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North Carolina rallied its recruits for a preseason camp in Lake Placid, New York, a week before the school year started. On the turf stood Mackenzie Rich, a confident and naive incoming freshman.

But all she remembers from camp is her torn ACL and the nagging pain plaguing her knee afterward.

Rich’s foot was in a cast soon after the injury. Her parents, Tony and Jennifer Rich, took Rich’s car and embarked on the five-hour trek back home to Ithaca. Their daughter laid in the backseat, her leg extended throughout the entirety of the drive. She was told she’d require surgery, delaying her arrival to campus.

As Rich hobbled into the back of a rented van and laid on a mattress, venturing from Ithaca to Chapel Hill over a week later, she realized the harsh truth. She’d be set back at least one year. That one year stretched into four, sinking her down Syracuse’s depth chart after she transferred.

But Rich’s patience paid off. After enduring two seasons on the Orange’s scout team, she was thrust into the starting lineup early this year against Loyola and hasn’t left since. She leads SU in assists (19) and ranks second on the Orange in points (30), demonstrating her potential as its ultimate passer in her fifth and final season.

After scoring throughout her career, Rich couldn’t imagine assisting would be the trait that solidified her spot on a top-three team in the country.

“I was way more of a dodger than a feeder,” Rich said.

She was always fast, which is why her parents introduced her to the Ithaca Little Red youth team at age 5. That speed is also the reason she got called up to varsity in seventh grade, where, unlike in college, playing time was never a question.

Mackenzie Rich walks across the JMA Wireless Dome turf during Syracuse’s March 28 win over Pitt. In SU’s victory over the Panthers, Rich had a career-high seven points. Tara Deluca | Asst. Photo Editor

After Ithaca High School extended its losing streak against Corning-Painted to 17 years in the sectional finals, Rich, then a middle schooler, went rogue. Tony said she didn’t talk to him for two days. He searched around the house for her that night, shouting, “Where’s Mackenzie?”

He should’ve checked outside. He would’ve found her irate, shooting on goal outside.

Soon after the loss, Rich wrote a note on the wall of her bedroom. It read: “No. 1 goal: Beat Corning next year. No. 2 goal: Beat Corning next year.”

Rich never lost to the Hawks again. She used her athleticism to launch a 140-goal barrage in her underclassmen years for Ithaca. Its next coach, Kaitlyn Hoffay, said she’d never seen a more athletic and polished seventh grader who was prepared for the next level.

“Holy crap,” Tony said. “Our daughter’s legit.”

Rich said she bled orange her whole life, but a 70-degree day during her tour at UNC led her to choose the Tar Heels. The fact that Rich’s best friend, Alecia Nichols, was becoming North Carolina’s goalie also swayed her south, said Kate Noel, a recruiting coordinator at Rich’s Syracuse-based Salt City Snipers.

But the aforementioned ACL tear — already Rich’s second, along with a meniscus tear earlier in her career — was a shot to the heart. She’d be set back further than she could ever imagine.

“People sit back and are like, ‘Okay. The hard work is done,’” Rich said. “The hardest part is going to college.”

Redshirting her freshman season was far from what Rich desired, but she was relieved it temporarily lifted the pressure. Instead of attending fall practices, Rich rehabbed for four hours each day. When Rich returned the next year, she found herself in a meager role with three braces and nine total goals.

“I would come in if we needed a spark,” Rich said. “It was nice I was playing, but you’re still not in that starting spot.”

Her time at UNC didn’t play out as Rich had hoped, so she decided Syracuse was the best spot to revive her career. She’d be closer to her parents and could reenter “Cuse culture.”

She seemed to find her footing, playing in SU’s first five games. But more setbacks — mono and the flu — ended her redshirt sophomore season. Rich only recorded two points in her first two years at Syracuse, and received even less playing time in the latter campaign thanks to the arrival of a loaded 2024 recruiting class.

Still, Rich stayed positive and didn’t mind having to “sulk” on the sidelines, she said. As long as she contributed to winning — which she did on SU’s scout team — Rich didn’t bat an eye. The camaraderie she had with teammates in similar situations uplifted her, and watching her squad’s two deep NCAA Tournament runs couldn’t have made her happier.

“I love scout team,” Rich said. “I always say it’s my Super Bowl.”

As Inside Lacrosse’s No. 92 recruit in the class of 2021, Rich spending four years primarily on the sidelines was unexpected. Somebody with her electrifying speed and dodging skills couldn’t go to waste.

Syracuse’s old coaching staff saw Rich as a midfielder, since her speed permitted her to play both sides of the ball. But new head coach Regy Thorpe and assistant coach Nicole Levy viewed Rich as the quintessential attack to generate goals.

To Hoffay, the switch has been a long time coming.

“There was one play where we would have (Rich) at X by herself, and everyone else would pull high and pull away,” Hoffay said. “It was a feeding look, but she got to decide if she was going right or going left, and she would go back and forth 150 times. Everybody else was stunned.”

That play Hoffay was referring to ended with an assist to future Boston College defender Shea Baker. It’s a tactic Rich employs to this day, primarily setting up at X to feed a crashing Molly Guzik, who coincidentally leads the Orange in scoring.

Ilyan Sarech | Design Editor

Rich has assisted Guzik nine times this season, more than any other combination of Syracuse players. But that wouldn’t have been possible if, after the Orange’s three season-opening losses, Levy hadn’t called Rich to break the news she’d start.

“At the start, I honestly thought I was going to be on the bench again,” Rich said.

With Levy working with the offense, she’s arranged it so the three attacks — Rich, Guzik and Caroline Trinkaus — each have midfield experience. Rich’s responsibilities are simplified to waiting for offense to unfold from X, a departure from her score-first mindset.

“One word I’ve used this year a lot is ‘calm,’” Rich said. “You can be really competitive but calm when you play. The patience on the sideline has helped me this year.”

She doesn’t even pinpoint last Saturday’s win over Pittsburgh as her crowning moment, when she accrued a career-high seven points and her third-ever hat trick. Rich said she was having too much fun to notice.

Rather, Rich’s proudest accomplishment came against her former squad, while she was still on the scout team. Surely enough, she scored.

“That was a great feeling,” Rich said. “It’s obviously always weird playing your old team. It was a full-circle moment, and my family was in the crowd.”

Seeing the turf sometimes doesn’t sit right with Rich. In her mind, she’s still the girl navigating her way on the scout team.

Even on that phone call with Levy, something felt incomplete. The breakthrough felt unnatural to Rich. She still belonged elsewhere in her mind. So, before she hung up to begin her voyage as a nailed-in starter, she left Levy with one final query.

“But I can still play scout, right?”

“Yes, you can still play scout,” Levy replied.

Published on April 7, 2026 at 11:31 pm
Contact Jason: jaglick@syr.edu | @jason_glick