Quinnipiac continued to improve under Kotowicz's watch in 2018, finishing the season with five wins (one more than her first season with the team). One of the bright spots of the season was Kiera Kelly being crowned the MAAC Defensive Player of the Year, Quinnipiac's first major award winner since joining the MAAC. Kelly was also a two-time All-ECAC First Team selection and led the nation with 60 caused turnovers.

In her first season with the team, the Bobcats put together their most-successful season in years as she led the program to four wins (all by one-goal margins) including the team's first MAAC Tournament appearance since joining the league in 2013-14. Despite being picked to finish last in the MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, Kotowicz guided a team that had won just four conference games in their first three seasons in the MAAC (2014-16) to a 3-5 league record in 2017 and the No. 6 seed in the 2017 MAAC Tournament. Her team overcame three-goal second half deficits to win three times in 2017 while she helped guide Kiera Kelly to become the program's first-ever All-ECAC First Team honoree.

Kotowicz came to Quinnipiac with a wealth of NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse coaching experience, most recently as the head coach at Central Connecticut State University for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Before being hired as CCSU’s head coach, Kotowicz was the first assistant at Yale from 2012 through 2014 and Hofstra from 2008 through 2012. Before taking the position at Hofstra, Kotowicz was the head coach at Quinnipiac’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference foe Marist in 2008 and an assistant at Saint Mary’s College of California from 2006 to 2008.

While at Central Connecticut State, Kotowicz’s program featured eight All-Northeast Conference players, including five last season. In her first season, the Blue Devil defense led the NEC allowing only eight goals per game in conference games. In addition, Kotowicz’s Blue Devils were honored as an IWLCA Division I NCAA Academic Honor Squad in 2015 and 2016 and this past season they featured 17 NEC Spring Academic Honor Roll selections.