Sitting across from Boston College head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein, a high school recruit in Kenzie Kent was intrigued. Walker-Weinstein explained how no women’s sports program at Boston College had ever won a national championship, and the lacrosse team was looking to change that.
And Kent, despite feeling some reserve to join a program with her mom Jen Kent on staff, wanted to help.
“You could be a part of the first and do something no one has ever done before and that’s really what stuck with me immediately,” Kent said. “That’s what I really wanted. I really wanted to win a national championship and it really enticed me just how the team hadn’t been a top-level team yet and I thought it’d be really cool to help build something.”
Kent had double the chance to help bring the Eagles their first women’s national title. The Norwell, Mass., native arrived at BC as a freshman in 2014, but the first uniform she donned wasn’t for the lacrosse team. It was for the women’s ice hockey team.
Kent first helped the Eagles reach the championship stage in 2016, when the hockey team fell short against Minnesota. It was BC’s first-ever appearance in the title game, coming in its sixth trip to the Frozen Four. That season as a sophomore, Kent played in every game, posting 43 points and scoring five game-winning goals.
The next year, Kent — after missing the first 12 games of the lacrosse season as the hockey team advanced to the Frozen Four semifinals again — set career highs in lacrosse in points (77), goals (39) and assists (38) in just 12 games to again help facilitate a title run. The Eagles lacrosse team made it to their first-ever championship in 2017, losing to Maryland, while Kent became the first player from a losing team in a national title game to be named the championship’s most outstanding player.
Kent played in five Final Fours (three in hockey, two in lacrosse) over her collegiate career. She never claimed a national championship, but was a key contributor helping establish both programs for future success. The hockey team has not reached the championship stage since its lone 2016 appearance, but — after 13 years at BC for Jen and 10 for Walker-Weinstein — the lacrosse team broke through for the school’s first-ever women’s title in 2021. It was victorious again in 2024.
“Obviously I’m biased, but it is just the most special program and I think a lot of it attests to the coaching staff,” Kent said. “They’ve been together for so long.”
As Kent, now an assistant women’s lacrosse coach at Harvard, turns to the Maybelline Women’s Lacrosse League All-Star Game on July 4, she’ll continue to tap into her hockey skills.
“I guess there’s not a ton of similarities but hockey helped me a lot with lacrosse in terms of — I feel like in lacrosse I’m able to see a play happen before it happens and that’s because hockey is such a fast-paced sport and it’s really up and down and you don’t have a lot of time to make a decision so I think that helped me a ton,” she said. “And the physicality of hockey definitely allowed me to be physical in lacrosse and not shy away from the checks.”
Kent’s grandfather played hockey in high school and college and introduced the popular local sport to her and her family. Five of the six Kent children ended up playing hockey in some capacity, with four of them playing throughout high school, Kent said.
Kent, the fifth pick during the WLL All-Star Selection Show, is one of six BC alum on Team North alongside Charlotte North, Cassidy Weeks, Dempsey Arsenault, Sydney Scales and Rachel Clark.
“A lot of us have played together so hopefully that chemistry can show on the field and for whoever’s watching,” Kent said.
“I’m excited to just put on a WLL uniform. It’s the start of something incredible and it’s really special to be able to be a part of it in the early stages and hopefully [help] promote lacrosse in the best way that I can.”
