The Fort Mill Lady Jackets lacrosse team scored early and often to open the 2026 season.
Fort Mill blanked Indian Land in the Warriors’ first ever lacrosse match 26-0, but what was more impressive is the number of goals they could have produced to open the season.
The Jackets are coming off back-to-back Upper State championships and with the amount of talent coming back should be the favorite in the Upper State again this season.
“We have a great group of girls this year and pretty solid freshman squad coming up from JV,” said Fort Mill assistant Lauren Ochs, filling in for head coach Kirsten Terry, who was out of town because of work. “We have everything we need. We just need to put our effort towards it.”
The Jackets dropped in 11 goals in the first quarter and seven more in the second quarter to go up 18-0 at the half.
Returning this year are key contributors in Molly Bennett, Cece Shia, and Catherine Bois.
“We have gone to the state championship two years in a row and all those girls were there for that, so that is going to help us for sure,” Ochs said.
Fort Mill had 16 different girls score in the match and nine of those in the first half. The Jackets were led in the first half by hat tricks from Shia and Clare Roland. Also collecting two goals each were Izzy English, Bailey Metcalf, Audrey Schimpfhauser, Bois, and Bennett. Other Fort Mill players scoring first half goals included Selah Gore and Reagan Michael.
Abby Minnich scored about three minutes into play to open the second half for the Jackets. Ryan Frazier scored two minutes later for Fort Mill to put it at 20-0.
Minnich scored her second goal of the quarter midway through the third and Jordan Dye added a goal as well with less than 90 seconds remaining in the period.
Olivia Matheny opened the fourth quarter for Fort Mill with a goal just 43 seconds into play and then Rylee Raiter added a goal two minutes later for the Jackets. Adding goals to finish the match for Fort Mill was Lorelei von Motz and Mallory Hitch.
Fort Mill will have harder competition come Thursday, Feb. 26 at Charlotte Latin for their next match.
Feb. 24 Roundup
The Fort Mill boys’ tennis team opened their season with a 5-1 win over Catawba Ridge. Winning for Catawba Ridge was Ishaan Singh at No. 1 singles 6-0, 3-6, 10-5. Winning for Fort Mill was No. 2 singles Lucas Coelho 7-5, 6-2; No. 3 singles Jethin Bastin 6-2, 6-2; No. 4 singles Sawyer Bryan 6-2, 6-3; No. 5 singles Ishaan Amjath 6-0, 6-2 and in doubles Brandon Berhman and Jackson Bradley 6-4, 6-3.
The Nation Ford girls’ soccer team improved to 1-0 to open their season with a 3-1 win on the road against AC Flora.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
