All-Time Winningest Coach In Penn Men's Lacrosse History -- 109 wins entering 2026 season
2019 Ivy League Coach of the Year (unanimous selection)
2019 USILA Division I Coach of the Year (F. Morris Touchstone Award)
27 All-Americans coached at Penn
55 All-Ivy players coached
1 Tewaaraton Award finalist
1 Donald MacLaughlin Jr. Award recipient (USILA Division I Midfielder of the Year)
1 Ivy League Player of the Year
3 Ivy League Rookies of the Year
15 Professional Players
Ivy League Regular Season Championships -- 1 (2019)
Ivy League Tournament Appearances -- 10 (2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024)
Ivy League Tournament Championships -- 3 (2014, 2019, 2022)
NCAA Championship Appearances -- 4 (2011, 2014, 2019, 2022)
The winningest head coach in Penn men’s lacrosse history, Mike Murphy has been the James H. Greene Head Coach of Men’s Lacrosse since 2010.
Penn found success in 2023, finishing the year 7-6 and earning the second seed in the Ivy League Tournament. During the campaign, the Quakers won games against four nationally-ranked opponents—#8 Georgetown, #17 Saint Joseph's, #18 Princeton and #20 Yale—while being ranked as high as eighth in the February 20 iteration of the USILA Coaches Poll. The wins against the Hawks and Tigers came in overtime while going 4-2 in Ivy play with three straight victories to end the regular season.
At the conclusion of the campaign, senior middie Sam Handley became a three-time consensus first-team All-American after garnering honors from the USILA, Inside Lacrosse and USA Lacrosse Magazine. He also became a unanimous First-team All-Ivy selection for the third time. Handley was one of two players to earn USILA honors, joined by SSDM Piper Bond and LSM BJ Farrare. D Brendan Lavelle earned honorable mention All-America honors from USA Lax Mag. Handley and Lavelle's unanimous first-team All-Ivy laurels highlighted a group of seven for the Quakers including Bond, Farrare, D Peter Blake, GK Emmet Carroll and M James Shipley.
The next two full seasons were special ones for the Quakers. In 2022, Penn went 10-4 during the regular season, the four losses coming by a combined six goals. The Red and Blue were the fourth seed in the Ivy League Tournament but rolled to the title, defeating top seed and host Brown 14-9 in the semifinals and Yale 16-9 in the championship game. That gave Penn the Ivy's automatic bid into the NCAA Championship, where the third-seeded Quakers defeated Richmond in the first round before they fell to sixth-seeded Rutgers in the quarterfinal round. Among Penn's wins during the regular season was a 15-11 decision over eventual NCAA finalist Cornell.
Following the season, senior Sam Handley was a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award and became just the second Penn player to earn the Donald MacLaughlin Jr. Award as the USILA's Division I Midfielder of the Year. Handley also was Ivy League Player of the Year, Penn's first since 1991, and was one of six Quakers to earn USILA All-America with his first-team honors. Classmate Piper Bond was a third-team selection at short stick defensive middie, while GK Patrick Burkinshaw, LSM BJ Farrare, A Dylan Gergar and D Brendan Lavelle received honorable mention recognition. Additionally, for the second time a record nine Penn players earned All-Ivy honors.
Murphy and the Quakers completed one of the greatest seasons in program history in 2019. The Red and Blue tied the program record with 12 wins, achieved the highest national ranking in program history, won the Ivy League’s regular season and tournament championships for the first time in the same season, and reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship for the first time since 1988.
After losing their first three games of 2019 – each to a Top-5 opponent – the Quakers won 12 in a row to tie the program record for most consecutive wins. Along the way, the Quakers defeated the defending national champions for just the second time in program history with an epic 13-12 win in 3 OTs over Yale at Franklin Field. That win was part of a perfect 6-0 Ivy League slate which earned Murphy his first Ivy League title as a head coach and gave the Quakers their first outright and undefeated Ivy League title since 1984.
At the end of the season, Murphy was a unanimous selection as the Ivy League Coach of the Year by his coaching peers and received the F. Morris Touchstone Award as the USILA's Division I Coach of the Year. Additionally, a program-record nine players were named All-Ivy. Freshman Sam Handley led the way, earning unanimous Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors and earning a spot among a program-high four first-team All-Ivy selections.
Handley also made history by becoming the first Quaker named the Inside Lacrosse National Freshman of the Year and the first freshman in program history to earn USILA first-team All-America honors. He was joined by six teammates to give Penn a school-record seven USILA All-Americans.
Under Murphy, Penn has had 25 first-team All-Ivy players in the last ten seasons, after just four during the entire decade of the 2000s (prior to Murphy's arrival). Handley was the third Quaker to earn Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors under Murphy, joining Simon Mathias and Reed Junkin who shared the award in 2016. Mathias, meanwhile, made history in 2019 by becoming the first Penn men’s lacrosse player to earn All-Ivy honors in each of his four seasons and graduated as the program's all-time scoring leader.
Murphy has had seven of his players drafted by Major League Lacrosse in the last five years -- Zack Losco (Charlotte Hounds) in 2014, Joe McCallion (Denver Outlaws) and Matt McMahon (Ohio Machine) in 2015, and Nick Doktor (Charlotte Hounds) in 2016, Connor Keating (Denver Outlaws) and Kevin McGeary (Boston Cannons) in 2018, and Tyler Dunn (Florida Machine) in 2019. Dunn also was drafted No. 8 overall (Redwoods LC) in the inaugural Premier Lacrosse League Draft in 2019.
A strong schedule has been one of Murphy's points of emphasis at Penn. During his time as head coach, the Quakers have ranked No. 1 (2012), No. 2 (2013, 2018), No. 4 (2019) and No. 6 (2014) in overall Strength of Schedule.
After its first season under Murphy in 2010, the program made a leap forward in 2011. Penn went 8-7 overall, and earned its first NCAA Championship appearance since 2006 before falling in the first round to fourth-seeded Notre Dame. The Red and Blue also placed second in the Ivy League standings, its best finish since 1989. The 2011 season was highlighted by wins over defending NCAA champion Duke (Penn held the Blue Devils to three goals, their fewest in a game since 1986), a Bucknell team that finished the year ranked in the Top 10 nationally, and Princeton (Penn's first over the Tigers since 1989). Penn ranked as high as ninth in the USILA national coaches poll, and at the end of the season the Quakers had five players earn first or second-team All-Ivy, their best representation since 1999.
The 2012 season was one filled with hard luck. Playing the most difficult schedule in the country, the Quakers were done in by several one-goal losses -- many of those coming in the game's final seconds -- and were unable to gain a second straight postseason berth.
2013 saw a reversal of those 2012 fortunes. Penn went 8-5 overall, advanced to the Ivy League Tournament for the second time in three seasons, and led the nation in goals-against average despite playing a schedule that ranked second nationally in terms of strength. At the end of the season, three players earned first-team All-Ivy, the first time that had happened since 1984, and six players received All-Ivy recognition of some kind (the most since 1986).
A senior-laden 2014 squad added another chapter to its legacy, going 11-4 overall which was one win shy of the program mark. That included an eight-game win streak leading into NCAA play. Brian Feeney, Zack Losco and Maxx Meyer all received third-team USILA All-America honors, the first time Penn had three All-Americans in the same season since 1984 (and just the fourth time in history, the others being 1977 and 1928). Those three also received All-Ivy recognition along with teammates Alex Blonsky and Matt McMahon, with Feeney and Losco becoming the program's first two-time first-team All-Ivy picks since 1993.
After a slow start to the 2015 season, especially in Ivy play, Penn charged back with three straight Ivy wins including a victory at then-No. 10 Brown. Unfortunately it wasn't enough as the Quakers finished just out of the Ivy Tournament field and went 6-7 overall.
A youthful Penn squad went 8-7 during the 2016 season, with six of the losses coming to teams ranked in the USILA Top 20 at the end of the season including No. 1 Maryland, No. 3 Yale (twice, both by a goal), and No. 4 Brown. (The seventh, to Virginia, came when the Cavs were ranked 11th nationally.)
2017 marked a season which included another trip back to the Ivy League Tournament, where the Quakers faced No. 1 seed and host Yale in the semifinals. The contest marked the second-longest game in Penn history, a dramatic quadruple overtime affair that saw the Red and Blue fall to the Bulldogs, 13-12. Penn posted two wins over Virginia during the course of the season which ended with a 7-6 overall record and saw their ranking climb as high as No. 8 in the USILA poll.
The 2018 campaign was highlighted by a victory over #1 Duke at Franklin Field in February and a second consecutive trip to the Ivy League Tournament. Connor Keating was named an All-American for the third time, the first three-time awardee since 1985.
Murphy also was an assistant coach with the Quakers in 2001 (as defensive coordinator) and 2002 (as offensive coordinator). Penn’s 2002 squad went 9-4 overall, at the time the program’s best record in 13 seasons.
Prior to his return to Penn, Murphy spent seven years at Haverford College where he took the program to unprecedented heights. The Fords steadily improved every year under his leadership, and Murphy departed Haverford with a 64-41 record and matched the school record for wins originally set by program founder Dana Swan.
Haverford’s year-by-year improvement under Murphy culminated with two historic seasons in 2008 and 2009. In ’08, Murphy led the Black Squirrels to the program’s first-ever NCAA Championship berth after a school-record 11-win season and a No. 6 national ranking. The next year, Haverford again set a school record in wins (13) and would go one step further in the NCAA Championship with a second round home game after winning the school’s first Centennial Conference regular season title.
Prior to his assistant coaching stint at Penn, Murphy was an assistant coach at the University of Virginia from 1993-97, coaching in the 1994 and 1996 national championship games and three semifinals. He also spent the 1992 season at Brown University, coaching a team that held a top-10 national ranking and was an NCAA quarterfinalist.
Murphy was a member of the Division III NCAA Championships Committee from 2005-09. He is also a board member of the Intercollegiate Men’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IMLCA), and coached the South Team at the 2005 Division III North/South All-Star Game.
Murphy attended Duke University, where he was a three-year starter (one as a long stick middie, two at closed defense) for the nationally ranked Blue Devils and captain of the 1991 team. He graduated with a degree in history and political science. Murphy also holds a master’s degree in higher education management from Penn, earned in May 2004.
