Email: ekempf@wcupa.edu

With over three decades of college coaching experience, and most of that coming at the Division I level, Betty Ann Kempf Townsley enters her 20th campaign at West Chester University in the fall of 2026.

During her tenure in Southeastern PA, Kempf Townsley has steered West Chester University to five Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference titles (2007, 2009, 2010, 2022, and 2024) and four straight PSAC East crowns, before the conference switched to a one-division format. Along the way, she has mentored five conference rookies of the year (Sarah Oswald - 2007; Lyndsie Bernardini - 2009; Kaitlynn Haughey - 2021, Faith Matter - 2022, and Katie Dougherty-2025), seven players of the year (Lauren Boyer - 2008; Oswald - 2010; Walsh - 2016; Jenny Bail - 2019; Kaitlynn Haughey - 2022, Faith Matter - 2023, 2024, and Kianna Barber-2026), two defensive players of the year (Julia Kirkpatrick - 2017 and Hayley McGee - 2022) and 17 United Soccer All-Americans, including seven first-team honorees (Brittany Yetter (2008), Sarah Oswald (2010), Scarlet Walsh (2016), Kaitlynn Haughey (2022), Kiley Kergides (2022), Hayley McGee (2022), Faith Matter (2023).

She has authored a stellar 280-66-43 record overall in 19 competitive seasons at WCU and is the school’s all-time winningest women’s soccer head coach. Her overall record in 40 competitive seasons as an NCAA head coach stands at 423-266-69.

During her time at West Chester, the Golden Rams have been ranked as high as second nationally and have won the Atlantic Region title seven times (2007, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2022, and 2025) and played for the region championship 12 times. Kempf Townsley has reached the NCAA Division II Tournament in 18 of 19 seasons at West Chester University that the NCAA has conducted a postseason.

Kempf Townsley has landed 86 student-athletes on the PSAC all-league squad in her 19 years on South Campus. 14 of those all-leaguers won a major award as well (Athlete of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year) while she, herself, has walked away with coach of the year plaudits four times (2009, 2016, 2022, and 2025). Her first two years at the school, she did not lose a conference game. In fact, she dropped just two league contests in her first four years while winning the championship three times. The 2016 campaign saw the Golden Rams run the table, going 16-0-0. It is the most conference wins in a single season in PSAC history while also marking just the fourth time ever that a school finished the league slate unbeaten and untied.

In 2025, West Chester returned to the NCAA Tournament after a one-year hiatus and return the Golden Rams did. Following a PSAC East Regular season crown and a semifinal exit in the PSAC Tournament on Rockwell Field, West Chester opened the NCAA Tournament on a three-game winning streak, defeating West Virginia State, behind a hat trick by PSAC East Player of the Year Kianna Barber by a 5-2 final before dispatching Fairmont State 2-0 and Shepherd 1-0 to capture the Atlantic Regional Championship, the team's first since 2022. In the National Quarterfinals vs Franklin Pierce, West Chester erased a two-goal deficit but fell to the Ravens in overtime to bring the 2025 season to a close with a record of 16-3-4 overall and 9-1-4 in league action. Faith Matter and Kianna Barber both earned United Soccer Third Team All-American honors after outstanding 2025 seasons, which saw them combine for 21 goals and 15 assists during the course of the 2025 campaign.

In 2024, West Chester missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in over 20 years, halting what was tied with Grand Valley State for Division II's longest NCAA Tournament appearance streak. The team finished the year at 10-7-1 overall with a PSAC Quarterfinal setback to Kutztown on Rockwell Field in Mid-November. Kempf Townsley still made history in this season as she won her 400th career game with a 5-0 win over Mansfield. The Golden Rams landed four players on the All-League squad led by Faith Matter, who repeated as Player of the Year after capturing Rookie of the Year honors in 2022 and Player of the Year honors in 2023. Alyson Cutter etched her name in history as well, becoming not only the first Golden Ram to record a hat trick since 2015 in a 6-0 win over Mansfield before becoming the first player under coach Kempf Townsley to record two hat tricks in the same season, let alone two in three games in a 3-0 Senior Day victory over Lock Haven in late October. 

The 2023 season appeared as if it may tell a similar tale for West Chester as the Golden Rams raced to their second consecutive PSAC Tournament Title with victories over East Stroudsburg, Mercyhurst, and Gannon - duplicating its run from 2022 before advancing to the Atlantic Regional Final for the sixth time in seven years after posting victories over Frostburg State and Kutztown. West Chester saw its season come to a close against Gannon in the Regional Final but not until after five players had earned All-League honors, including Faith Matter, who earned Player of the Year honors after an excellent season, which saw her score 12 goals and add 11 assists for 35 points on the season. Matter was named a United Soccer Coaches All-American in early December and was joined on the All-America squad by Haughey, who was a Third Team selection. 

The 2022 season was a magical run for the Golden Rams that culminated in a trip to the NCAA Division II Festival in Seattle, Wash., where the national semifinals and championship were held. Kempf Townsley and her group defeated Ferris State, 2-1, before falling to Western Washington in the national championship game by an identical score. The team's 23 wins tied the school record set in 2006 when West Chester made its only other appearance in the national semifinals. Seven players were named to the all-league squad while West Chester swept the major awards by taking Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year honors in the PSAC in 2022. Five Golden Rams were named all-region and four of those went on to be knighted as Division II All-America - the most recipients in a single season for the school. Kempf and her coaching staff were honored with the Atlantic Region Coaching Staff of the Year award last season as well. in May 2023, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Soccer Hall of Fame awarded Kempf Townsley the Charlotte Moran Award as the Female Coach of the Year. Ironically, her husband and former West Chester University women's soccer head coach, Ed Townsley, was inducted into that organization's hall of fame on the same day.

Before taking over West Chester's program in 2007, Kempf Townsley spent her previous 13 years at Seton Hall University in the Big EAST Conference where she guided the women’s soccer program since its inception in 1994, before stepping down after the 2006 campaign. She built the Pirates into a reputable program, which was competitive in the Big EAST - one of the top women’s soccer conferences in the nation. 

With a reputation as an outstanding recruiter, Kempf Townsley brought a diverse group of student-athletes to Seton Hall. One of Kempf Townsley’s most noteworthy recruits was Kelly Smith, the NCAA’s career leader in points and goals per game, and a former star for England’s National Team.

Kempf Townsley’s 13-year record at Seton Hall was 103-118-17, with four winning seasons and five berths in the conference tournament, including a pair of appearances in the semifinals (1997, 1999). She tutored15 all-conference players at Seton Hall, and was the Big EAST Coach of the Year in 1997. Smith won the loop's player of the year award three times (1997, 1998, 1999) and rookie of the year once (1997). In 2002 and 2003, Kempf Townsley's squads were awarded the College Academic Team Award by the Big EAST.

In 1999, Seton Hall went 11-9 and reached the semifinals of the Big EAST Championship for the second time while Kelly Smith was the nation’s leading scorer for the second year in a row and the program’s first All-America selection.

In 1998, Seton Hall stunned the college soccer world when the unranked Pirates defeated No. 2 Notre Dame, ending a 37-game unbeaten streak for Notre Dame against Big EAST foes. The upset vaulted the Pirates into the Top 20 for the first time in school history with a ranking of 17th in the nation. Seton Hall finished the campaign with an 11-6-1 record and Kempf Townsley was named the 1998 New Jersey Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season.

Kempf Townsley guided the 1997 Pirates to their best season in school history with a 14-5 record and a 9-2 mark in the Big EAST, with conference losses only to NCAA Final Four teams Notre Dame and Connecticut. Seton Hall made its first-ever appearance in the Big EAST Tournament, reaching the semifinals as the third seed. Among the highlights of that banner season was a school-record nine-match winning streak.

Kempf Townsley was very familiar with the task of building college soccer programs from scratch. She started the women's team at LaSalle University in 1986, before doing the same thing at Seton Hall eight years later. During her eight-year tenure with the Explorers, she amassed a 41-82-9 overall record. She was named the 1991 Eastern Pennsylvania Coach of the Year.

A well-recognized figure in Pennsylvania soccer, Kempf Townsley guided the Pennsylvania Olympic Developmental Girls Under-18 squad to a semifinal berth during the summer of 1994 in the world’s largest soccer tournament, the Gothia Cup, held in Gothenburg, Sweden. She also coached the Eastern Pennsylvania Olympic Developmental Girls Under-19 team in one of the world’s premier women’s tournaments held in Bremen, Germany, in the summer of 1995.

In May 2001, she was inducted into the Philadelphia Old Timers Soccer Hall of Fame, becoming only the second woman to earn that distinction. She also holds membership in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Soccer Hall of Fame.

Very active in the community, she created the Eddie Polec Memorial Soccer Camp in her native city of Philadelphia, which was held for over 20 years. Kempf Townsley started the camp in the summer of 1995 to establish a scholarship fund at St. Cecilia School in Philadelphia in memory of Polec.

A 1982 graduate of Immaculata University, Kempf Townsley is married to Ed Townsley, who coached West Chester University’s women’s soccer squad in 1997 and 1998.  
 

YEAR	SCHOOL	OVERALL	PCT	CONFERENCE	PCT	NOTES
1986	LaSalle	0-7-0	.000
1987	LaSalle	10-9-0	.526
1988	LaSalle	3-12-2	.200
1989	LaSalle	5-12-1	.294
1990	LaSalle	5-11-2	.313
1991	LaSalle	5-11-2	.313
1992	LaSalle	6-10-0	.375	1-4-0	.200
1993	LaSalle	7-10-1	.418	3-2-1	.583	MCC Semifinals
8 years		41-82-9	.347	4-6-1	.409
1994	Seton Hall	4-12-1	.265
1995	Seton Hall	9-8-1	.528	3-4-1 (6th)	.438
1996	Seton Hall	8-9-1	.472	3-6-0 (8th)	.333
1997	Seton Hall	14-5-0	.737	9-2-0 (3rd)	.818
1998	Seton Hall	11-6-1	.639	7-3-1 (4th)	.682	Big EAST Semifinals
1999	Seton Hall	11-9-0	.550	3-3-0 (3rd) Mid-Atlantic	.500	Big EAST Semifinals
2000	Seton Hall	8-10-1	.447	3-3-0 (3rd) Mid-Atlantic	.500
2001	Seton Hall	5-10-2	.353	0-5-1 (7th) Mid-Atlantic	.083
2002	Seton Hall	7-11-1	.395	1-4-1 (7th) Mid-Atlantic	.250
2003	Seton Hall	5-12-1	.306	2-4-0 (5th) Mid-Atlantic	.333
2004	Seton Hall	7-9-2	.444	2-8-0 (12th) Mid-Atlantic	.200
2005	Seton Hall	7-7-4	.500	3-6-2 (7th) Division B	.364
2006	Seton Hall	7-10-2	.421	3-6-2 (5th) National	.364
13 years		103-118-17	.468	11-54-8	.205	5 Big EAST Tournament Apps. ; 1 Coach of Year (1997)
2007	West Chester	17-3-3	.804	8-0-2 (1st)	.900	PSAC Champions ; NCAA Atlantic Region Champions
2008	West Chester	14-3-5	.750	8-0-4 (1st)	.833	PSAC Semifinals ; NCAA Atlantic Region Finals
2009	West Chester	19-2-1	.886	11-1-0 (1st)	.917	PSAC Champions ; NCAA Tournament
2010	West Chester	18-1-4	.869	13-1-0 (1st)	.929	PSAC Champions ; NCAA Atlantic Region Champions
2011	West Chester	13-4-4	.714	8-2-4 (6th)	.714	PSAC Tournament ; NCAA Tournament
2012	West Chester	15-5-1	.738	10-3-1 (T, 2nd)	.750	PSAC Tournament ; NCAA Atlantic Region Champions
2013	West Chester	13-8-0	.619	10-6-0 (6th)	.625	PSAC Championship Game ; NCAA Tournament
2014	West Chester	17-3-2	.818	14-1-1 (2nd)	.906	PSAC Semifinals ; NCAA Atlantic Region Champions
2015	West Chester	14-4-1	.763	13-3-0 (2nd)	.812	PSAC Tournament ; NCAA Tournament
2016	West Chester	19-1-1	.929	16-0-0 (1st)	1.000	PSAC Semifinals ; NCAA Atlantic Region Finals
2017	West Chester	17-3-3	.814	14-2-0 (1st)	.875	PSAC Championship Game ; NCAA Atlantic Region Champions
2018	West Chester	13-4-3	.725	11-4-1 (T, 4th)	.719	PSAC Semifinals ; NCAA Tournament
2019	West Chester	14-6-2	.682	10-4-2 (4th)	.688	PSAC Semifinals ; NCAA Atlantic Region Finals
2020	West Chester					season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2021	West Chester	12-5-3	.675	11-3-2 (T, 2nd)	.750	PSAC Quarterfinals ; NCAA Atlantic Region Finals
2022	West Chester	23-1-1	.940	15-0-1 (1st)	.969	PSAC Champs; NCAA Atlantic Region Champs; NCAA Finals
2023	West Chester	16-3-4	.783	11-3-2 (2nd)	.750	PSAC Champs; NCAA Atlantic Region Finals
2024	West Chester	10-7-1	.583	9-6-1 (2nd)	.594	PSAC Tournament
2025	West Chester	16-3-4	.783	9-1-4 (1st)	.786	PSAC Tournament; NCAA Atlantic Region Champs
19 years		280-66-43	.740	201-40-25	.823	5 PSAC titles ; 7 Region titles ; 4 Coach of Year ; 17NCAAs
40 years		423-266-69	.593	216-100-33	.642