| Dominican went 39-16 under
coach Mike Lane over the past two seasons. Dominican athletics photo |
The Dominican University Department of Athletics has announced that Mike Lane, the Stars' head women's basketball coach since 2007, has resigned from his position at the university as the athletics facilities manager and head women's basketball coach.
Lane guided the Stars to back-to-back Northern Athletics Conference South Division titles in 2011 and 2012 and coached the Stars during the most successful stretch since winning four consecutive Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference championships from 1991-1994.
Lane will join Aaron Roussell who recently landed the head women's basketball coach job at Division I Bucknell. Roussell and Lane worked together at the University of Chicago in a similar fashion prior to Lane landing the head women's basketball job at Dominican.
"I want to thank Dominican University for the opportunity to
lead its women's basketball program these past five years," said
Lane. "Our program's growth was supported by so many around campus
and for all those efforts I am grateful. Most especially I want to
thank the young women who represented this university so well and
who committed themselves so wonderfully to playing brilliant,
exciting basketball. It was my joy to coach all of them."
Lane leaves Dominican boasting a 69-61 record as a head coach with
the 2011 Northern Athletics Conference Coach of the Year honor to
his credit. Lane's Stars rewrote the program's NCAA-era (post-2000)
record book, setting or tying the program's single-season win mark
three times including the 2010-11 season when the Stars posted a
20-7 mark. Last season the Stars took another step under Lane,
reaching the NAC women's basketball tournament championship round
after knocking off Marian and MSOE in the conference quarterfinals
and semifinals respectively.
Last season, the Stars boasted one of the country's top
three-point shooting teams, averaging 7.8 three-point field goals
per game and shooting at a 36.5% clip from behind the three-point
stripe. Under Lane, seniors Kayla Blom (Circle Pines, Ill.) and
Sarah Budz (Orland Park, Ill.) garnered First and Second team
All-NAC honors respectively while sophomore Ashley Oliver
(Bolingbrook, Ill.) received honorable mention for the All-NAC
Teams. Blom went on to land a spot on the D3hoops.com All-Central Region Third
Team, the second athlete to garner all-region accolades at
Dominican under Lane.
"Mike took our women's basketball program to a new level,"
commented Erick Baumann, the director of athletics at Dominican.
"Mike's tenure coincided with our most successful women's
basketball stretch since the early 1990s, despite inheriting a team
that had compiled just 39 wins in seven seasons as a Division III
program prior to his arrival. We wish Mike the best of luck in his
new position and look forward to building on the foundation he
helped establish."