Andrea “Ang” McTaggart finished her fifth season with the AU lacrosse program in the spring of 2026. She came to AU from the University of Maryland in the fall of 2022, where she was both an undergraduate and graduate assistant with the women’s lacrosse team.
Primarily responsible for the team’s defense, McTaggart has led one of the Patriot League’s most disruptive defensive units over the last two seasons. The 2026 campaign saw the Eagles finish 13th in the country in caused turnovers per game with 11.25, and McTaggart guided multiple players to career seasons while protecting AU’s goal. Sophomore Izzy Masengarb had a breakout season, finishing fourth in program single-season history with 33 caused turnovers and adding 25 ground balls and 18 draw controls. Sammie Buonnacorsi and Deirdre Brown both finished in the top 10 in the conference in total caused turnovers, with Buonaccorsi leading the team in ground balls with 26. Both juniors also added two assists to the best seasons of their careers so far.
In 2025, AU finished second in the Patriot League in caused turnovers per game (9.06), the program’s highest average since the condensed 2020 season. The Eagles also caused 10 or more giveaways in six contests throughout the season, racking up a season-high 18 against George Mason in March.
McTaggart developed several standout defenders from the class of 2025 as well. Jenna Walls emerged as one of the team’s top performers after appearing in just four games as a freshman in 2022, going on to lead the Eagles in caused turnovers in both 2024 and 2025. Fellow class of 2025 graduates Darby Sherrod and Juliet Kuenzler also flourished under McTaggart’s guidance, each posting career highs in ground balls and caused turnovers during their final season.
In her first two seasons with the Eagles, McTaggart helped guide the team to wins past UMBC, the program’s first win over the Retrievers in 20 years, and California. She helped mentor two Eagles, Jordan Mitchell and Hannah Spease, who were each named to the Second Team All-Patriot League in both 2023 and 2024, as well as Maddy Spratt who was named to the Academic All-Patriot League and College Sports Communicators Academic All-District teams in 2024 and defender Jenna Walls who earned Academic All-Patriot League honors in 2024.
In the summer of 2024, McTaggart was named an assistant coach for the Italian Women's Lacrosse U20 Team for the 2024 Women's U20 Championship, set for August 15-24 in Hong Kong, China. Italy finished second in Pool C with three points and was considered an impressive debutant in the event with an eighth-place finish.
While an undergraduate at Maryland, Ang played all four years ('16-20) as a defender for the Terrapins. With the Terps, she was a BIG Ten Regular Season Champion in 2017, 2018, and 2019. She was also a BIG Ten Tournament Champion in 2017 and 2018. McTaggart was part of the Terrapins teams that won the 2017 and 2019 NCAA Championship.
In academia, she was on the Dean's List all five years, 2016-2021, the All-BIG Ten Academic Honor Roll in 2018, 2019, and 2020, and the IWLCA Zag Sports Division I Academic Honor Roll in 2019 and 2020. She was also a BIG Ten Distinguished Scholar 2018, 2019, and 2020. Andrea received the ICA Academic Achievement Award from UMD Athletics and the Jean Hebeler Award for Special Education, College of Education from UMD in 2020. In 2021, as a graduate student, she was the recipient of the 1A Faculty Athletics Representatives Academic Excellence Award.
As an undergraduate and graduate assistant, she worked as a defensive coach working with student athletes to develop and hone skills on the field and assisted coaches in selecting daily drills and collecting in-game stats. She also aided in creating an alumni database and network to make Maryland Women’s Lacrosse a better-connected network that would stimulate personal and professional growth within the community.
McTaggart also has coaching experience with the Nation United Women’s Lacrosse underclassman team, for which she was the co-head coach. The team focused on inclusion, empowerment, and opportunity within lacrosse. Since 2021, she has worked with the Italia Women’s Lacrosse National Development Team as an assistant coach for the u14 and u16 Italian-American lacrosse development teams and worked collectively with a staff to teach and evaluate player skills.
McTaggart is a native of Baltimore and received her Bachelor of Science in special education in 2021 and her Master of Education in special education in 2022.
