University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey associate head coach Laura Bellamy was named the next head coach at Harvard University Thursday, returning the Duluth native to her alma mater.

Bellamy finished her eighth season at UMD last March, and fourth as an associate head coach after four seasons as an assistant to UMD bench boss Maura Crowell.

"Duluth has always been home, and the past eight years were everything I hoped they would be," said Bellamy. "It was a dream come true to help lead the team I grew up rooting for. I deeply love this program and the people in it, and am extremely proud of all that we accomplished since 2015. I owe endless gratitude to both Maura Crowell and Laura Schuler. They are two of the best coaches and people in women's hockey, and I cannot thank them enough for their steadfast belief in me. They made me better every single day. I leave Duluth confident that UMD will be a force in the NCAA for years to come."

Selected the 2022 recipient of the Women's Ice Hockey Assistant Coach Award by the American Hockey Coaches Association, a national award that recognizes the career body of work of a women's assistant hockey coach, Bellamy and the Bulldogs made their third-straight NCAA Tournament berth in 2023. In the past three seasons alone, Bellamy helped guide UMD to an NCAA title game (2022), two NCAA Frozen Fours (2022, 2021), and earned five NCAA postseason wins over that span.

"This is a great day for Laura," said Crowell. "She has worked incredibly hard to bring this proud UMD program back to national prominence and is now well equipped to lead Harvard. Personally, I've worked with Laura as a student-athlete and a coach and I could not be happier for her. One of the greatest honors one can have as a head coach is to mentor your staff members to lead programs, so this is a proud moment all-around. It's also a major compliment to our UMD program and all that we have accomplished over the years."

In eight complete seasons at UMD, Bellamy helped guide an overall record of 153-100-21, including an overall NCAA Tournament record of 5-4 and four NCAA Tournament berths (2023, 2022, 2021, 2017) to go with two NCAA Frozen Four Appearances (2022, 2021).   Bellamy helped oversee two Patty Kazmaier Top-3 Finalists (Gabbie Hughes and Lara Stalder), as well as a Patty Kazmaier Top-10 Finalist (Élizabeth Giguère).   

With Bellamy on the bench, UMD had nine All-Americans, including this past season in goaltender Emma Soderberg and defenseman Ashton Bell in 2022-23. Other All-Americans in the past eight seasons have been Gabbie Hughes and Élizabeth Giguère in 2021-22, as well as Bell, Anna Klein and Soderberg in 2020-21 and two All-Americans in the 2016-17 season (Stalder and Sidney Morin). UMD has also had a run on league awards over Bellamy's tenure, most recently highlighted by Soderberg's second WCHA Goaltender of Year honor in 2022-23 after gloving the award in 2020-21. Bell was named the 2020-21 WCHA Defenseman of the Year, four years after Morin earned the accolade in 2016-17, and the program has landed three WCHA Student Athlete of the Year under Corwell in Soderberg (2022-23), Catherine Daoust (2017-18), and Morin (2016-17). Soderberg was also a finalist for the 2022-23 WCHA Player of the Year, while Stalder was named the 2016-17 WCHA Player of the Year. UMD has also had 25 players placed on All-WCHA Teams, 

A 2009 graduate of Duluth Denfeld High School and two-sport star with the Hunters, Bellamy spent two seasons working at Harvard. In 2014-15, Bellamy was an assistant for a Harvard club that reached the NCAA national title game and finished 27-6-3 overall after going 23-7-4 and securing an NCAA playoff berth the previous winter while Crowell was Harvard's interim head coach. Bellamy enjoyed a rewarding four-year goaltending career (2009-13) with the Crimson, posting a  60-25-7 record, a 1.82 goals against average, a .915 saves percentage and 19 shutouts (the second most in program history) in 95 lifetime appearances. As a senior, she paced the nation in goals against with an average (0.92) and ranked second in saves percentage (.949) en route to landing All-Ivy League first team accolades.