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Before breaking into coaching as an assistant at Miami (Fla.), Kieger was a player for the Golden Eagles, starting all four years, serving as a team captain for three years and finishing as the pro- gram's all-time leader in assists. She was a senior on a Marquette team that visited the Bryce Jordan Center for a nonconference game in December 2005 and helped hand the Lady Lions a 73-63 loss. While those longstanding ties made her a perfect fit at Marquette, she saw Penn State as a place where she could fulfill her highest aspirations. When the opportu- nity arose to take over a PSU program with an illustrious history but little recent success, she seized it. "I tell my players to goal-set, and to have a plan for what you want your life to look like," she said. "For me, it came down to being able to look myself in the mirror and go after my goals and my dreams that I've wanted since I was 12 years old, and that is to be on the highest stage, to be surrounded by an elite mentality and be at a place where we have a chance to win national championships." Keiger grew up in Roseville, Minn., a suburban community of about 36,000 wedged in between Minneapolis and St. Paul. Even before she started playing high school basketball, she knew she wanted to get into coaching, and that ambition never changed in the years that followed. During her senior year at Mar- quette, she told a campus publication that she would love to someday return and coach the Golden Eagles. After six seasons at Miami, where she worked pri- marily with the guards, she was given that chance. When she was announced as the Golden Eagles' head coach in May 2014, Kieger predicted that the program was "going to reach heights that it has never seen before." It was a bold way to reintro- duce herself, but she made good on her pledge. After two transitional seasons in which it compiled a combined record of 23-38, Marquette surged to a 25-8 record in 2016-17, winning the Big East tourna- ment and advancing to the NCAA tour- ney for the first time in six seasons. And as it turned out, that was just the begin- ning. Marquette went 24-10 the next year, tying for the league's regular-sea- son championship, and reached the sec- ond round of the NCAA tournament. This past season, the Golden Eagles went 27-8, claimed their second consecutive Big East regular-season title and once again made it to the round of 32 at NCAAs, defeating Rice in overtime, 58- 54, in their tournament opener before falling to Texas A&M, 78-76, in the sec- ond round. That loss to the Aggies, in which her Carolyn Kieger assembled a sta> during her at Marquette. Kieger's most recent hires are Ashley Earley, a former WNBA player and All- American at Vanderbilt, and Myia Johnson, an assistant at Wisconsin the past three years. Earley comes to Penn State a?er spending the past two seasons as an assistant at Northern Kentucky. She has nearly 10 years of collegiate coach- ing experience, with previous stops at Vanderbilt, Virginia, Marquette, Rhode Island and Tennessee Tech. "Ashley brings a wealth of experience to our program," Kieger said. "She has recruited and played at the highest level and is recognized as one of the best post development coaches in the country. She knows how to make oth- ers around her better and will make sure our women are growing as leaders on and o> the =oor." Earley worked as the post player de- velopment coach and had an on-court defensive focus during her two seasons at Northern Kentucky. She mentored walk-on forward Kailey Co>ey to a spot on the Horizon League All-Fresh- man Team in 2018. A native of Memphis, Tenn., Earley has been a part of six NCAA tourna- ments – two as a coach and four as a player. She was named a 2016 South- eastern Conference Legend for her achievements as a player and coach. Johnson brings plenty of Big Ten ex- perience to Penn State, having spent six years in the conference. She worked primarily with the wing players while at Wisconsin, mentoring Cayla Mc- Morris to a pair of honorable mention All-Big Ten honors and helping the Badgers advance to the Big Ten quar- ter at Marquette. Ginny Boggess is an assistant coach who will also serve as recruiting coor- dinator. Pam Brown is the team's new director of operations, and MaryLynne Schaefer will serve as director of pro- gram development. Boggess has 16 years of collegiate coaching experience, including

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