You want the bad news first, or the worse news?

The bad news — if you’re anything but a Boston College fan — is that Kenzie Kent is back at full speed for the Eagles, a team that has played in each of the last two national championship games.

Kent, you may recall, was the leading scorer on BC’s run to the 2017 title game, not just for her team, nor just for that year’s tournament, but in any NCAA tournament in history, men’s or women’s. She tallied 37 points in the Eagles’ playoff drive, 10 in the final against Maryland. The all-time record had been 26.

Expected to be a dominant force in 2018, she instead redshirted, devoting herself first to playing for the BC hockey team and then to simply recovering for a year.

Here, though, is the really bad news, according to Kent:

“This fall, I’ve learned more about lacrosse than I have in my entire life,” she said.

Without hockey soaking up her late summer and fall, Kent has spent more hours and days playing lacrosse than she ever had before.

“It’s a completely different mindset for me, because I had so long to prepare for [this season]. In hockey you can go out for an extra hour after practice, doing extra shots and working with coaches. That’s how I developed in hockey, and that’s what I was missing in lax.”

In other words, Kent believes she’s not just back, but far better.

“I’m excited to let myself go, lacrosse-wise,” she said.

The team she has stepped back into is a virtual laboratory for lacrosse offense. Kent rejoins All-American teammates Sam Apuzzo, the reigning Tewaaraton Award winner, and Dempsey Arsenault. Though both are seniors, this fall has been the first time Kent and Apuzzo have teamed in offseason play. Watching Apuzzo’s endless repertoire of moves, Kent said, has been revelatory for her own game.

“I learn from her every day,” Kent said. “Like going up from X, faking shooting around and then pulling back and shooting behind the back. I was like, ‘Oh, I can use that, even if I don’t really do that.’ People are going behind the back from all these different angles. That’s something I need to catch up on.”

And if every lab needs a mad scientist, Boston College has second-year assistant coach Kayla Treanor. The former three-time All American at Syracuse, Kent said, has spotted tiny holes in her techniques that she didn’t even realize were there.

“Some are so basic, it’s sad that I didn’t realize it before, stuff I had no idea that everyone does,” Kent said. “Like working on my footwork or more one-on-one stuff. Or no-look passes. When I pass, I’m just staring at my girl. We’ve been working on looking away.

“We don’t do that in hockey.”

This season will be Kent’s first full one with BC after missing the first half of her three earlier seasons for hockey. In fact, when Kent dominated Maryland in the 2017 NCAA title game so completely that she became the first person from the losing team ever named Most Outstanding Player, it was just her 30th game at BC, barely more than a single season worth of experience.

But after seven consecutive seasons as starter for two elite teams — four in hockey, three in lacrosse — Kent stepped away in 2017 for rest and recovery. It was harder than she expected.

“I never sat out before. I’d never been hurt,” Kent said. “I never understood how nervous you get. You kind of are sitting on the edge of your seat. It was hard for me not be on the field. You literally can’t do anything to help.”

Kent didn’t practice and kept to herself during games.

“I was either all in or all out,” she said. “So I just decided on a hands-off approach. I talked to the girls every day, but I didn’t want any focus on me in practices or anything.”

But Kent was ready for her gap year to end.

“At the beginning of August, I completely flipped the switch,” she said.

There is no question where Boston College expects to end up — with one more win that the last two years and its first-ever NCAA championship.

“We talk about winning a national championship every single day,” Kent said. “That is the message. What did we do wrong? How do we fix it? I think we are upping the ante in every cylinder possible.”

The bad news just keeps coming.