The Syracuse Orange women’s ice hockey program will be looking for the 3rd head coach in program history as Britni Smith announced yesterday that she will step down from the position to focus on family.

Syracuse women's ice hockey head coach Britni Smith announced she will step down from her position in order spend more time with family.📰 https://t.co/5UfUi2NNNq pic.twitter.com/EdC10qheuB

Smith was hired in 2022 to replace a retiring Paul Flanagan, who had led the program from it’s beginning in 2008. In the four seasons under Smith, Syracuse had an overall record of 47-89-9, but twice reached the semi-finals of the CHA/AHA Conference.

This past winter, Smith served as an assistant coach with Canada’s silver-medal winning women’s team and Associate Head Coach Heather Farrell led the Orange while Smith was in Italy. Syracuse indicated that they would conduct a full search for the position and there are a couple of former Orange players who could be considered.

Melissa Piacentini is an assistant with the Northeastern Huskies and was a video coach for the gold-medal winning US Women’s Team in Torino. Nicole (Renault) Norton is an assistant coach at Providence. Both were standouts in their time with the Orange so we’ll see if they are part of the candidate pool.

Syracuse was scheduled to return All-AHA Rookie goalie Ava Drabyk so we’ll see if the coaching transition keeps the standout netminder with the Orange.