Eastern Connecticut State University

In 30 seasons, Bierly has coached 806 games and won 542 times (an average of 18.7 wins per season in 29 seasons) with a winning percentage of 67.2. On Jan. 24, 2022, Bierly won her 500th game in a 56-27 conference road win at Keene State College, becoming the eighth active coach in New England to reach that mark and one of only six to win as many as 500 games at one institution.

The team's conference opener at Western Connecticut Dec. 4, 2019 marked the 400th conference game (regular-season and post-season) coached by Bierly, as well as the program's 500th LEC contest overall since the advent of the LEC in 1986/87. Bierly has coached 82.5 percent of the program's conference contests played over 37 seasons.

In the program's 53-year history, Bierly has coached well over half of the seasons and well over half the 1,351 games, and has accounted for 60.3 percent of the program's 899 victories.

Among active New England Division III head coaches, the 2014-15  New England Women's Basketball Association (NEWBA) Coach-of-the-Year ranks 10th in winning percentage (seventh among those having coached at least 500 games) and seventh in victories (16th nationally).

In 29 years of conference play, Bierly has won 71.2 percent of 410 regular-season games, recording her 200th LEC regular-season triumph in 2015-16. She is 331-140 (70.3) overall in 471 LEC regular-season and tournament contests and needs eight victories for 300 LEC regular-season victories.

Through 2023/24, Bierly has won or shared five of the last nine LEC regular-season titles and four of the last nine post-season championships.

With her second win of the 2009/10 season, Bierly  became the fourth head coach (only current one) in Eastern intercollegiate history to record as many as 300 wins, and on the final day of the regular season in 2010/11, became the winningest head women's basketball coach in program history. In the second round of the 2012/13 Eastern Tip-Off Tournament, Bierly coached her 500th game at Eastern.

More than half (15) of Bierly's 29 seasons (excluding the cancelled 2020-21 season) as head coach have featured ECAC or NCAA tournament play. She has led the Warriors to a No. 1 national ranking, a spot in a national championship game, and in 2018/19, a stunning three-point road win over two-time defending national champion Amherst College, which had won 164 of its previous 165 home contests.

Thirteen times since 2000/01, the Warriors have won at least 20 games. In 2008/09, the team won 25 games – the fourth time in eight years that the team had posted at least 25 victories.That team was also ranked as high as 17th nationally, and captured a season-record 16 consecutive wins. The team's 23 regular-season triumphs prior to conference tournament play were the most in program history, and the team's 13-1 conference record also provided it with its first outright conference regular-season title (it had shared three regular-season championships) since the 1990/91 season.

In the first four years of the decade under Bierly, Eastern won at least 80 percent of its games each season– a feat never before accomplished in the history of the program.

In 2004/05, Bierly recorded her 200th coaching win. Incredibly, it took her just four years (120 games) – to win games 101 through 200.

Since winning ten of 26 games in her first season (after inheriting a 3-22 club), the Lafayette, Ohio native has led Eastern to at least 17 victories 21 times, with a program-record 28 wins coming during the run to the 2003 national title game.  Bierly was named Little East Conference Coach-of-the-Year in her second season in 1995/96. Coming off a 4-8 conference record and fourth-place finish in Bierly’s first season, the Warriors won ten of 12 LEC games that year, good enough for a second-place finish in the regular-season standings. They went on to win the conference tournament title later that year.

Four times in all, Bierly has been selected Little East Conference Coach-of-the-Year, including in 2022/23 when the Warriors won a program-record 15 (of 16) LEC regular-season games and shared the regular-season title. In 2008-09, she shared the honor after the Warriors equalled their most regular-season conference wins ever. In 2000/01, she was voted LEC Coach-of-the-Year outright when the Warriors shared first place in the regular season.

In Bierly’s tenure, Eastern has featured six Alumni Hall of Famers in Allison Coleman (2013), Jennifer Zabek (2015), Darcy Mund (2016),  Ashley McFetridge (2017), Sandy Mosley (2022) and Jill Ritrosky (2024), nine WBCA All-Americas, one CoSIDA Academic All-America, one national Player-of-the-Year, two CoSIDA Academic All-District selections, six New England players of the year, one New England Rookie-of-the-Year, 20 All-New England and eight All-District performers, 22 NEWBA Senior Classic picks, 16 conference offensive or defensive players of the year, five conference rookies of the year, and 57 all-conference selections.

In addition, three of her players were named to the Little East's 25th Anniversary Women's Basketball Team in 2011 -- Coleman, McFetridge and Zabek -- with Coleman also an LEC Hall of Fame inductee in the inaugural class of 2012. In 2010, Coleman was also inducted into the Connecticut Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

Eighty-one of Bierly's players have earned  Eastern/E-Club Scholar-Athlete Awards, and 79 have qualified for spots on the all-conference academic honor roll in the 16 years in which the honor has been awarded. Thirteen have been awarded the Holly E. Zimmerman Memorial Award (which recognizes devotion to the team and to athletics), five have received the Bonnie J. Edmondson Senior Female SportsPerson-of-the-Year, seven have been selected Eastern’s Female Athlete-of-the-Year, and five have been named Eastern’s Female Rookie-of-the-Year. Additionally, 14 players have attained the 1,000-career point mark, most recently Anna Barry and Julie Keckler in 2022/23.

In September of 2003, Bierly was honored as the New England Collegiate Coach-of-the-Year by the New England College Basketball Hall of Fame at its annual induction dinner and awards banquet. She is also a member of the Defiance (OH) College Alumni Varsity D and Allen East High School Halls of Fame and in the spring of 2017, was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. Her induction into her high school Hall of Fame came during charter induction ceremonies. In four years in high school, Bierly set program records for points in a career (1,395), season (475) and game (44)

Bierly holds a B.S. Degree in Sport Management from Defiance College and an M.S. Degree in Education from Bowling Green (OH) State University.