Staff Directory
Giacolone, Samantha
Samantha Giacolone
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Email:
- Phone:
- 919-962-5220
Samantha Giacolone joined the Carolina women’s lacrosse coaching staff as an assistant coach in September of 2025. A highly decorated goalkeeper while in college, Giacolone transitioned to the coaching world and has become one of the nation’s top assistants over her six-year career overseeing defenses and goalies.
Giacolone came to Chapel Hill from Coastal Carolina, where she served as an assistant coach and defensive coordinator for three seasons (2022, ’24 and ’25). While at Coastal, she helped the Chanticleers to the ASUN Championship in 2024 and was a member of the conference’s Coaching Staff of the Year. Giacolone mentored the ASUN Midfielder (Avery McIlwaine) and Freshman (Evelyn Kitchin) of the Year in ‘24, while producing six all-conference defensive honorees over her last two seasons.
In between stints at CCU, Giacolone served as the goalies coach and defensive coordinator at Stanford during the 2023 season. While with the Cardinal, she coached Pac-12 Co-Goalkeeper of the Year (Kara Rahaim) and saw three defensive players garner All-Pac-12 first-team honors (Rahaim, Caroline Mondiello, and Ailish Kelly).
Giacolone spent the 2020 and ’21 seasons at Furman as the defensive coordinator. Furman swept the SoCon awards in 2021 as Hannah Demis was named the SoCon Offensive Player of the Year, Avery Whitehead was tabbed the SoCon Defensive Player of the Year, and Meagan Beal picked up SoCon Freshman of the Year honors.
In all, the Paladins placed nine athletes on the All-SoCon teams in 2021, going 12-5 overall and 4-0 in league play to win the SoCon regular-season championship. Furman advanced to the 2021 SoCon Tournament championship before falling to Mercer in the title match 14-13.
Giacolone joined Furman’s staff after a stellar career at Notre Dame, where she graduated in May of 2019 with a degree in psychology and minors in business economics and education, schooling and society. She was a four-year starter in goal at Notre Dame and finished her career as the Fighting Irish’s all-time saves leader (605) and all-time wins leader (47). Giacolone produced a career record of 47-28, while playing over 4,200 minutes in the cage. She finished her career with a 9.52 goals against average and a .476 save percentage, while notching 178 groundballs and 30 caused turnovers.
One of the nation’s best goalies, Giacolone earned IWLCA second-team All-America honors as a senior in 2019 and was tabbed as a Top 25 Nominee for the Tewaaraton Award. She claimed IWLCA first-team All-Region and first-team All-ACC, while twice being named IWLCA National Player of the Week. In addition, Giacolone was a four-time ACC Academic Honor Roll honoree and a two-time All-ACC Academic Team member.
A Manorville, N.Y. native, Giacolone was a four-year member of Notre Dame’s Monogram club and a four-year volunteer for student welfare and development. She was a member of Rosenthal Academy, a coach for the Long Island Yellow Jackets Elite Lacrosse Club, and a director and coach of ESMSA Basketball camp.
Giacolone was also a member of the U-19 National Women’s Lacrosse team in 2014-15, representing the United States in Edinburg, Scotland.
Giacolone came to Chapel Hill from Coastal Carolina, where she served as an assistant coach and defensive coordinator for three seasons (2022, ’24 and ’25). While at Coastal, she helped the Chanticleers to the ASUN Championship in 2024 and was a member of the conference’s Coaching Staff of the Year. Giacolone mentored the ASUN Midfielder (Avery McIlwaine) and Freshman (Evelyn Kitchin) of the Year in ‘24, while producing six all-conference defensive honorees over her last two seasons.
In between stints at CCU, Giacolone served as the goalies coach and defensive coordinator at Stanford during the 2023 season. While with the Cardinal, she coached Pac-12 Co-Goalkeeper of the Year (Kara Rahaim) and saw three defensive players garner All-Pac-12 first-team honors (Rahaim, Caroline Mondiello, and Ailish Kelly).
Giacolone spent the 2020 and ’21 seasons at Furman as the defensive coordinator. Furman swept the SoCon awards in 2021 as Hannah Demis was named the SoCon Offensive Player of the Year, Avery Whitehead was tabbed the SoCon Defensive Player of the Year, and Meagan Beal picked up SoCon Freshman of the Year honors.
In all, the Paladins placed nine athletes on the All-SoCon teams in 2021, going 12-5 overall and 4-0 in league play to win the SoCon regular-season championship. Furman advanced to the 2021 SoCon Tournament championship before falling to Mercer in the title match 14-13.
Giacolone joined Furman’s staff after a stellar career at Notre Dame, where she graduated in May of 2019 with a degree in psychology and minors in business economics and education, schooling and society. She was a four-year starter in goal at Notre Dame and finished her career as the Fighting Irish’s all-time saves leader (605) and all-time wins leader (47). Giacolone produced a career record of 47-28, while playing over 4,200 minutes in the cage. She finished her career with a 9.52 goals against average and a .476 save percentage, while notching 178 groundballs and 30 caused turnovers.
One of the nation’s best goalies, Giacolone earned IWLCA second-team All-America honors as a senior in 2019 and was tabbed as a Top 25 Nominee for the Tewaaraton Award. She claimed IWLCA first-team All-Region and first-team All-ACC, while twice being named IWLCA National Player of the Week. In addition, Giacolone was a four-time ACC Academic Honor Roll honoree and a two-time All-ACC Academic Team member.
A Manorville, N.Y. native, Giacolone was a four-year member of Notre Dame’s Monogram club and a four-year volunteer for student welfare and development. She was a member of Rosenthal Academy, a coach for the Long Island Yellow Jackets Elite Lacrosse Club, and a director and coach of ESMSA Basketball camp.
Giacolone was also a member of the U-19 National Women’s Lacrosse team in 2014-15, representing the United States in Edinburg, Scotland.
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