Emma Peterson begins her first season as the lead assistant coach for the SUNY Cortland women’s hockey team in 2025-26.
Peterson joins Cortland after spending the last two seasons as assistant coach of the women’s hockey program at University of Wisconsin-Superior. In 2024-25, Peterson helped the team reach the semifinals of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) tournament before falling to eventual conference and national champion UW-River Falls. The Yellowjackets ranked 16th in the nation in scoring offense (3.21 goals per game), had three student-athletes earn All-WIAC honors, and won their most games in a season in the last five years.
In addition to her coaching responsibilities at UW-Superior, Peterson also held the role of sports information specialist, assisting with statistics tracking and publicity efforts for 20 varsity programs and two club sports.
Peterson began her coaching journey as an assistant coach with the Eau Claire Area Stars girls high school team in 2022-23 after completing a standout collegiate career at Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Playing in a program-record 121 games over five seasons with the Blugolds, Peterson amassed 79 points on 39 goals and 40 assists, and netted 12 game-winning goals to rank second in program history. Also a two-year captain, she earned first team All-WIAC honors in 2020 and 2021, and was an all-conference honorable mention in 2022.
Peterson graduated with two degrees from UW-Eau-Claire, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in business management and entrepreneurship in 2020 and a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing with an emphasis in analytics in 2022.
The Superior, WI native graduated from Superior High School in 2017, where she was a four-year all-state honoree in hockey, to the first team in 2015, 2016, and 2017 and a second team selection in 2014. Peterson was also a two-time finalist for the Molly Engstrom Award presented annually to the state’s top defenseman, a four-time all-conference selection, the team’s Offensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year in 2014, and Defensive Player of the Year in 2016.
Peterson also played Tier 1 hockey with Team Wisconsin outside of the high school season from 2014-17.
