Cortland first-year women's golf head coach Kalin Merkley has been named the 2024-25 Northeast Women's Golf Conference (NWGC) Coach of the Year.
 
Merkley led the Red Dragons to the team title in a field of 11 schools last weekend at the NWGC Championship in Connecticut. Cortland finished two strokes ahead of runner-up and 2024 champion Suffolk to earn the Red Dragons to an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Championships, which will be held May 13-16 in Williamsburg, Va.
 
Also during the combined fall/winter season, Cortland finished first at the NWGC Fall Invitational and second at the NWGC Fall Classic, the St. Lawrence Invitational and the Ithaca Invitational.
 
A Cortland alumna and former player, Merkley was the program's assistant coach in both 2022-23 and 2023-24 and previously served as a volunteer assistant in 2013-14.