On May 8th, 2024, the Malden High School girls’ lacrosse team gathered in Pine Banks, ready to face the Somerville lacrosse team in their 14th match this season. Junior Makenzie Jenkins was not just focused on the upcoming match, but rather on her potential achievement. Over the past three years, Jenkins has played lacrosse at a high school level and she was able to achieve over 140 goals by her sophomore year, leading her to become the fastest-growing goal scorer for girls lacrosse in Malden High School history.
Although she had already achieved so much in terms of her impact on both the school and the team, Jenkins yearned to reach 200 goals by the end of the 2023-2024 season. Her game right before Somerville, which was against Salem, put her in a great position to achieve her goal as she scored 3 goals, putting her at 195 goals overall. Going into one of the biggest games of the season for Jenkins, she noted that she had felt overwhelming feelings of nervousness and excitement due to her being the first lacrosse player in school history to reach 200 goals.
“It reminded me of how I felt when I hit my first 100 last year. Going into this game I was extremely nervous because I wanted to do my absolute best because this was a big moment for me, I was also worried that because I was focused on hitting 200, I would not play my best game,” Jenkins said.
But through her mental setbacks and heightened feelings of anxiousness both during and before the game, Jenkins ended up scoring five goals, allowing her to reach her dream of being the first Malden High School student to reach 200 goals. While reflecting on her incredible achievement, she noted that although she holds the record for the most goals she knows that “there is still so much more I need to work on for myself when I play lacrosse, but I’m really happy I was able to reach 200 goals.”
Jenkins’s excitement wasn’t only felt by her but by her teammates and friends around her as well. Jeslyn San, who has played alongside Jenkins since freshman year and recently hit 100 goals two games before the match against Somerville claims that she has “learned so much alongside her, and seeing how much she has grown really makes me proud to call her my teammate.” In addition to San’s appreciation for Jenkins, she highlighted that “she really does deserve this and I am so proud of her. Witnessing her reaching this milestone inspires me and everyone on the team to work hard.”
Maia Saeed, who is also another lacrosse player who has played alongside Jenkins since her freshman year agrees with San and further expresses, “It was an amazing moment seeing your teammate achieving 200 goals, especially since she is the first girl in Malden High School to achieve this. It was quite emotional watching her see how happy everyone was for her because she worked really hard and earned everything she has gotten.”
Even though Jenkins has less than 10 games left in the spring season, she hopes her team will be able to “make it to States and try our best for this year and the upcoming one.”
Jenkins’s positive outlook on her future in lacrosse is something that her mother, Tonia Jenkins, appreciates about her daughter as she noted that she hopes that she will “continue to grow as a player and reach her full potential over the next year. She loves being a part of the team, so we hope she can play lacrosse at the collegiate level at a great lacrosse program where she can play, thrive, and be happy.”
Jenkins reaching 200 goals, and breaking the school record while only being in her junior season has surely become one of the best moments of her lacrosse journey, with many more to come.
