Ed Matz, the 2009 CAA Women's Coach of the Year at Northeastern, where he helped turn around both the men's and women's programs, has been named the new Massachusetts women's head coach.

"I am very excited for the challenge of taking over as head coach at UMass, which has such a rich history of success in women's soccer," said Matz. "My goal is to live up to the team's past accomplishments and to further build off UMass' 2009 Atlantic 10 tournament appearance."

Matz was tabbed the CAA's coach of the year in 2009 after guiding the Huskies to their first ever CAA regular season title with a 7-1-3 record in conference play and a 12-4-3 mark overall. In 2008, Northeastern won the CAA Championship and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Matz posted a combined record of 182-165-41 in nine seasons with the men's team (1996-2004) and 11 with the women's (1999-2009) at Northeastern.

Matz shifted his attention solely to the NU women's squad in 2005 when the university hired a head coach for its men's program.

Jim Rudy, one of the pioneers in women's college soccer, announced his retirement after 21 seasons as the UMass women's head coach in May 2009.

Assistant Angela Napoli was appointed head coach for the 2009 season. The Minutewomen made their first conference tournament appearance since 2004 but finished with a record of 6-11-2.

Rudy directed his teams into NCAA postseason play 13 times, four at UCF and nine at UMass, which reached the national semifinals in 1993, falling to eventual champion North Carolina, 4-1.