Assistant Women's Lacrosse Coach Shannon Mackesey enters her third year with the Bearcats in 2025-26.
Mackesey's guidance led senior defender Angelina Suau to her third consecutive America East First Team honor in 2025, making her the first player to program history to earn the award three times. A two-time America East Defensive Player of the Week, Suau rose to first in program history with 87 career caused turnovers.The senior ranked second in the conference with 2.80 ground balls per game and third with 1.87 caused turnovers per game. Suau matched Binghamton’s single-game record of nine ground balls against UMBC, March 29.
Under Mackesey's direction, freshman defender Norah Kelly also received an All-Rookie selection after she recorded 16 groundballs and three caused turnovers in 2025.
In her first season with Binghamton, Mackesey aided the Bearcats to their first America East Championship in program history over UAlbany, 12-11, the team’s first ever win over the Great Danes. Binghamton appeared in its first NCAA Championship vs No. 6 Yale and claimed its first share of the conference’s regular season title. The campaign also featured the most wins (12) and longest win streak (8) in the team’s 23-year history.
Under Mackesey’s leadership, Suau picked up America East First-Team honors and ranked among the top 10 players in the conference for caused turnovers per game. Goalkeeper Sofia Salgado ranked second against America East opponents in goals against average (10.22) and saves percentage (.475). She was also named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Week, April 29.
Former America East women's lacrosse defensive standout Mackesey joined the staff in August 2023 after serving five years at two previous Division I programs.
A native of Altamont, N.Y., Mackesey came to Binghamton directly from MAAC member Marist, where she was the lead assistant for two years. The Red Foxes celebrated a first team all-conference selection and three All-Rookie picks under her tutelage. Prior to that, Mackesey spent three years at St. Bonaventure, where she coached four Atlantic 10 all-conference players.
As a student-athlete at UAlbany, Mackesey was a starting defender for a Great Danes program that twice earned NCAA at-large berths and posted a conference win percentage of 81% during her tenure. Her Great Danes teams advanced to the America East title game four straight years and produced an average of nearly 12 wins per season.
Mackesey also has coached several youth lacrosse teams in the Albany area, including a two-year stint as head coach of 518 eXcelerate.
She was a three-sport athlete at Guildereland High School, where she competed in lacrosse, cross country and basketball.
Mackesey earned her bachelor's degree in history from Albany in 2018 and received her master's degree in integrated marketing communication from St. Bonaventure in 2021.
