Saint Francis University Athletics

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Tied the program record for wins in a season (14, 2025)
• Posted a program-record eight NEC wins (2025)
• Coached an NEC Defensive Player of the Year (Madison Waldspurger, 2024)
• Coached an NFHCA Mid-Atlantic Region second-team performer (Sofia Marciano, 2025)
• Coached the first NEC Field Hockey Scholar-Athlete of the Year and second NCAA Woman of the Year nominee (Dolores Zavaleta, 2024)
• Coached five All-NEC first-team performers and two All-NEC second-team performers

In her first two seasons at Saint Francis, Mackenzie Allessie has posted the second-best two-year stretch in program history and holds a 24-13 record since arriving in Loretto.

The Red Flash tied the program record for wins in a single season with 14 overall victories and registered a program record eight wins in the NEC in 2025. Sofia Marciano was named to the NFHCA Mid-Atlantic Region second team, while producing the second-best season in program history with 19 goals and 40 points. Marciano also scored a program-record six times against Merrimack on September 29, 2025, the second most in an NCAA Division I game. Mia DiGenova and Madison Waldspurger joined Marciano on the All-NEC first team, while Cruz Canepa was named to the All-NEC second team. Canepa broke the single-season assists record with 17 assists. After missing the postseason in Alessie’s first campaign, Saint Francis returned to the postseason for the third time in the last four years. 

Allessie finished 10-8 in her first season in Loretto and registered an exciting 3-2 overtime win against Ball State on August 30, 2024, for her first win as a collegiate head coach. Madison Waldspurger was named the NEC Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the second player in program history to earn the award. Waldspurger and Dolores Zavaleta were named to the All-NEC first team, and Consu de Castro was named to the All-NEC second team. Zavaleta became the first player in field hockey history to be named the NEC Field Hockey Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was also a Saint Francis nominee for NCAA Woman of the Year. 

Allessie came to Saint Francis after a standout career at Penn State and Ohio State. She has also competed with the United States national team. 

Allessie helped the United States win the bronze medal at the 2019 Pan American Games in Chile after becoming the youngest player named to the United States National Team in 2018. She registered the most goals scored by a member of Team USA during those 2019 games. She was also named to the United States National Team in 2022.

Allessie tallied 61 goals and 45 assists for 167 points in her five-year collegiate career with two years at Ohio State and three seasons at Penn State. A five-time National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) All-American and five-time NFHCA All-Region first-team selection, she helped the Nittany Lions to the NCAA national semifinals for the first time since 2007 and a share of the Big Ten Championship in 2022. Allessie, named to the All-Big Ten first team in all five seasons, was named the Big 10 Offensive Player of the Year during the 2021 spring season after posting 15 goals and five assists in 16 games for Ohio State. 

Prior to becoming the head coach at Saint Francis, Allessie was the Alleycats Club team (Palmyra, Pa.) coach since 2015. She has been working with the club's under-12, under-14, and under-16 girls' field hockey teams and has also served as a volunteer assistant coach at Donegal High School since 2022. 

A 2023 graduate of Penn State University, Allessie was the National Female Athlete of the Year in 2019 at Donegal High School. She was also the PIAA Field Hockey Player of the Year in 2017 and 2018, and left as the national career leader in goals per season (124, 2018), career (351), and points (838).