Carlsen joins assistants
Kelli Greenway,
Whitney Moia, and the newly-hired Kristin Rotert, as well as Director of Operations
Cortni Rush and Director of Basketball Analytics & Player Development
Becca Hittner, on staff.
Carlsen joins the Bulldog staff after a lengthy head coaching career at three previous stops. Most recently, Carlsen spent the last 10 seasons at Northern Illinois where she led the Huskies to a 147-155 record. Prior to her time at NIU, Carlsen led Division II squad Lewis to a 148-89 over eight seasons after starting her head coaching career with a 4-year stint at Omaha. Overall, she served as an NCAA head coach for 22 years and amassed a record of 331-318.
While leading the Huskies, Carlsen led NIU to a national postseason tournament for the first time in six years with a berth into the Women's Basketball Invitational. Her squads were also excellent academically with multiple teams finishing inside the top 10 in collective grade point average while leading the fast-paced Huskies on the hardwood.
In her eight seasons at Lewis, she headed the Flyers to four NCAA Division II Tournament appearances and a pair of Great Lake Valley Conference championships.
Her first head coaching gig came at Omaha where she was promoted to the top job after serving as an assistant on the Mavericks' staff. She guided Omaha to its best finish in a decade and postseason play in 2003. After her tenure at Omaha, Carlsen served as an assistant at Winona State for three seasons before returning to the head coaching ranks.
Lisa is the mother recent Bulldog player addition Lexi Carlsen, who began her collegiate career playing for her mom at Northern Illinois before transferring to Drake earlier this spring.
A native of Earling, Iowa, Carlsen graduated from Northwest Missouri State University in 1992. While at NWMSU, she was a four-time all-conference honoree on the basketball court and earned All-Conference and All-Region honors on the softball diamond. During her senior season, Carlsen was recognized as the 1992 Championship NCAA Female Athlete of the Year.
She eventually earned her master's degree from the University of Nebraska Omaha in 1994 and continued to play basketball professionally for the Nebraska Express of the Women's Basketball Association where she was named an All-Star in 1995.
Prior to coaching collegiate hoops, Carlsen was the head softball coach at the College of St. Mary (Neb.) from 1994-97 and earned the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year twice. She then served as an assistant volleyball coach and head softball coach at Wayne State (Neb.) from 1997-98.
