University of Rhode Island

Whitney Goldstein became the ninth head coach in Rhode Island history in July of 2021. She enters her third season at the helm in 2023-24.

Goldstein has sparked a significant turnaround of the program in her first two seasons. In 2023, the Rams qualified for the Atlantic 10 Championship for the first time in 13 seasons. Once in the tournament, URI won a postseason game for the first time since 2002, snapping a 21-year drought.

Rhode Island doubled its win total for the second consecutive season, winning 23 games in 2023. The team also won 12 Atlantic 10 games, the second most in program history. Along the way, the team set a program record for stolen bases in a season with 72. Pitcher Liz Lynchard became just the sixth player to reach 300 career strikeouts for Rhode Island, and she was the first Ram to earn NFCA All-Region honors in 21 seasons. Lynchard and Elena Gonzalez both earned A-10 Academic All-Conference honors, while outfielder Hannah Hernandez was named to the league's All-Rookie team. 

In her first season, Goldstein led Rhode Island to 11 victories, which more than doubled the previous year's output. Shortstop Ari Castillo earned Second Team All-Atlantic 10 honors, while pitcher Liz Lynchard was named to the Atlantic 10 Academic All-Conference Team. Twelve members of the team were named as Easton NFCA All-America Scholar Athletes, as the Rams had a 3.408 grade-point average as a team. 
 
Goldstein came to URI after a highly successful eight seasons at WPI, where she led the Engineers to four regular-season titles, two NEWMAC Championship crowns, three NCAA Regional appearances and two Super Regionals. A two-time NEWMAC Coach of the Year, she also was the ECAC Regional Coach of the Year in 2016.

In 2016, her WPI squad was No. 1 in New England, and a year later the team was ranked No. 11 in the country by the NFCA. She set WPI’s single-season win total in three consecutive seasons, winning 30 games in 2014, 34 games in 2015 and 38 games in 2016. Over her nine seasons as a head coach, Goldstein has a .719 winning percentage,

Before her time at WPI, Goldstein spent three seasons at Amherst College, including one as the interim head coach. She also was the director of softball operations at UMass in 2010. In nine seasons before coming to Rhode Island, Goldstein had a career record of 230-90.
 
During her playing career, Goldstein was an All-American for legendary head coach Elaine Sortino while leading Massachusetts to four straight Atlantic 10 championships from 2006-09. The Minutewomen made four straight appearances in the NCAA Championship, including a run to the Super Regionals in 2006.
 
As a freshman, Goldstein was the first A-10 player in league history to be named both the Player and Rookie of the Year in the same season. She was a three-time A-10 First Team All-Conference selection, a three-time NFCA All-Region honoree and an Academic All-Conference pick. She started all 217 games she played at UMass, batting .341 with 28 home runs and a program record 156 runs batted in.

Goldstein is the granddaughter of the late baseball legend Don Zimmer, who spent 65 seasons in Major League Baseball as a player, manager and coach.  

In 2009, Goldstein graduated from UMass Amherst with a degree in Sport Management. She also holds a master's degree in Recreation and Sport Sciences with a concentration in Coaching Education through Ohio University. 

Goldstein and her husband Matt have a daughter Madison and one dog, a lab mix named Lilly.

updated 11/27/2023