Krissy Turner looking to replicate past success as Penn’s new women’s soccer coach
After 24 years of coaching success at Monmouth, Turner accepts a new challenge in the Quakers.
The old cliché is that it’s always good to leave on a high note.
So after 24 years coaching at Monmouth and capturing Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference women’s soccer coach of the year honors, Krissy Turner has decided to join Penn as head coach.
Turner, who has earned nine coach of the year awards in the MAAC, NEC, and ECAC, is looking to replicate much of that success with the Quakers.
It has been a promising start for Penn, which remains unbeaten after topping Lehigh, 2-1, on Sunday. The win followed a scoreless a tie against Temple in the opener and subsequent 1-1 ties with Maryland and Villanova.
“I would say it’s exciting,” Turner told The Inquirer. “It’s a new challenge, which is one of the reasons why I embraced the opportunity to come to Penn.”
If there is one thing Turner is familiar with, it’s winning. At Monmouth, she had a career record of 282-130-43, including 74-6-6 in the MAAC over the last nine seasons. Her success extended to the postseason as the Hawks claimed 10 regular-season titles, 21 conference tournament berths, and eight NCAA tournament appearances.
“Krissy is a proven winner in the industry,” Vanderbilt head coach Darren Ambrose, who previously coached at Penn, told Penn Athletics. “Her teams compete to win, and she has consistently shown herself to be a great recruiter.”
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Turner is the Quakers’ third head coach in as many seasons. She replaced Casey Brown, who was brought on in March 2020 but did not debut until the fall of 2021 because of COVID-19. Previously, Nicole Van Dyke, who left to become the University of Washington’s head coach, served as Quakers coach from 2015-20.
While Penn has a 93-43-26 record over the last 10 seasons, the team captured only one Ivy League title in that span. The program hopes Turner can change that.
“I think the players have done an amazing job during the transitional phases,” Turner said, “embracing the new staff and embracing how we want to try to play and really working extremely hard and being very open to feedback. How we want to try to establish a championship culture with Penn women’s soccer.”
One of Turner’s first moves was to add Fred King as associate head coach. King made the short move from Hawk Hill, where he served as assistant coach and associate head coach at St. Joseph’s for a decade.
Turner said that buy-in and constant desire to improve are what her coaching staff is expecting from the Quakers.
“I think the most important thing that I’m looking for is just growth from one day to the next,” she said. “I believe we have the type of student-athletes currently in the program … that have that mindset.”