WORCESTER, Mass. – Holy Cross head women's hockey head coach Katie Lachapelle has announced new additions to her staff for the upcoming season. Janine Weber and Lindsay Browning will join the program as assistant coaches, while Brendan Hill has been named the women's hockey director of operations.

Weber joins the Crusaders after spending the 2022-23 season as an assistant and development coach for HC Rhode Island, a junior hockey team in the Eastern Hockey League. While working for the junior hockey team, she also was a development coach with Overspeed Hockey for the past six years where she planned and conducted hockey skills development sessions as well as specialized player development programs using innovative skating techniques and development tools.

Prior to her coaching career, Weber worked as a behavior technician at Pathways Strategic Teaching Center from 2014-2015 and served as a teacher at the Segue Institute for Learning from 2018-2020 all while playing professional hockey. 

A native of Innsbruck, Austria, Weber earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education from the University of Vienna in 2013 and her master's degree in urban teaching from Providence College in 2014. At Providence she played as a fifth year collecting 11 points on six goals with five assists.

Weber has a decorated playing career making appearances as high up as the world stage, where she represented her country as a member of the Austrian National Team from 2008-2021. After her collegiate career at Providence concluded in 2014, she turned pro playing for the Boston Blades in the Canadian Women's Hockey League for the 2014-2015 season before moving over to the National Women's Hockey League. Weber also played for the New York Riveters (NWHL 2015-2017), the Boston Pride (NWHL 2017-2018) and the Connecticut Whale (NWHL/PHL 2020-2023).

Browning arrives on the Hill after spending a few years working as a goaltending coach at multiple different organizations with a variety of ages. Most recently, she worked as a coach for Geragosian Goaltending in Woburn, Mass., and Shield Goaltending Academy in the Boston area. At these two organizations she worked both in a clinic setting and individual sessions with players ranging from five to college level.

Browning has had several stops since her playing days. Prior to her time in Massachusetts, the New York native worked at her alma mater, Cornell University, as a coach for the Girls Elite Prospect Clinics from 2018-2021 as well as a coach and mentor for the Cornell Cub Club from 2018-2022.

The Cornell alum graduated in 2021 with a bachelor's degree and in 2022 with her master's. Browning was a standout player at Cornell holding program records in career goals against average (1.15), both career and single-season save percentage (.944 career, .952 single-season in 2019-2020), and single-season shutouts (12 in 2019-2020). She tallied a total of 18 career shutouts and was selected as a second team All-American and a Patty Kazmaier Top-10 finalist.

Browning has been selected for several USA Hockey women's national team camps since 2016, when she attended the USA Hockey girls Select 66 Camp. In 2017 and 2020 she went to the USWNT Hockey Goaltending Development camp as well as the USWNT Hockey Evaluation Camp in 2020. Recently, Browning played for Team Sonnet, a PWHPA team based in Boston from 2022-2023.

Hill joins the Crusaders after graduating in May of 2023 from Quinnipiac University. There he earned a bachelor's degree in business management with a minor in marketing. 

At Quinnipiac, the Massachusetts native was the head student operations manager working closely with both the men's and women's hockey teams. He worked under the director of player development and operations and learned how to use coding software to analyze game film for the players and coaches. He was able to operate in-game player tracking technology to give coaches real-time information to assist them in creating a successful game plan.

The Crusaders are set to open the season on Friday, Oct. 6, when they travel to Union for a 6 p.m. game.

FOLLOW THE CRUSADERS 
Be sure to follow the Holy Cross women's ice hockey team — and all things Crusader Athletics — on social media!
Twitter - @HCrossWHockey | @goholycross
Instagram - @hcrosswhockey | @goholycross
Facebook - Holy Cross Women's Ice Hockey | Holy Cross Athletics
YouTube - GoHolyCross