The University at Albany women’s basketball program and newly appointed head coach Kelly Morrone have announced the hiring of Jada Pierce and Victoria Lux.
The first to be added to Coach Morrone’s staff, Pierce joins the Great Danes as the new General Manager. Her assistant coach at Merrimack, Lux will continue her coaching career with Morrone as UAlbany’s new Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator.
“Jada is one of the most respected individuals in the business,” said Coach Morrone. “Her reputation revolves around professionalism, integrity, and doing things the right way. She is going to make an excellent General Manager for our program, strategically aligning our goals and resources along with providing incredible mentorship for our staff and players.”
Jada Pierce joins the Great Danes after a successful head coaching stop at Niagara University. At the helm of the Purple Eagles, Pierce rebuilt a program that had gone 10 years without a winning season. The 2022-23 season proved to be the team’s second consecutive winning season, a feat achieved for the first time in 18 seasons. Pierce led the Purple Eagles to two program records – 18 single-season wins and and 16 single-season MAAC wins. She went on to have a 21-win season in 2023-24, the first 20-win season in program history. The program’s first postseason win (WNIT) in 2023-24 came just one year after its first postseason (WNIT) appearance.
Throughout 11 seasons at Niagara, Pierce recruited and coached 13 MAAC All-Conference selections, including one Player of the Year, one Sixth Player of the Year, and one Rookie of the Year.
Having started her coaching career in 1997, Pierce is a tenured NCAA women’s basketball coach with two stops as head coach (Cheney, 20024-06). Prior to Niagara, she spent three seasons at Saint Joseph’s and two seasons at Army. Pierce also had stops at Mount St. Mary’s, UMass, Marist, UMass Lowell, Delaware, and St. Michael’s College.
“Lux is a terrific coach and teacher dedicated to player development and building meaningful relationships within the team and campus community,” said Coach Morrone. “She has a creative basketball mind and has done a tremendous job leading defensive strategies. Her competitive energy and love for basketball is evident and captivating.”
Victoria Lux makes her way to the Capital Region with seven years of coaching experience in the NCAA. Most recently, she spent two seasons at Merrimack College as the defensive coordinator coach, specializing in post player development, for head coach Kelly Morrone. As a coach on the Merrimack staff, she helped the team to back-to-back semifinal appearances and the program’s first-ever postseason tournament (WNIT). While a Warrior, she coached Madison Roman to First Team All-Conference honors after 18 double-doubles in the 2025-26 season. She also developed Oralye Kiefer, an All-Defensive Team honoree who is nationally ranked in blocks.
Prior to Merrimack, Lux spent one season at Cornell and one season at Dartmouth. In both seasons, she coached one Academic All-Ivy League selection – Emily Pape (Cornell) and Emma Koch (Dartmouth). Before joining Division I, she helped coach Kamsi Nwogu to First Team All-Conference honors at MIT after having started as a graduate assistant at Regis College.
Lux is a Bentley University graduate with one Division II Final Four appearance (2015). A 1,000-point scorer and top-five rebounder in program history, she was named all-conference twice (2018-19).
https://ualbanysports.com/news/2026/4/21/womens-basketball-adds-pierce-lux.aspx
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