Ann Elliott Whidden

Ann Elliott Whidden (born 1984), née Ann Michelle Elliott, is an American college lacrosse coach and former player. She is the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes women's lacrosse team at the University of Colorado Boulder. Elliott was an All-American defender for the Northwestern Wildcats women's lacrosse team of Northwestern University, where she was a member of four NCAA championship teams. She later served as an assistant coach at Northwestern, winning two additional NCAA championships.

Playing career

During her collegiate playing career, Ann Elliott Whidden was a three-year starter for the Northwestern Wildcats women's lacrosse team from 2004 to 2007. During her senior season in 2007, she earned third-team All-American honors from Inside Lacrosse. As a member of the Wildcats, Whidden won three consecutive NCAA national championships in 2005, 2006, and 2007. As a senior, she served as a team captain and was part of a defensive unit that allowed an NCAA-low 6.1 goals per game. In 2022, she was inducted into the Ohio Lacrosse Hall of Fame for her accomplishments as a player at both the high school and collegiate levels. Before accepting the position, she spent four seasons on the coaching staff at Northwestern University. She served as an assistant coach from 2009 to 2011 before being promoted to associate coach for the 2012 season, her final year with the program.

The Colorado women's lacrosse team began competition on February 22, 2014. Whidden's first recruiting class consisted of 23 players, including four US Lacrosse high school All-America selections, three Academic All-America selections, and six all-state honorees.

In the inaugural season of the Colorado women's lacrosse program in 2014, Whidden led a roster composed primarily of freshmen to an 11–8 record. The program earned its first NCAA tournament victory in 2018, defeating the Jacksonville Dolphins team in the first round before losing to the Florida Gators team in the second round.

In 2026, Colorado won its first Big 12 tournament championship, defeating Florida in the championship game and earning the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Buffaloes subsequently defeated Jacksonville and Denver to advance to the program's first NCAA quarterfinal appearance, where they lost to Northwestern. Through the conclusion of the 2026 season, Colorado had compiled a 143–79 record under Whidden's leadership. She married Nick Whidden in 2017. The couple has twins, a daughter and a son, who were born in May 2020.

Head coaching record

Women's lacrosse