Beach bonding helps Stags reach NCAA Tournament
They are the best players at their position in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Kelly Horning and Maggie Reynolds are also senior captains of the Fairfield women’s lacrosse team.
Over the 14 months when COVID scattered collegiate sports before allowing it to slowly, piecemeal regather, the athletic ability and leadership of the two cannot be separated.
Horning, who leads the Stags with 36 goals, is the school’s first MAAC Midfielder of the Year. She will help lead the offense against fourth-seeded Boston College Friday in the NCAA Tournament.
“Kelly is the heart of our team,” Reynolds said. “She’s all over the field. She’s a stud on the offensive end. She’s a stud on the defensive end. She’s a great overall player.”
Horning, whose brother Charlie played at Fairfield and is part of an accomplished Maryland lacrosse family, is one of two players in the nation to average three points, three ground balls, two caused turnovers and four draw controls per game.
“Kelly is our motor,” Coach Laura Field said. “She’s noticeable all over the field. We used to joke when she was younger, she’d literally have stat lines in every single category. Sometimes the bad outweighed the good as a freshman. The last three years she has just been outstanding in our plus category.”
Reynolds, from another lacrosse-playing family on Long Island, is the MAAC Defensive Player of the Year. She follows former teammate Megan Beach, who won the award in 2019.
“Maggie’s the biggest girl we need on our defense every game,” Horning said “She marks their top attacker, usually shutting
them down. She’s easily the fastest girl on our team. She clears the ball for us 90 percent of the game and then goes on the other side of the field to make plays on offense.”
Reynolds anchors the Stags defense that led the MAAC with 10.3 goals allowed per game. She has picked up five assists in addition to the slew of turnovers she has forced.
“Maggie has been consistent her entire time at Fairfield,” Field said. “Once upon a time she was kind of a specialist, but whether she’s playing crease defense or playing defense on someone high, she has morphed into a multidimensional defender. She has had a huge impact on the league.”
The Stags had just returned from playing at Denver in March 2020. It was spring break. They had scuffled through a tough non-conference schedule, stood 2-5. On their way back to Connecticut, they had heard something may be brewing with cancellations.
“We decided to have kind of a fun practice thinking something may be coming,” Field said. “During practice I got the call from our athletic director. It was very difficult. The fall was very difficult.”
Which brings us to the Long Island Sound. Five of Fairfield’s seniors, tri-captains Reynolds, Horning, the injured Jillian Winwood, along with Hailey Durkin and Diana Devita live together on Fairfield Beach Road. A sixth senior, Reagan Bossolina lives down the street.
“It’s a lot of fun and especially with COVID we could hang out together through quarantine,” Reynolds said. “Living under one roof, you can just go downstairs and hang out. It definitely brought us close together and we were able to talk amongst ourselves on what we can do as far as bringing in the other groups and grades together under the COVID rules.”
If you took a look at the sidelines, Field said, you’d be sure to notice Winwood, who tore her ACL for a second time.
“Jill is in charge,” Field said. “She’s dialed in more than she probably was as a player, getting the underclassmen involved and engaged. All three of them have gone out of their way to know and spend time with underclassmen.
“When you live off campus in a pandemic, no inperson class, it’s hard. They prioritized doing what we can to spend a little time on the field, have meals, talk on the bus, organize ourselves, whatever authentic time they can spend within the rules. I can’t stress how hard that is. It’s not something we asked them to do. They took it upon themselves.”
The main goal, the players agreed, was winning the MAAC for a third time in a row. There was another.
“Our freshman year we were always thankful for the way the seniors made us comfortable and feel part of the team,” Horning said. “Our class made that a goal.”
Who knew as freshmen it would include COVID protocol?
“We had a rough patch in the fall as far as school guidelines,” Reynolds said. “Shutting down, getting paused. We wanted to make sure the freshman felt like they were involved. They were locked up in their dorm rooms and didn’t know anyone else on the team. So we had little activities within the rules. We mixed in grades. We called them our little families. It was definitely a challenge. But whether it was eating outside or meeting at our house we made it work.”
The Stags are 13-1, all within the MAAC. They avenged their only defeat to Siena in the league championship on Sunday. With schools playing all or nearly all their games within the conference this year, it’s difficult to know exactly where everyone stands heading into NCAAs. Fairfield and UConn, which plays Virginia on Friday, are among the nine also receiving votes in the Top 20 Poll. BC is fourth. Virginia is 16th.
“Until February, it didn’t feel like a normal season,” Field said. “The good news is once we started getting practices in — we had two weeks to get ready for the first game — this is, where led by the seniors, we jelled fast.
“It made a huge difference and we were able to get better during the season and peaked at the right time.”
Reynolds, a marketing major with a minor in finance, graduates in a week. She is undecided if she will take advantage of the NCAA COVID rule to play an extra year.
Horning, a sociology major with an education minor, decided to do a fifthyear graduate program for education. Staying and playing in 2022 is an easy decision.
Horning grew up around the game. Her dad Charlie was an outstanding player at Mount St. Mary’s. He coached Georgetown Prep for a time.
“My dad always had lacrosse sticks in our hands when we were younger in the backyard,” Kelly said. “I started playing in kindergarten. I always played sports growing up, soccer, basketball, but I always liked lacrosse a little more. I’m probably biased because of my dad.”
She thought she’d stay close to home for college. When her brother Charlie was looking to transfer from Villanova, she went up to Fairfield with him. She liked the campus, the beach. She later came up for a play day and was sold.
“At the time we didn’t have a whole lot of recruiting success South,” Field said. “Maryland kids didn’t come up in droves. The running joke is we got really lucky with Kelly.”
Charlie’s senior year was Kelly’s freshman year. That helped with some homesickness.
“I wanted to be in Maryland at first,” Horning said. “It was nice having him here, being five hours away from home. When I needed groceries or wanted to go to dinner he was always there, which was super nice.”
Reynolds is from across the Sound. Close enough for her family to get to all the games and get home when needed. Campus, coaches, players, beach, everything clicked for her. Before the recruiting rules changed, before ACTs, SATs, not even halfway through high school or knowing what she wanted for a career, she knew one thing.
“I wanted to play lacrosse,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds has four brothers. They all played. Maggie wanted to do anything her brothers did. She started with the boys in an indoor league before moving to girls in the third grade.
“Out of all the things you do as a young girl, like dance and stuff, I loved lacrosse and the competition,” she said.
With Reynolds an early commit, Field has known her since the 10th grade.
“I remember her walking around looking like a little kid on campus,” Field said.
Well, Horning and Reynolds are all grown up now and ready for their biggest challenge.
“One thing is true of both of them,” Field said. “They play their best against the best competition.”