PITTSBURGH (June 7, 2023) — Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC head coach Bob Lilley was named the USL Championship Coach of the Month for May, the league announced this afternoon.
Lilley captured the award after the Hounds completed an undefeated month, winning five straight matches after beginning May with a road draw at Monterey Bay. Two of those wins came in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, as the Hounds became the first lower-division team to shut out consecutive MLS teams, defeating the New England Revolution on the road and the Columbus Crew at home to reach the Open Cup quarterfinals for only the second time in team history.
The other wins in May — league matches against Birmingham, Las Vegas and Loudoun — propelled the Hounds into second place in the Eastern Conference entering June.
The all-time wins leader in the modern USL Championship era (since 2011), Lilley also recorded his 150th win in the league last week with the Hounds’ 1-0 win over Phoenix Rising FC. For Lilley, the 2015 USL Championship Coach of the Year, this is the first monthly honor since the final month of the 2019 season, when the Hounds made a late surge to claim first place in the Eastern Conference.
Lilley won the honor in an unusually close vote, claiming 47 percent to finish just ahead of the 40 percent for Tampa Bay’s Neill Collins, a narrow race between the league’s two longest-tenured coaches.
The USL Championship Coach of the Month award is voted upon by the USL Championship National Media Panel and the USL Championship Technical Committee, with each group responsible for 50 percent of the overall vote. For the league’s full release on the award, visit uslchampionship.com.
