Melissa Olman enters her fifth season as the head of the women's rugby program at Molloy in 2020.
Olman guided the program through the transition to an NCAA varsity sport in the 2016 season after serving as a coach for the club spring 2016 campaign and continues to lead the program through its time as an emerging sport, including working with the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association to better develop collegiate rugby across the country.
The team posted a 4-4 record in its inaugural season, including a dominant 57-5 victory over Castleton University on Oct. 8. At the conclusion of the season, two members were named Honorable Mention All-Americans by the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA).
In 2017, Caroline Nickels was selected as the program's first-ever First Team All American by the NIRA. The team posted its first winning record, going 4-2-1 on the year, falling only to powerhouse Sacred Heart University.
Olman was a four-year member of the Molloy Women's Rugby Team herself, becoming a captain in her sophomore season. She would later become one of the stars of the squad, being named an All-Tri-State Conference flyhalf for the Lions in her senior season. Olman was selected to the 2014 Collegiate All-Americans, representing Team USA in a summer stint against some of Canada's best rugby squads. She was also a member of the Old Blue Women's Rugby Sevens team that took home a runner-up finish in the USA Rugby National Sevens Championship in 2014.
Olman, a native of Levittown, graduated from Molloy College with a B.S. in Biology. She is currently enrolled in the Physical Therapy Assistant program at Nassau Community College.
