University of North Dakota Athletics

Mallory Bernhard (Youngblut) was named the Interim Head Coach of the University of North Dakota women's basketball program on March 11, 2020 before officially being named the head coach in March 2021 by Athletics Director Bill Chaves, making her the seventh head coach of the Fighting Hawks women’s basketball program. She is the first former Fighting Sioux or Fighting Hawk student-athlete to be named to the position.

She followed up her strong first season with an even better 2022-23 campaign, helping the Fighting Hawks reach the postseason for the first time since the 2016-17 season with a berth in the WBI. Bernhard led UND to a 19-13 overall record and an 11-7 Summit League mark to finish third in the conference standings. The Fighting Hawks were nearly unbeatable at home, finishing with the second-best home record in the program's Division I history at 13-1. 

Once again, Bernhard helped senior guard Kacie Borowicz take her game to new heights, as she paced the league in both overall scoring and assists to earn a spot on the All-Summit League First Team for the second straight year while graduate student Claire Orth claimed a spot on the Summit League All-Defensive Team. 

Following the 2022-23 season, Bernhard was awarded a contract extension through the 2025-26 campaign. 

Bernhard completed her first season as the official head coach with a largely improved record having gone from two wins in her interim season to 15 wins. She led North Dakota from being ranked ninth in the Summit League preseason poll to ending the season fifth and sitting at a .500 record (15-15 overall, 9-9 conference). Bernhard led the Fighting Hawks to be ranked eighth nationally (NCAA DI) for free-throw percentage with a team average of .789. 

She coached junior Kacie Borowicz to a record-breaking and Summit League leading season. Borowicz ended the year being named Summit League Player of the Week twice (Jan. 17 & Jan. 24), named Summit League Female-Athlete of the Month in January, named First Team All-Summit League, and named to the Summit League Academic All-League Team. Along with the acolades she collected, under the direction of Bernhard, Borowicz ended the season second in the country (NCAA DI) for free-throw percentage with a .957, broke the Summit League All Games free-throws made record and University of North Dakota record for most in a game and free-throw percentage with her 20-for-20 (1.000) against Montana State, finished as the leader in the Summit League for points per game (19.4) and free-throw percentage (.957), and finished second in the Summit League for assists with 4.4 per game. 

Bernhard also coached senior Melissa Leet to earning a spot on the Summit League's All-Defensive Team. Under Bernhard, Leet finished first in the Summit League in total blocks (67), finished tied for 24th in the country (NCAA DI) for total blocked shots with 67, and finished tied for 24th in the country( NCAA DI) for blocked shots per game with 2.23.

During her interim season, Bernhard attempted to restructure with program. The team struggled through injuries as sophomore Kacie Borowicz and junior Makayla Wallace played limited minutes during the 2020-21 season. Alongside the injuries, the Fighting Hawks struggled with the new COVID-19 protocols throughout the season. Although Bernhard only led UND to two wins in her interim season, the Fighting Hawks pushed three games into overtime and kept it close with single digit losses in ten games.  

Prior to becoming head coach, Bernhard completed her seventh season as an assistant at her alma mater in 2019-20, and spent the season as associate head coach, working primarily with the UND guards. Her teams have enjoyed great success with an NCAA Tournament appearance (2014), two Big Sky titles (2014, 2017), a pair of WBI appearances (2015, 2016) and a WNIT berth (2017) at UND.

Bernhard led a battery guards in 2019-20 made up of four true freshmen, a redshirt freshman and three returning letterwinners in Alaina Jarnot, Claire Orth and Mikayla Reinke, who combined for 25 starts last season. Jarnot became the first guard 2013-14 to dish 100+ assists in a season while freshmen Kacie Borowicz and Lilly Keplin each averaged over 7.0 points per game off the bench.

With seven true freshmen on the roster in 2019-20, North Dakota posted its first record of .500 or better since 2016-17 as the Fighting Hawks freshmen class scored almost 43-percent of the team's scoring in 2019-20.

Along with four postseason appearances and 13 all-conference players, Bernhard also helped mentor former All-Summit League forward Lexi Klabo, a top-10 finalist for the Cheryl Miller Award, given to college basketball's top-small forward annually. Klabo signed professionally to play in Belgium, one of two players from the 2018-19 team to sign professionally. Jill Morton signed to play in Germany in August 2019.

As North Dakota’s Associate Head Coach from 2018-20, Bernhard was instrumental in recruiting Miss Basketball North Dakota Megan Zander and Miss Basketball Minnesota Kacie Borowicz

Bernhard also helped mentor former All-American Madi Buck, the 2014 Big Sky Conference Player of the Year. Buck was also an all-region selection and The Grand Forks Herald Sportsperson of the Year for 2014.

Her return to UND came after leading her high school alma mater, Davenport Assumption High School, to back-to-back Iowa State Class 3A titles in her two years at the helm. Her teams went a combined 31-1 in conference play and went 50-4 overall in her two seasons at the helm, earning Iowa State Class 3A, District and Quad-City Times Metro Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2013.

Youngblut finished her five-year playing career at North Dakota ranked 15th all-time with 1,307 career points. The 29th player in program history to join the 1,000 Point Club, she ranks third in career free-throw percentage (81.6), fifth in career three-pointers made (220) and attempted (573), and 10th in career steals (175) and  career three-point field goal percentage (.380).

She was part of a 2013-14 staff that captured the Big Sky Conference regular season and tournament titles. UND has qualified for the postseason four times with Bernhard on the bench, recording 90 wins in that span.

She is married to husband, Nick. They live in Grand Forks with their son, Louis, and daughter, Lizzie.