Two Seniors Are Leading Women’s Lacrosse Offense With Passing Skills

For Princeton women’s lacrosse head coach Jenn Cook, the signs of a healthy attack are right on the score sheet: When more players are assisting and scoring, the defense has more to worry about. And this year, two seniors are leading the Tigers’ offense with remarkable skills for setting up goals.

Haven Dora ’26 and Jami MacDonald ’26 are “the eyes and ears” of the attack, Cook said. Dora is Princeton’s career assists leader with 130 through mid-March (and now holds the Ivy League record as well); MacDonald, who ranks fifth all-time at Princeton with 86 assists, is on pace to reach the No. 2 spot by the end of the season and also has been a prolific goal scorer, finding the net 135 times in 61 collegiate games.

“They just do such a good job drawing attention, moving the ball, making the right choice with the ball, and setting others up for success — along with themselves, obviously,” Cook said.

In the past two seasons, Princeton averaged more than 15 goals per game and won NCAA Tournament games in both years, advancing to the quarterfinals in 2025. This spring, the Tigers dropped three games to tough opponents on the road — Virginia, Maryland, and Loyola — but showed early promise in a 15-9 win over Rutgers that included goals by seven different players.

While the Tigers lost record-breaking scorer McKenzie Blake ’25 to graduation, MacDonald expects the team to fill that gap with a range of scoring options, set in motion by associate head coach Kerrin Maurer. “Kerrin tries her best to create these offenses that play to each individual’s strengths,” MacDonald said. “This year I feel like we’re much more dynamic in what we have.”

Jami MacDonald ’26 celebrates Princeton’s win against Brown last year that clinched the Ivy League title.

Shelley M. Szwast

Dora and MacDonald both have a knack for feeding passes to their teammates, but their skills are more complementary than duplicative. Dora likes to work from behind the cage and sees her role primarily as a distributor — the lacrosse equivalent of a point guard, which was her position in high school basketball. “When you have people on your team that can cut and finish really well, you really lean into that,” she said.

MacDonald also works from behind the cage but is more likely to maneuver for her own shot and read how the defense reacts. “When you draw that double team, it’s so helpful to be able to feed,” she said. “Especially in these past two years, I’ve been working on that.”

Beyond that distinction, though, Dora and MacDonald seem to be traveling on parallel tracks. Both were on the preseason watch list for the Tewaaraton Award, lacrosse’s equivalent of the Heisman. Both starred in the 2024 Under-20 World Championships in Hong Kong — Dora for the United States, MacDonald for Canada — and faced off in the gold-medal game, which the U.S. won. Both are majoring in the School of Public and International Affairs. And both have siblings who’ve played or are playing Ivy League lacrosse. MacDonald’s brother Mike ’15 shared conference player of the year honors in his senior year at Princeton, and Dora’s sister Hayla is a sophomore at Harvard.

For Cook, another key similarity is the competitiveness Dora and MacDonald bring to practice each day, which in turn pushes their teammates to match their level.

“They’re a critical part of what this year is going to be for us,” she said. “We’re excited to see how they develop and the things that they do throughout the spring.”