SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The 11th-ranked Slippery Rock University women's lacrosse team will open the 2026 season Wednesday with a 4 p.m. home game against Ashland University at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.
GAME PROGRAM INFO
Slippery Rock has moved away from printed game programs. This page will serve as the "Digital Game Program" for this week's game. To navigate to all gameday info for any SRU home events this year, simply visit
rockathletics.com/gameday or scan the QR code on the "Gameday Info" posters hanging in each facility.
SPECTATOR INFO
There will be no parking charges for this game. Fans are reminded that there are
NO PETS allowed in any SRU athletics facilities. Please do not bring dogs or any other pets to the game. You will be asked to remove your pet from the facility. Parking is available on a first-come basis in the lots immediately surrounding the stadium.
LIVE COVERAGE
• Live Stats:
LINK
• Live Video: LINK
WATCH ON YOUR TV - "ROCK ATHLETICS DIGITAL NETWORK" APPS
• Fans can watch the game live and on-demand for free on the Rock Athletics Digital Network, created and operated by the SRU Athletic Communication Office.
• Search for "Rock Athletics Digital Network" in the app stores on Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku and Android TV devices.
GAME 1 DETAILS
• Opponent: Ashland University
• Date: Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026 | 4 p.m.
• Location: Mihalik-Thompson Stadium | Slippery Rock, Pa.
• All-Time Series: Slippery Rock leads 2-0
• Current Streak: Slippery Rock +2
• Last Meeting: May 3, 1978 at Ashland | SRU won 19-1
NATIONAL RANKINGS | IWLCA | USA Lacrosse Magazine
Slippery Rock opened the year ranked No. 8 in the IWLCA preseason national poll and No. 5 in the USA Lacrosse Magazine poll. With some teams already playing as many as four games, The Rock have slipped down to No. 11 in this week's IWLCA national poll and No. 9 in the USA Lacrosse Magazine poll, despite playing a game yet. Ashland is unranked in both polls.
RECORDS
Slippery Rock will play its first game of the season Wednesday. Ashland comes into the game with a 1-0 record after opening its season last Saturday with a comfortable 18-6 home win over 2025 Mountain East Conference runner-up Charleston.
ALL-TIME SERIES | Game-by-Game Scores
Slippery Rock is 2-0 in the all-time series against Ashland, but the teams have not met in the modern era. The first meeting in the series was 50 years ago in 1976 and that was followed by a second meeting in 1978, well before SRU dropped the sport in 1991 and brought it back in 2007. The Rock won both meetings, 16-6 at home in 1976 and 19-1 on the road at Ashland in 1978.
TWO NCAA PLAYOFF TEAMS FROM 2025
Wednesday's season opener for Slippery Rock will be its toughest opening game in decades with reigning Great Midwest Athletic Conference champion Ashland coming to town. Both The Rock and the Eagles were NCAA Playoff teams a year ago with SRU advancing to the national semifinals and Ashland bowing out in the first round with a loss to Regis.
PRESEASON FAVORITES
Both of these two teams were picked to win their respective conferences this year in preseason coaches polls. Ashland was selected to repeat as GMAC champions, while SRU was picked to repeat as the PSAC West champion.
SLIPPERY ROCK PRIMER
• Overall Record: 0-0 (18-3 in 2025)
• PSAC Record: 0-0 (10-0 in 2025)
• Home Record: 0-0 (6-0 in 2025)
• Away Record: 0-0 (11-2 in 2025)
• Streak: L1 (NCAA semifinals in 2025)
• Last Five Games: 4-1 (dating back to 2025)
• Head Coach: Taryn Burkholder (5th season, Niagara '12) | Record: 53-21
WINS IN 16 STRAIGHT SEASON OPENERS
Slippery Rock is looking for a season-opening win for the 17th straight season. The Rock have not lost their first game of the season since 2009, when the program was just in its third season of Division II competition.
HOME OPENER WIN STREAK
Slippery Rock has won its first home game of the year in each of the last 13 seasons. The last time The Rock lost their home opener was March 15, 2011, to No. 8 Gannon University, a 13-10 defeat.
2025 QUICK RECAP
Slippery Rock is coming off the best season in program history with an 18-3 overall record and a trip to the national semifinals last year. The Rock went 10-0 in PSAC West play to win the regular season division title and reached the PSAC title game for the first time since the program returned to NCAA status in 2007. After a loss at undefeated West Chester in the PSAC title game, SRU bounced back to win the Atlantic Region title and knock off No. 1 seed West Chester in the NCAA quarterfinals two weeks later, securing the first regional title in program history. The Rock narrowly missed out on a spot in the national title game, falling to annual power Adelphi 15-13 in the national semifinals.
BACK-TO-BACK 15-WIN SEASONS
Slippery Rock set the program record for wins in season with a 15-4 overall record in 2024 and then topped that with an 18-3 mark in 2025. The Rock have won 33 games over the last two seasons, putting up a 33-7 overall record.
FOUR STRAIGHT 10-WIN SEASONS
Last spring marked the fourth straight 10-win season for Slippery Rock, marking the first time in program history the team has strung together four consecutive seasons with at least 10 wins.
TWO-TIME COACHING STAFF OF THE YEAR
Slippery Rock will enter the 2026 season with the same coaching staff for the fifth year in a row with head coach
Taryn Burkholder and assistant coach
Jordan Anderson both returning. That duo is the most successful coaching staff in program history and was named the Atlantic Region Staff of the Year in each of the last two years. Burkholder is the two-time reigning PSAC West Coach of the Year and Anderson was named the Division II Outstanding Assistant Coach nationally following the 2025 season. Burkholder has led the team to at least 10 wins in all four years at the helm and enters this year with a 53-21 record at SRU. She has led the program to the two highest single-season win totals in school history over the last two years with a 15-4 record in 2024 and an 18-3 mark in 2025.
THREE PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS
Slippery Rock had three players named to the USA Lacrosse Magazine Preseason All-America team this week, headlined by first team defender
Paige Jenkins. Attacker
Grace Rotter was named to second team honors and goalie
Lily Ventresca was named to the honorable mention squad. All three women were named to at least one All-America team after the 2025 season with Jenkins becoming the first SRU player in program history to earn coaches association first team All-America honors. Rotter was also named to the coaches association third team and Ventresca picked up USA Lacrosse Magazine honorable mention recognition.
JENKINS BACK TO LEAD DEFENSE
Junior
Paige Jenkins was named the PSAC West Defensive Athlete of the Year last year and picked up her second straight All-PSAC and All-Region honors. In two seasons, she has racked up 64 caused turnovers, 136 draw controls and 66 ground balls. Jenkins will lead a new-look defense for SRU after the graduations of defenders
Nicole Masi,
Amelia Nitsche,
Victoria Ziemba and
Hailey Ohlsen.
Mckenzie Murphy returns to join Jenkins after starting 11 games last year. The other defensive spots will be filled by new starters with returners
Gemma Sciarroni and
Alexis Krohmalney being joined by freshmen
Violet Freebody,
Gianna Vallese,
Danielle Raymond and
Lily Fazio.
BACK ON ATTACK
Senior
Grace Rotter headlines the returning attackers and The Rock will welcome back all four of its top point scorers from a year ago. Rotter put up 82 points last year, the second most in a season in program history, with 53 goals and 29 assists.
Abby Fink and
Reagan Richeson also return after both tallying career-highs of 50 goals last year with Fink also handing out 13 assists and Richeson tallying 10 assists. That threesome became the first trio in program history to all net 50 goals in a single season.
Isabella Buono is also back after scoring a career-high 49 points on 31 goals and 18 assists to rank fourth on the team in scoring. SRU enters this season with no freshmen true attackers with all nine attackers on the roster being returners.
Ava Dossier (11g, 10a),
Maddie Blazey (6g, 6a),
Lauren Petty (2g),
Claire Petty (1g, 1) and
Shannon Von Kaenel (1g, 1a) all tallied points a year ago.
DRAW SPECIALIST
SRU returns draw specialist
Shannon Von Kaenel, who also plays spurts on attack. Von Kaenel helped SRU to be one of the top draw teams in the country last year with The Rock outdrawing opponents 324-228 on the season. She personally nabbed 81 draws and helped
Leora Owings to rack up 140 draws on the year.
NEW FACES AT MIDDIE
One question for SRU this year will be who takes over in the midfield, where the graduations of All-American
Leora Owings and do-it-all standout
Eryn Little will be felt. Owings, who is actually a volunteer assistant on the Ashland coaching staff this year, pulled down 140 draws to go along with 49 points and Little racked up 25 goals and was SRU's most consistent free position shooter. Senior captain
Sydney Ulmer and fellow seniors
Erin Melcher and
Ella Koslowski both return, along with junior
Brooke Walters and sophomores
Cadyn Eismann and
Laurelle Surette. That group will be joined by freshmen
Caitlyn Kelly,
Aleigha Dubroc,
Amara Langstaff and
Madi Leach.
NO CHANGE IN GOAL
Slippery Rock welcomes back both of its goalies from a year ago in junior
Lily Ventresca and senior
Ava Drath. That duo combined to post an 18-3 record with an 8.60 goals against average and a .405 save percentage last season. Ventresca set the SRU single-season record for wins and went 16-1.
CAPTAINS
The Rock named three captains for the year with
Sydney Ulmer,
Isabella Buono and
Ava Drath set to serve as the team captains.
SRU PLAYERS IN TOP 20 IN CAREER RECORD BOOK
•
Paige Jenkins – 136 draw controls (No. 8 at SRU – needs 10 to move up to No. 7)
•
Reagan Richeson – 89 goals (No. 13 at SRU – needs 2 to move up to No. 12)
•
Shannon Von Kaenel – 84 draw controls (No. 15 at SRU – needs 13 to move up to No. 14)
•
Paige Jenkins – 64 caused turnovers (No. 15 at SRU – needs 1 to move up to No. 14)
•
Grace Rotter – 29 assists (No. 16 at SRU – needs 1 to move up to No. 14)
•
Reagan Richeson – 104 points (No. 19 at SRU – needs 4 to move up to No. 17)
UPCOMING STAT MILESTONES FOR SRU
•
Maddie Blazey: 11 points away from 50
•
Isabella Buono: 1 goal away from 50
•
Isabella Buono: 30 points away from 100
•
Ava Dossier: 18 points away from 50
•
Abby Fink: 2 points away from 75
•
Abby Fink: 17 goals away from 75
•
Abby Fink: 12 GB away from 50
•
Paige Jenkins: 14 DC away from 150
•
Paige Jenkins: 11 CT away from 75
•
Paige Jenkins: 9 GB away from 75
•
Erin Melcher: 12 points away from 50
•
Reagan Richeson: 21 PTS away from 125
•
Reagan Richeson: 11 goals away from 100
•
Reagan Richeson: 9 GB away from 50
•
Grace Rotter: 18 points away from 100 *
•
Lily Ventresca: 12 GB away from 50
•
Shannon Von Kaenel: 16 DC away from 100
* Rotter scored 33 points on 21 goals and 12 assists at Notre Dame College before transferring to SRU after the 2024 season
ASHLAND PRIMER
• Overall Record: 1-0 (14-6 in 2025)
• GMAC Record: 0-0 (8-0 in 2025)
• Home Record: 1-0 (8-3 in 2025)
• Away Record: 0-0 (5-2 in 2025)
• Streak: W1
• Last Five Games: 4-1 (dating back to 2025)
• Head Coach: Lauren Simko (5th season, Lees-McRae '11) | Record: 40-34
SCOUTING THE EAGLES
Ashland is led by head coach Lauren Simko in her fifth season. Simko led the program to its first GMAC title and first NCAA postseason tournament appearance in 2025. She has improved in each season at Ashland, going from six wins in 2022 to nine in 2023, 11 in 2024 and 14 in 2025.
Ashland returned all seven of its All-GMAC players from last season, including the GMAC Attacker of the Year in Ashley Fisher, the GMAC Goalie of the Year in Annie Duncan and the GMAC Midfielder and Freshman of the Year in Toni Wanat. The Eagles also returned first team attacker Rachel Crumbacher, first team defender Lauren Hinders, second team attacker Ashley Drexler and second team defender Lily Holmes.
The opener was a dominant performance in the win over Charleston as Ashland outshot their opponents 31-17 and posted a 20-6 advantage in draw controls. A total of 12 players recorded points in the win, led by Ashley Drexler with seven points on three goals and four assists. Rachel Crumbacher added two goals and three assists, Tori Wanat chipped in three goals and one assist and Ashley Fisher and Carlie Wilson each scored a hat trick.
Annie Duncan played 45 minutes in goal in the opener, allowing three goals and recording six saves. Ainsley Witte and Cate Curran both saw limited minutes in the final quarter, combining to allow three goals with two saves.
NEXT UP
Slippery Rock will hit the road for one of the most highly anticipated early season games in Division II with a trip to No. 5 West Chester Saturday for a 1 p.m. game in a rematch of last year's PSAC and Atlantic Region title games. The teams split those titles a year ago, with West Chester winning the PSAC title before SRU upset the top seeded Golden Rams in the NCAA quarterfinals, handing WCU its only loss of the 2025 season.
To stay up to date with all that happens at The Rock, follow our official athletic communication accounts on 'X' (formerly Twitter, @Rock_Athletics), Facebook (RockAthletics) and Instagram (RockAthletics).
