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KENNESAW, Ga. – Kennesaw State women's lacrosse began the 2023 season in high-scoring fashion, as the Owls cruised past Reinhardt 22-4 in their season opener on Friday afternoon from Fifth Third Bank Stadium. The 22 goals was just one of several all-time top-10 marks set during the game, which saw a total of 11 players finish with at least one goal.
KEY PLAYERS: Five different players all posted hat tricks in the game.
Mia MacKenzie,
Hannah Barth,
Caroline Farley,
Abbey Behn and
Shannon Harrington all finished with three goals each for KSU, while MacKenzie added two assists for a game-high five points. MacKenzie, Barth and Farley all tied their career-highs in the victory, while Behn and Harrington set new career-bests.
THE RUNDOWN: KSU jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead less than five minutes in and never looked back. It was a 7-0 edge before the visitors got on the scoreboard, and the Owls responded with four straight for an 11-1 lead after the end of the first quarter. KSU would shutout the Eagles in the second quarter while scoring four straight to go into the half up 15-1. The Owls outscored the visitors 7-3 in the second half to close out the 18-goal victory.
QUOTABLE:
Overall thoughts on the season-opening win
"I feel great about today's win. I think the team took everything we were pushing them to do in practice and applied it to the game which is great. We had a lot of players who have never played before and seeing them shine right away was really exciting.
On finishing with 22 goals and 12 assists
"This year, we focused on really quick ball movement, trusting each other, and finding the best possible scoring option. Having so many of those goals being assisted and so much diversity in our scoring, I think it is going to make us really hard to defend in future games."
On the defense allowing just four goals
"The defense did a great job. We held them to four goals, so hats off to them. I thought they showed composure and understood their matchups. I think holding only two girls from the other team to scoring opportunities was what shut them down and limited their scoring opportunities. We also won the ground ball game by a ton, but really a lot of that was in the backfield with our defenders being scrappy and aggressive."
-KSU Head Coach Laura Maness
NOTES:
-This was the fourth time in program history the Owls scored 22 goals in a game, tied for sixth-most ever at KSU.
-The 12 assists are tied for the fifth-best in Owl history, while KSU's 34 total points is now the fifth-best mark in the school record books.
-KSU finished with a 36-6 edge on shots and 29-5 edge on shots on goal.
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Julia Weiss played the first half in goal and allowed just one goal to earn the victory.
NEXT TIME OUT: The Owls will play their first road game of the season on Wednesday, Feb. 15 with a 2 p.m. contest at Winthrop in Rock Hill, S.C.
