KSU hires inaugural women’s lacrosse coach

Kennesaw State named Kristina Llanes the first coach of their women’s lacrosse team Wednesday. Llanes comes to the Owls with seven years of coaching experience and was most recently the head coach at Presbyterian College. She spent three years at Presbyterian and churned out four National Lacrosse Conference All-Conference selections and severn All-Academic selections. She also coached the Blue Hose to the best record in the program’s history in 2011.

Director of Athletics Vaughn Williams introduced Llanes today at the KSU Convocation Center.

“Kristina brings to Kennesaw State a great understanding of women’s lacrosse in the Southeast because she has already coached and recruited here,” said Williams today at the press conference. “We are very fortunate to have Coach Llanes as a new member of the coaching staff here at KSU. She has great experience in building a program from the ground up which makes her a perfect fit. her passion and drive to help Kennesaw State reach its full potential in women’s lacrosse is exactly what we are looking for as del become a player in the Division I lacrosse community.”

The team will begin play in the spring of 2013 and play all home games in KSU Stadium, a facility that was named a “Facility to Check Out” by the NCAA. The team’s first game will be April 7 against Jacksonville. Kennesaw State will make history as the first Division I women’s lacrosse program in Georgia history.

MAKING HISTORY

The Diamond Owls made school history when they reached the Atlantic Sun Championship game against Belmont over the weekend. The Owls fell 10-4 to the Bruins, who sealed their second consecutive title. Kennesaw’s offense was powered by Max Pentecost and Ronnie Freeman, who got the team on the board with their first two runs of the game. The tide would turn in the fifth inning when the Bruins scored four runs to gain a 6-2 lead that they would not relinquish.

Even though the season ended in a loss, the team can take solace in the fact that it notched a program-record 34 wins this season. Freeman, who batted .300 during the course of the tournament, received A-Sun All-Tournament honors along with two of his teammates. Aaron Dobbs batted .409 during the conference tournament to garner his place on the squad and Andy Chriscaden set a tournament record with seven RBI against FGCU to receive his place on the all-tournament team.

HURDLER QUALIFIES

The Kennesaw State track and field programs enjoyed a successful weekend at the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Championships East Preliminary Rounds but no one more than Kendal Parks. Parks finished ninth in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 13.75 to qualify for the NCAA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. The time was also a school record. The Owls Men’s 4×100 relay time narrowly missed qualifying for the championship with a time of 40.34. The time was a school record but fell .27 seconds short of a qualifying time.