Montclair State University Athletics

Entering his fourth season as the head coach of the Montclair State men’s lacrosse program in 2015, Chris Kivlen has placed himself in some exclusive company since taking over as the eighth head coach in August 2011.

In his first three seasons, Kivlen has registered an overall record of 41-13, a .759 winning percentage that includes a perfect conference record (18-0), three league championships and three NCAA Tournament appearances. He is one of only five coaches in Montclair State history to reach the NCAAs in each of their first three years joining baseball’s Kevin Cooney and Norm Schoenig, men’s basketball coach Ollie Gelston and current men’s soccer coach Todd Tumelty for that distinction. Kivlen has been named the Skyline Conference Coach of the Year each season of his tenure and has turned the Red Hawks into one of the top programs in the region.

In 2012, Montclair State began the year at 1-5 however it would capture its final eight regular-season games and added two more in the Skyline Conference Tournament, including a 17-10 win over Kean in the title game to claim the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The following season, playing against a daunting non-conference schedule, the Red Hawks put together another end-of-season run winning 10 of 11 to finish 14-5 overall. Among those wins was a fifth straight Skyline Championship which put MSU into the NCAA Tournament once again.

This past season, Kivlen guided Montclair State to the best season in its history. Montclair went 16-2 establishing a new single-season record for victories. The Red Hawks began the year with six straight wins, including an upset of No. 6 Dickinson College, Montclair’s first against a Top 10 opponent. That win along with several key triumphs catapulted MSU into the USILA Division III Poll for the first time since 2010 as it reached as high as No. 10, another program first. The Red Hawks once again dominated the Skyline Conference going unbeaten in the regular season and capped it off with a sixth consecutive championship, following a 17-4 win over Kean.  

Under Kivlen’s tutelage, MSU players have earned several honors including a sweep of the Skyline Player and Rookie of the Year honors all three seasons. In addition, there have been 28 All-Conference selections and eight All-American accolades by the USILA with goalkeeper Michael Dorn earning two of those as he became just the second player in program history to earn multiple awards. Dorn and Sam Morrissey were named USILA Scholar All-Americans in 2014.

Kivlen came to Montclair State after spending six seasons as an assistant coach at the University at Albany, where he earned four letters and helped turn the Great Danes into a perennial contender in the America East Conference as well as a fixture in the USILA Top 20 poll. In the last six years, the Great Danes posted 18 wins against Top 20 opponents, including a victory over No. 5 Massachusetts in 2011.

During his tenure with the Great Danes, Kivlen coached 25 America East All-Conference selections, including 10 First-Team selections and 14 All-Rookie Team picks. Working with the defensive unit, Kivlen also turned UAlbany into one of the toughest to score against. UAlbany ranked 11th nationally in scoring defense at 7.69 goals per game in the 2008 campaign as 11 opponents were held to less than 10 goals. In 2010, the Great Danes’ man-down defense unit ranked fourth in the nation.

A standout defenseman, Kivlen was part of three conference championship teams, including the 2005 squad that made its third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. A team-captain and starter in all 16 games that season, he had 19 ground balls and one assist.

Kivlen earned his degree in communications with a minor in business administration in May 2005 and did not stray far from the Albany campus becoming an assistant under head coach Scott Marr.

In his first season on the sidelines, Kivlen helped UAlbany reach the America East Championship Game as the Great Danes were ranked in the Top 20 of the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Division I poll. UAlbany opened that season with a narrow two-goal loss to defending national champion Johns Hopkins and a one-goal defeat to ninth-ranked Syracuse that season while posting a victory over No. 7 Massachusetts.

The following season, the Great Danes enjoyed their finest season in program history. UAlbany won its first 11 contests, including wins over four-ranked teams, including sixth-ranked Johns Hopkins in the season opener. Albany reached the No. 2 spot in the USILA national poll and remained there for seven consecutive weeks. The Great Danes would capture their fourth America East title in five years edging UMBC, 15-14 to reach the NCAA Tournament. UAlbany knocked off Loyola in the first round before falling to eventual national runner-up Cornell in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.  

A native of Huntington Station, NY, Kivlen, who received all-league recognition on the scholastic level at Walt Whitman High, has been the director of the Top Dog Lacrosse camp for several years and was the head coach of the Top Dog Lacrosse summer team. He also worked in partnership with the local US Lacrosse chapter creating clinics to further develop youth lacrosse in the Albany area.