Lauren Nadler Named UC Santa Cruz Women's Soccer Head Coach
2/2/2026 4:19:00 PM | Women's Soccer
SANTA CRUZ, Ca. -Â On Monday afternoon, after a nationwide search, the UC Santa Cruz Athletics and Recreation Department announced Lauren Nadler as the head coach for UC Santa Cruz women's soccer. Nadler served the program as the assistant during the 2025 season and previously served the Banana Slugs as the program's head coach from 2017-2022. During her tenure as a head coach for the Banana Slugs, Nadler was a four-time conference coach of the year honoree. Nadler has been a National Finalist for NCAA Division III LGTBQ Administrator/Coach of the Year twice and served the program as an assistant in 2015 and 2016.Â
"We are thrilled to welcome Lauren back in this role as head coach. Her proven experience and leadership qualities are going to be essential to this program and our department as we move forward. Throughout the process, Lauren displayed an extreme desire to lead this team into the future and provide the best possible student-athlete experience for our Banana Slugs." - Chris Spells, Director of Athletics and Recreation
Lauren Nadler is an experienced coach with a proven record of elevating collegiate programs by impacting the people within them. Nadler's strength is building relationships by focusing on excellence, collaboration, developing leaders, and empowering students and teams to solve problems together. She has built and led successful NCAA programs, capturing multiple conference championships, making seven NCAA Tournament appearances, and earning Conference Coach of the Year honors four times.
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Prior to returning to UC Santa Cruz, Nadler served as Head Women's Soccer Coach at Academy of Art University (Art U), where she recruited the largest incoming class in seven years— second largest in program history. In her second season, the team achieved its highest number of goal scorers and most total points in six years.
Her coaching career includes impactful roles at UC Santa Cruz, Art U, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she helped the Engineers reach their first NCAA Sweet Sixteen.
"We are thrilled to welcome Lauren back in this role as head coach. Her proven experience and leadership qualities are going to be essential to this program and our department as we move forward. Throughout the process, Lauren displayed an extreme desire to lead this team into the future and provide the best possible student-athlete experience for our Banana Slugs." - Chris Spells, Director of Athletics and Recreation
Lauren Nadler is an experienced coach with a proven record of elevating collegiate programs by impacting the people within them. Nadler's strength is building relationships by focusing on excellence, collaboration, developing leaders, and empowering students and teams to solve problems together. She has built and led successful NCAA programs, capturing multiple conference championships, making seven NCAA Tournament appearances, and earning Conference Coach of the Year honors four times.
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Prior to returning to UC Santa Cruz, Nadler served as Head Women's Soccer Coach at Academy of Art University (Art U), where she recruited the largest incoming class in seven years— second largest in program history. In her second season, the team achieved its highest number of goal scorers and most total points in six years.
Her coaching career includes impactful roles at UC Santa Cruz, Art U, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she helped the Engineers reach their first NCAA Sweet Sixteen.
