Mercy University Athletics

Marissa Spinazzola enters her fifth season as Head Field Hockey Coach in 2025.

Spinazzola led the Mavericks to a 6-11 record overall and 3-10 record in NE10 play in 2025. Mercy got off to their best start in program history, starting the season 5-1. Under Spinazzola's leadership, the Mavericks posted the third highest GPA in Division II and Rebecca McClure and Madison Preston were named to the NE10 Field Hockey Academic All-Conference Team. 

In 2023, the Mavericks made history under Spinazzola's leadership, qualifying for the NE10 Championship for the first time in program history after going 8-10 overall and 7-6 in NE10 play. The eight wins matched the school record set in 2022 and the seven NE10 wins matched the program record also set in 2022. Spinazzola became the program's all-time winningest coach with her 16th career win against New Haven on October 10th. Spinazzola oversaw the development of All-NE10 performers Kate Ringstad and Rachel Palladino and 16 student-athletes named to the NE10 Spring Academic Honor Roll. 

Spinazzola oversaw the most successful season in program history in 2022. The Mavericks went 8-7 on the year, recording their most wins in a season in program history and finished the season with a winning record for the first time in school history. Mercy won their most NE10 games in program history with seven wins and missed out on qualifying for the NE10 Tournament for the first time due to a tiebreaker. Spinazzola oversaw the development of the first All-Conference selections from the NE10 in program history in Alyssa Sacco (2nd Team) and Lauren Viscione (3rd Team).

During her first year as head coach in 2021, Spinazzola led the Mavericks to four wins, including a 2-1 overtime win on the road against No. 9 American International on September 24th. The No. 9 ranking of AIC is the highest ranked team Mercy has beaten in program history. Under Spinazzola's guidance, the Mavericks earned their largest win in program history with a 6-1 win over Molloy on October 20th. Senior Alyssa Sacco was named to the NE10 Field Hockey Academic All-Conference Team and 19 student-athletes from field hockey were tabbed to the NE10 Spring Academic Honor Roll. 

"We are so excited to have Marissa Spinazzola as our Head Field Hockey Coach. As a Mercy College graduate and former student-athlete, Marissa has been a big part of our success in recent years. We feel that she will continue to build our field hockey program in the right direction as we compete in the very tough NE10 Conference," stated Kilcullen.

"I am thrilled for this special opportunity to stay with the Mercy Field Hockey team and move up as the head coach. Being a part of the program as a player for four years and an assistant for two I am eager to continue to grow the program and bring another style of coaching to Mercy. Being pushed back from last season I am excited to get back out there with the team and continue to succeed both on the field and in the classroom," said Spinazzola.

Spinazzola, a 2019 graduate from Mercy, has served as an assistant coach for the Mavericks since 2019. As an assistant with Mavericks, Spinazzola helped develop practice plans and run practices. The native of Port Jefferson Station was a four-year member of the Mercy College field hockey and women's lacrosse teams. She appeared in 56 games making 51 starts as a member of the field hockey team and had five defensive saves. Spinazzola helped lead the Mavericks to the ECC Field Hockey Championship during her senior year in 2018. As a member of the women's lacrosse team, Spinazzola appeared in 41 games over four years with 14 goals, five assists, 19 points, 16 ground balls and 11 caused turnovers. She was part of the Mavericks first ECC Championship in 2019. Spinazzola also excelled in the classroom as a Maverick, having been named to the ECC Commissioner's Honor Roll and NFHCA National Academic Squad.

Spinazzola also served as a field hockey and lacrosse coach at the Future Stars Summer Camp from 2018-19 and has experience coaching lacrosse at the Bronxville Youth Lacrosse Association, House of Sports and Ardsley High School.

Spinazzola graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice from Mercy in 2019 and was a member of the International Honors Society of Psychology, Psi Chi. She currently is on track for a Master of Science in Mental Health Counseling from Mercy.