Lacrosse Reloaded for 2026; Season Opens Sunday at No. 25 Notre Dame

Sunday, February 8

South Bend, Ind.

1 PM

Central Michigan University

Notre Dame

Photo by: Sydney Kline '26 - @sydney.kline.photography

Lacrosse Reloaded for 2026; Season Opens Sunday at No. 25 Notre Dame

2/5/2026 2:07:00 PM | Lacrosse

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New faces across the lineup for fourth-year Head Coach Emilia Ward

By: Harrison LaLone

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – A whole lot of new for Central Michigan lacrosse in 2026.

"We're a younger group," fourth-year coach Emilia Ward said. "We graduated 11 seniors last year, so I think in the early part of the season, (we're) really figuring out kind of our identity with this group, kind of where our strengths are going to be.

"Our depth and our versatility is huge, especially as an offensive group. Defensively, we're able to be a little more aggressive because we've got a little more depth, so I think we'll play a little faster than we have in the past, which is always exciting."

The Chippewas finished 5-10 a year ago and finished fifth in the Mid-American Conference Preseason poll.

Among the now-former Chippewas that Ward will look to replace are 2025 MAC Defensive Player of the Year Award winner Jozy Allen and 2024 MAC Goalkeeper of the Year Alexa Martel, CMU's career saves, wins and save percentage leader.

Senior Leila Kahler, Martel's backup for the past three seasons, steps into the spotlight.

"I honestly don't think I've changed anything about my daily routine," said Kahler, who has logged 200-plus minutes in seven career appearances. "Just coming in with the same mindset of any moment, any time. Your time to shine, so just keep pushing every single day, keep working hard. I think that's been my mentality the last three years as well."

Senior attacker Kelsey Barratt is the Chippewas' top returning scorer with 12 goals among 20 points (fourth on the team) last season, when the Chippewas dropped a 9-7 decision at Detroit Mercy in their season finale, missing out on a MAC Tournament berth.

"Our team motto this year is 110 percent," Barratt said. "What that means to us is never letting up, always going 110 percent in every moment of every game. It goes back to putting everything out there and leaving everything on the field that we can. We don't want to feel the same loss that we did in the last game of the season last year."

Among the other top returnees are sophomore midfielder Caye Kalbacher, sophomore defender Teagan Braman, and junior defender Ava Regitz, who in 2025 posted 27 caused turnovers, tying for the second most in program history.

Regitz earned Second Team All-MAC honors a year ago, while Kalbacher and Braman each earned a spot on the MAC All-Freshman squad.

The Chippewas open the season on Sunday, Feb. 8 at No. 25 Notre Dame. Their early season schedule includes a trip to No. 2 Northwestern, the defending national runner-up, and to Ann Arbor, where they will take on No. 15 Michigan.

The home and MAC opener is scheduled for March 14 against Robert Morris, the defending regular season conference champion.

"It's always a goal of our program to compete for a MAC championship," Ward said. "That hasn't changed. This group's very driven. So we're excited to see, but (we're) definitely using February against some really good competition to figure out kind of what we're going to look like with this group versus how we've looked in years past.

"We've been very fortunate to develop some young players in our upperclassmen through their time here and are really ready to step into those bigger roles. The seniors have been in the system now for years. Underclassmen were recruited to this system; now it's just a little easier to implement those things and those changes."

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