'Mama Bear' Kristen Shanahan Ends Notre Dame Career on Own Terms

Kristen Shanahan wanted nothing more than to end her lacrosse career on her own terms.

The Notre Dame attacker had endured a whirlwind first four seasons in South Bend before she pondered whether to take a graduate year in 2025. As a freshman, Shanahan tore her left ACL and missed the 2021 season. Eight games into her sophomore year, she broke her hip. While gearing up for her senior season, Shanahan suffered another torn ACL and tore her labrum.

“I had no idea if I was going to be able to play again,” Shanahan said. “I got double surgeries, going under, and you don’t know if you’re going to be able to move again like you [could]. It was in April [2024], I was off crutches and decided I didn’t want an injury to define my last few minutes. I wanted to take off my cleats with my best friends, knowing we gave it all we had.”

Shanahan, who joined the Fighting Irish as a highly touted recruit from Long Island, was the lone graduate student on Notre Dame’s roster this season.

Five years after her career began, Shanahan stepped into a captain’s role, helping guide a young Fighting Irish squad through a realigned ACC schedule. Shanahan said she couldn’t have reached the milestone without the backing of her family, teammates, coaches and support staff.

“When my family wasn’t able to come out all the time when I was injured, my teammates were my family,” Shanahan said. “They celebrated every little milestone I would have. They truly were my anchor. It wasn’t just about me. I wanted to get back to play for them — to play for my family again.”

In just her second season with a clean bill of health, Shanahan scored 27 goals and tallied 14 assists as she finished second on her team’s points leaderboard. She made her presence felt right away, scoring a hat trick in her Feb. 7 opener at Northwestern.

“[With] everything she did this year, obviously the stats being our second leading scorer and coming back from multiple injuries, what’s going to be left behind is this legacy of love for the sport, respect for self and the entire team and an undying love for Notre Dame,” coach Christine Halfpenny said.

The Fighting Irish experienced their fair share of growing pains in their first season in more than a half-decade sans Jackie Wolak, Madison Ahern and Kasey Choma. They dropped five defeats decided by two goals or less and fell in four one-score games.

But Shanahan said her young teammates, many of whom experienced stacked losses for the first time in their careers, never stopped battling. Although she had chipped in 29 points during Notre Dame’s 2023 NCAA quarterfinal run as a junior, her final season that ended well before May’s arrival marked a clear standout.

“This will be an experience that I keep with me for a lifetime,” Shanahan said. “This year specifically has been the most fun lacrosse that I’ve ever played. I had my best friends with me last year, graduating in a class of 11. But this year, having such a young team, they brought out so much joy every single day.”

This past Saturday, the Fighting Irish — who were mathematically eliminated from an ACC tournament berth following a 13-12 loss to Pitt on April 12 — trotted out to Arlotta Stadium one final time against Louisville.

For Shanahan, the game marked the final chapter of a winding collegiate path.

“I don’t think there will ever be enough words to thank her for what she has done,” Halfpenny said. “That was kind of my closing remarks to thank Kristen for everything she has given to this program — blood, sweat, tears, surgery, captaincy, being the mama bear of the team but also an executor. It’s like poetic justice. The final goal of her career was a beaut.”

Shanahan recorded five points in her last college contest, bookending her career with a last-second goal in a 17-6 victory.

“Being able to end my career on Arlotta, in our white uniforms with Notre Dame across our chest, that last-second goal was just the right timing in the right place,” Shanahan said. “My whole entire family was there, all my siblings, friends, grandparents, my teammates. I left the girls with, ‘This may be the end of my career, but it’s only the beginning of our forever friendships.’”

While the results didn’t always fall in Notre Dame’s favor this season, Shanahan actualized her dream career conclusion. The Fighting Irish embodied a battle-tested spirit throughout a challenging campaign, and Shanahan wrote the latter stages of her lacrosse journey just as she envisioned.

On her terms.

NEW FLAIR AT GEORGETOWN

Georgetown coach Caitlyn Phipps knew what she was getting into when she departed her longtime assistant coaching role at Maryland and stepped into the helm of a program in limbo.

For two decades, the Hoyas had one head coach on their sideline. But when Ricky Fried retired in August, one of his former U.S. National Team players jumped at the opportunity to build a championship legacy in the nation’s capital.

In her first season as a Division I head coach, Phipps said she has looked to mesh longstanding tradition with a new flair. With one regular-season game remaining, Georgetown has amassed a 9-6 record, including a 4-1 Big East resume. The Hoyas are one of three teams tied for the conference’s top spot.

“This team is really resilient,” Phipps said. “Change can be really hard, especially with different ways to approach the game. We’ve been running different defenses. They’ve been resilient with everything we’ve thrown at them.”

After taking on a slew of non-conference tests up the Baltimore-Washington Parkway — including Towson, Maryland, Johns Hopkins and Loyola — Georgetown dropped its conference opener to Denver in a 16-13 defeat on March 29. Since that point, the Hoyas have won four consecutive Big East games.

Phipps credited her team’s ability to weather a variety of in-game challenges. She said Georgetown’s steady improvement can be traced back to the practice field.

“Everything we’ve tried to do, they’ve really embraced,” Phipps said. “We really try to give them the confidence to make mistakes, so they can learn from it. That’s how you grow as a player and as a team, trying new things, making mistakes and learning from them.”

In their final home game last Saturday, the Hoyas fended off a late push from Marquette, prevailing 14-13. Nine different Georgetown players recorded goals in the team’s Senior Day victory.

For Phipps, it’s a testament to the Hoyas’ attacking depth.

“It’s been huge for us offensively to have so many people capable of putting the ball in the back of the net,” she said. “No matter who the seven are that we have on attack, we want them to be dangerous.”

Georgetown will close its regular season Saturday in Storrs, where Phipps’ squad will face UConn. Already matching their most wins since 2022 and on pace for their first winning season since 2019, the Hoyas will look to secure a fifth conference win to help bolster their seed in the Big East tournament.

BY THE NUMBERS

16 • Points for Penn midfielder Anna Brandt in her past three games, all of which were wins for the Quakers.

7 • Goals for Paige Harman in a pivotal 18-17 Furman win over Mercer on Wednesday.

14 • Saves for Shea Dolce in No. 2 Boston College’s 17-7 ACC tournament win over No. 5 Virginia on Wednesday.

11 • Consecutive victories for No. 4 Florida, which has breezed through the inaugural season of Big 12 play.

27-0 • No. 6 Maryland’s all-time record against No. 10 Johns Hopkins following their most recent clash on Saturday.