Rivier women's hockey coach Chris Czarnota has surprisingly stepped down with six games left in the regular season, the school announced Thursday. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Sudden change has once again hit the Rivier University athletic program.

The latest move has taken place with the Raider women’s hockey program, as the school announced on Thursday that head coach Chris Czarnota has resigned with six games to go in the regular season.

Czarnota’s sudden departure means that the coaches who were behind the men’s and women’s hockey benches when the Raiders began their inaugural hockey seasons are no longer at the school. The coach for the first two men’s seasons, Matt Keating, was let go late last June.

Czarnota leaves with a 14-37-9 record, but his Raiders were having their best season at 7-8-1. The team’s next game is at Worcester State tonight.

Guiding the Raider women for the final three weeks of the season will be first-year head softball coach Noelle Sass as an interim, and she’ll be assisted by Raider head women’s lacrosse coach Maura Ellins, who is also the athletic department’s Senior Woman Administrator, plus head field hockey coach Hayley Sutherland. Also, current Raider women’s hockey assistant Hugh Murphy will stay on. A school spokesperson said that the other two assistants under Czarnota, Jade Julius and Riley Cote, are also no longer with the program.

“Really, what we’re trying to do at this point, is make sure we’re providing the best experience we can and support for a team that’s going through a leadership change near the end of the year,” Rivier athletic director Jonathan Harper said.

Of course, the question is why that change is taking place now, especially with just a quarter of the season remaining, rather than wait until the end of the season.

“We’re not able to comment on personnel matters,” Harper said. “That’s just where we are right now.”

He was asked if the move was in any way hockey performance related.

“I clearly shouldn’t comment on personnel issues,” Harper said. “I can talk about other things going on, but for the reasons why, that’s not appropriate.”

Sass, Harper said, played hockey “at a pretty high level, up to college, so she’s pretty well adept there.” Sutherland, he added “also has experience in the hockey world.”

He’s not concerned that taking Sass and Sutherland possibly away for parts of their preseason preparation for the teams they were hired to coach will be any kind of a problem.

“No, and reason why is they’ve been preparing for their seasons for quite some time now, and their teams understand that they’ll have other additional duties for a couple of weeks,” Harper said. “But at the end of the day, I have a head softball coach and head women’s lacrosse coach for a reason, and they’ll provide a quality student-athlete experience for them.”

Harper said he was set to meet with the players Thursday evening and it’s likely they were previously aware something was happening, as Harper confirmed the interim staff had been running practice on Tuesday and Wednesday at Conway Arena, with Czarnota nowhere in sight. Harper was at the rink as well.

“I’ve been in contact with the team and at practices to make sure they get what they need,” Harper said. “Our coaches have been doing a wonderful job rallying to help them through practice. We’ve been (at the rink) a couple of times now.”

Czarnota responded to a Telegraph call with a text saying he wouldn’t comment at this time.

“I think it’s going to be important for us to pay attention to our student-athletes’ needs,” Harper said, “and address them appropriately as they come forward and as a group. This is a change and we’re going to help them through it.”

Czarnota was named the first-ever Raiders women’s hockey head coach on Dec. 8, 2020, after serving as an assistant with the Norwich University men’s hockey team for three seasons. He is a 2014 graduate of Norwich, where he was termed one of the school’s most accomplished goaltenders in history.

Now the Raiders move forward, starting with tonight’s game, although Harper said Thursday it was too soon to go over the potential search plans for a permanent successor.

“The action just took place today,” he said, “so we’re far more concerned about the student-athletes and how they’re feeling right now. We’ll worry about any possible searches until after the season’s completed.”

The Raiders next season will join the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference’s (MASCAC) addition of women’s ice hockey, with the new conference set to begin in the 2024-25 season.

Rivier will be one of the founding members, along with Framingham State, MCLA, Worcester State, and Anna Maria. In the following season, Salem State will join as a full member as the programs begin a two-season wait period for an NCAA Automatic Qualifier, which is set to start in the 2027-28 campaign.

The Raiders currently participate as members of the Eastern Collegiate Hockey Alliance (ECHA), along with Anna Maria, MCLA, and tonight’s opponent, Worcester State.