PHILADELPHIA – Penn Athletics was saddened to learn of the passing of Val Cloud on Thursday, July 24. Cloud was a coach with the field hockey program for three decades, spending 15 seasons as an assistant coach under Anne Sage before taking over as head coach from 1995 until her retirement in 2009.
 
Cloud—who also was Sage's assistant coach with women's lacrosse for 15 seasons—won 115 games across her 15 seasons as head field hockey coach and led Penn to the Ivy title in 2004. That team went 13-4 overall, still the second-highest win total for a single season in program history behind the 14 wins that the Quakers' 1988 Final Four team put together.

Read Val Cloud's full obituary here
 
"I was blessed to have Val as a coach at Penn, sadly for just one season before she moved off lacrosse and took over field hockey full-time as head coach," said Alanna Wren, the T. Gibbs Kane Jr. W'69 Director of Athletics and Recreation and a Penn lacrosse player from 1993-96. "Val impacted so many young women who wore the Red and Blue as field hockey and lacrosse players on Franklin Field. She played an important role in establishing those programs—not just as they found their way as varsity programs, but as national powers and programs for other schools to emulate. Most importantly, when you played for her you knew she cared about you and wanted you to have a positive experience. This is truly a sad day for those of us who were lucky enough to play for her."
 
Cloud was appointed head field hockey coach in 1995 and quickly established herself as one of the country's most respected coaches. That year she led the Quakers to a 10-7 record and a third-place finish in the Ivy League. In 1997, she helped the Red and Blue earn a berth in the ECAC Championship and recorded her second double-digit win season. The following year, Penn served as host of the 1998 NCAA Field Hockey National Championship at Franklin Field.
 
Cloud coached three National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) All-Americans—Sue Quinn in 1995, Liz Lorelli in 2003, and Lea Salese in 2005—and 16 women earned Mid-Atlantic Region honors under her tutelage. She also guided 38 All-Ivy honorees, including four unanimous first-team selections, and the 2004 Ivy League Rookie of the Year in Melissa Black.
 
As an assistant coach at Penn, Cloud helped lead Penn to seven Ivy League titles and five NCAA Tournament appearances from 1980 to 1994. In all, Penn compiled an impressive 236 victories on the field hockey and lacrosse playing fields with Cloud's assistance.
 
A 1969 graduate of SUNY College of Brockport, Cloud was inducted into that school's Athletics Hall of Fame in 1988. She played field hockey and basketball for the Golden Eagles and was student coach of the field hockey team as a senior. Cloud was named to the United States National Field Hockey Team as a senior and played on the team five times (1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973). Cloud also was a college official for field hockey, basketball and lacrosse for several years and was Philadelphia Official of the Year in 1981.
 
Services for Val Cloud will be held at her church—Elam United Methodist Church in Glen Mills, Pa.—on Friday, Aug 1 with a viewing at 10 a.m., funeral at 11 a.m., and burial at noon. Luncheon details to follow.