'She’s sneaky'; Senior attack is Dartmouth's secret weapon on offense
DARTMOUTH — Kayla McGee is Dartmouth’s secret weapon.
While opposing defenses are focused on containing teammate Grace Haskell, the 2023 Standard-Times Girls Lacrosse Player of the Year, McGee makes them pay.
A year ago she had 21 goals and 33 assists.
Through the first three games of 2024, the senior attack already has seven goals and 10 assists.
McGee had a hand in eight of Dartmouth's goals in a 14-4 win over rival New Bedford on Thursday afternoon at Dartmouth Stadium.
“Kayla is sort of silent, but deadly,” said Dartmouth head coach Nicole Simas. “Her right and left hands are both excellent and she’s sneaky. You focus a lot on our midfield and she comes from X and catches it cleanly and places it in the back of the net.
“She’s awesome. She’s a great girl to coach and she always comes up big.”
McGee not only scored four goals against New Bedford, she also had four assists as Dartmouth led from start to finish to capture the team’s first win of 2024.
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“We were all saying we needed this game,” McGee said. “We brought so much energy.”
Dartmouth had opened the season with back-to-back losses to Plymouth North and Apponequet.
“Coming into this game, we were 0-2 so we definitely wanted to come out hot and fiery,” Simas said. “The draw was super important for us. I thought the midfield handled it really well.
“We just want to come out fast. We don’t want to come out flat-footed. We want to be ready to go.”
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Five different players scored on Thursday for Dartmouth with Haskell, a senior, leading the way with six goals. Sarah Kelly added two goals and three assists while Makai Vincent (two assists) and Emerson White each had a goal.
“Having so many girls who can facilitate goals and passes is really nice to have,” McGee said. “There are so many people you can trust to score and pass it makes it so fun.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
Dartmouth led 6-0 after the first quarter and 8-1 at halftime. New Bedford had more goals in the second half, but couldn’t contain Dartmouth down the stretch. McGee scored back-to-back goals over a 15-second span midway through the fourth quarter to put the game away.
“We're in a rebuilding season so we’re doing the best we can with players that haven’t been on varsity before and we’re celebrating even the small wins during the games,” said New Bedford head coach Erin Rezendes. “We never want to give up in a game. We want to play all four quarters.”
WHAT IT MEANS
With the win, Dartmouth improved to 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the Southeast Conference. New Bedford fell to 2-3 and 0-2 in the SCC.
STATS
Junior Zaria Anderson led the Whalers with two goals. … Arlene Johnson made six saves for Dartmouth.
NOTES
The Whalers were without junior midfielder Hannah Blanchard, who was hurt during a game against Fairhaven on April 6.
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Senior attack shines as Dartmouth lacrosse beats New Bedford
