Thrust into a position of leadership, junior forward Megan McKay is putting together the finest season of her collegiate field hockey career thus far.
McKay is an exercise science major from Reading, Pennsylvania. She attended Governor Mifflin High School where she lettered three times in field hockey and was awarded all-state honors in 2012. McKay chose to attend SRU because both her parents graduated from The Rock and her mother, Janemarie McKay, played on the field hockey team for two years.
Just one month into the season McKay has already set a new career high in goals scored with seven through the team’s first 10 games.
McKay is one of only seven juniors and seniors on the Slippery Rock field hockey team this season, a team that has 13 freshmen on the roster. McKay said she has become more of a leader this year and her teammates have made the transition easy.
“I feel this year, being a junior on the team, I’ve really stepped into a leadership role as well as all the other juniors and Carlee (DuMars) and Courtney (Bradshaw) are great seniors so it has been easy for us all to work together,” McKay said. “No matter who our opponent is I just look at it the same way. We have to go out and play Rock field hockey for 70 minutes.”
McKay has become The Rock’s go-to option on the offensive side of the ball, leading the team in goals (7), points (17), shots (36) and shots on goal (27). McKay is also tied for the team lead in assists (3) and game winning goals (2). She is also third in the entire Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) in both goals and points, sitting only three points back of second place. In The Rock’s most recent game against Mansfield University on September 29, McKay recorded her first career hat trick and led the team to a commanding 6-0 victory.
McKay approaches her success with a humble attitude, giving a lot credit to her teammates and how they are able to set her up to succeed.
“It’s definitely really humbling (top three in PSAC) and I just really owe it all to my teammates for being there for me and supporting me,” McKay said. “I hope I can help my team as much as possible and keep up what I’m doing.”
The field hockey team is currently 4-6 (1-2 PSAC) but are starting a row of games against below .500 teams.
McKay thinks her team will continue to improve as the season goes on and will be able to get into the PSAC tournament at the end of the year.
“We came out this season as a really young team so we were just learning how to play with each other,” McKay said. “I think as the season goes on we will improve and get better every game and come out with some more wins.”
