On July 13, Stanford Athletic Director Bob Bowlsby named Tara Danielson as the new field hockey coach for the Cardinal. She will be the sixth field hockey head coach in Stanford history and will replace Lesley Irvine, who will take the position of associate athletic director & senior woman administrator at Bowling Green State University.

After graduating from the University of Massachusetts in 1994, Danielson went on to an illustrious international playing career. In 2005, after seven years of competition at the Olympic level (participating in 89 international contests), Danielson became the CEO of RUSH Field Hockey, Inc., a non-profit public benefit corporation seeking to develop field hockey in Southern California. Her involvement in the field hockey community has earned her a reputation as a pioneer.

In addition to her leadership at RUSH and her playing career, Danielson has valuable experience as a coach: she was an assistant coach at Boston College in 1996, an assistant coach at Connecticut in 1998 and the head coach at Sacred Heart in 2000.