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Missouri Western State University

Missouri Western Athletics
 4525 Downs Dr St Joseph, MO 64507
Division 2 Missouri Midwest
Public Medium Developing team
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Coaches

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Jessica Berg

Berg came to MWSU after wrapping up her playing career at Regis University in Denver. She earned First Team All-America, All-Region and All-Conference honors as a senior and was named the 2021 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Midfielder of the Year. Berg scored 33 goals, had five assists, 62 ground balls, 116 draw controls and 50 caused turnovers as she helped the Rangers to a 14-2 record, an RMAC championship and a berth in the NCAA Division II Tournament. She was also named the RMAC All-Academic Player of the Year.


Berg, a Colorado Springs native, spent three seasons at Regis and started 34 of the 37 games she played in. She finished with 59 goals, 11 assists, 139 ground balls, 96 caused turnovers and 172 draw controls. Berg helped the Rangers to a 36-5 record over those three seasons that included a shortened 2020 campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Regis won two RMAC titles during her career as they went 17-0 in league games and made two trips to the NCAA Tournament, including a national semifinal appearance in 2019.


Prior to playing at Regis, Berg spent three seasons (2016-2018) playing club lacrosse at Colorado State University. She was named a WCLA First Team All-American all three seasons, WCLA Midfielder of the Year in 2017 and made a WCLA national semifinal appearance in 2016.


Berg began her collegiate career playing field hockey at Syracuse University. She played one season for the Orange, appeared in seven games and helped Syracuse to the 2014 national championship game.


The interim tag was taken off of Berg after she led Missouri Western to an 8-9 overall record and a 2-5 mark in the GLVC in 2022.


On March 28 the program had its first-ever Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Offensive Player of the Week Mikaela Ness. The then-freshman midfielder for Griffon Lacrosse was the first player in the team's short history to receive this honor. In a recent game against Davis & Elkins on March 25, Ness scored five goals on her birthday, which is the most in a game by any MWSU player that season. Her outstanding performance helped Griffon Lacrosse win their fifth consecutive game, completing a sweep of their spring break schedule.


In their 3-0 road win swing, she tallied nine points with eight goals and one assist. Her shots-on-goal percentage was posted at .727 (8-of-11). Against regional team Davis & Elkins, she scored five goals and contributed seven draw controls, four ground balls and three caused turnovers.


In 2023, Berg led her team to their first-ever appearance in the postseason conference tournament with a program-best 9-8 overall record and a 3-3 record in the GLVC.


Junior goalkeeper Mackenzie Porter received two Defensive Player of the Week awards during the regular season - a first for the program. For the first award, the team suffered an 11-7 loss to the eighth-ranked Regis team on March 2nd but bounced back with an 11-5 win against Colorado-Colorado Springs on March 5th. Porter's outstanding performances in both games, with 22 saves and a .579 save percentage, earned her the award. Notably, she made a game and season-high 16 saves out of 30 shots against Regis, achieving an outstanding .593 save percentage. The team also set a single-game program record with 12 ground balls against Regis, showcasing their defensive efforts throughout the week.


In the first week of April, the team won a 13-9 victory against Concordia-St. Paul on March 31st and an 11-6 win against Quincy on April 1st. Porter's 17 saves in both games, with a .567 save percentage, helped secure both wins despite facing 38 shots from the opposing teams. The team also excelled in ground ball control, with ten ground balls and a caused turnover in these matches.


As a result of her exceptional skills, Porter was nominated by her team for the Athletic Department's Female Student-Athlete of the Year at the 2023 Golden Griffons Award Ceremony.

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Hailey Bennett

The 2024 season will be Missouri Western's first with a three-person coaching staff, building on the team's best season to date after etching a 9-8 record in 2023. Bennett built her career at Shepherd University, an NCAA Division II program in the Mountain East Conference that just turned a decade old during her final season, giving her a sense of what it's like to be the new kid on the block.


Bennett spent five seasons at Shepherd as a goalkeeper, finishing as the program's all-time saves leader with 705. A former All-MEC First Team selection, Bennett will specialize in coaching goalies, giving further guidance to the Griffons' current all-time goals leader, three-time All-GLVC Second Team player Mackenzie Porter. Thanks to her historic career at Shepherd, Bennett is someone Berg believes can bolster this team's current rise through the GLVC.

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