American International College Women's Lacrosse

American International College named Justin Dionne its Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach in August 2025. Dionne comes to AIC from Dean College, where he was the head coach for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. He led the Bulldogs to their second-ever playoff appearance in 2025 and the highest seeding in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Tournament that the program had ever had. He had three All-Conference selections, and coached the College’s NCAA Woman of the Year and GNAC Athlete of the Year nominee Mackenzie Fillion in 2024 as well as the College’s Woman Athlete of the Year and Senior Athlete of the Year winners in Natalie Peterson and Haley Gaunt. In both seasons, the Bulldogs earned IWLCA Academic Honor Squad; in 2025, his team finished with a team cumulative GPA of 3.70. In addition to his coaching duties, Dionne was Dean’s Athletic Facilities Coordinator. He managed and coordinated practice, game, and class schedules for the athletics facilities, and sent a weekly schedule to athletics staff. Prior to his time at Dean, Dionne coached from the 2020-2023 seasons as the offensive coordinator at Wabash College with the men’s lacrosse program. He managed travel logistics, monitored academic progress, analyzed film, and led in the recruiting efforts in addition to running the offense, with multiple All-North Coast Athletic Conference selections, including Ethan Stonis, who scored 54 goals in 2023. Dionne also has significant club coaching experience at Penguins Select Lacrosse Club, where he began coaching in June 2023; with the Penguins he led weekday team practices and held smaller sessions focused on teaching attackers. Prior to that, he was the varsity assistant and junior varsity head coach at CFL Vikings Lacrosse Club and Timber Creek High School in the summer and fall of 2019. A four-year member of the lacrosse team at Hiram College, Dionne earned a bachelor’s degree in communications in 2019. He started all but one of the team’s 56 games from 2016-2019, scoring 39 goals and 69 assists for 108 points, and in 2019 was the team’s assists leader with a program-record 26; he also snared 110 ground balls, including 52 as a senior. That campaign earned him an All-NCAC selection.

Shania Springer was named assistant women's lacrosse coach in February 2026. She will assist in all aspects of the program. Springer joins AIC from her alma mater, Dean College, where she was an assistant coach in 2024 and 2025 for Justin Dionne. As a student-athlete, Springer played both lacrosse and basketball at Dean. After her 2018 season with the Bulldogs, she transferred to William Peace University in 2019, earning USA South Second-Team All-Conference in the midfield. She returned to Dean for the 2020 season, but did not play due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, finally suiting up for the Bulldogs again in her senior season of 2021. Starting all four games, she forced nine turnovers and grabbed 15 ground balls. She earned her bachelor's degree in exercise science from Dean in 2022 and a master's degree from Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island the following year.