-04, Rizzotti led the Hawks to a then school-record 18 wins. She orchestrated the fifth-best turnaround in the nation as the Hawks finished 18-12 after posting only seven wins in 2002-03. Overall, the Hawks picked up victories over teams from eight different conferences including the ACC, Big East, Atlantic 10 and the MAAC.
In just her third season at Hartford, she guided the Hawks to their first-ever America East Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance during the 2001-02 campaign. The Hawks reeled off a then school-record 16 wins including dramatic victories over Maine, top-seeded Vermont and Stony Brook to capture the 2002 Friendship Cottage Cheese America East Championship on their home floor.
She was named the seventh coach in University of Hartford women’s basketball history on Sept. 17, 1999. Just 12 days earlier, Rizzotti had celebrated with her Houston Comets teammates after defeating the New York Liberty for the WNBA championship. At the time of her appointment, she was the youngest Division I women’s basketball coach in the country.
Rizzotti played eight seasons of professional basketball following her graduation from the University of Connecticut in 1996. In addition to five seasons in the WNBA - two with the Houston Comets and three with the Cleveland Rockers - she competed for three seasons with the New England Blizzard in the American Basketball League. In the ABL she was a two-time All-Star. While proving to be a star at the professional level, the Hawks coach truly made her mark on the basketball world during her memorable career at the University of Connecticut.
Rizzotti’s individual accolades are numerous. The point guard was the Associated Press National Player of the Year and the Wade Trophy winner as college basketball’s outstanding senior player in 1995-96. She was also a two-time Kodak All-America First Team selection, a GTE/CoSIDA Women’s Basketball Academic All-American, the Big East Player of the Year, and the Big East Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. During the Huskies’ memorable run to the national championship in 1995, Rizzotti was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
During her collegiate career, Rizzotti averaged 11.4 points and totaled 637 assists and 349 steals. She set the UConn season and career records in both of those categories.
In September 2003, Rizzotti was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame based on her outstanding accolades as both a collegiate and professional athlete.
A native of New Fairfield, CT, Rizzotti is a 1992 graduate of New Fairfield High School, where she was part of two state championship teams. She was also selected as the Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of Connecticut as a senior.
Rizzotti and her husband, Bill Sullivan, welcomed their second child, Conor, this past July. Older brother, Holden, was born in April 2005, shortly after the Hawks played Rutgers in the NCAA Tournament.
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