Kristen Shanahan's Unbreakable Desire to Play Leads Her to Maryland

Maryland offensive coordinator and assistant coach Alex Aust Holman likes to say, “If something works, keep doing it” — a clear variation of, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

But attacker Kristen Shanahan knows broken. She fractured her hip eight games into her sophomore year at Notre Dame, an injury that came after she tore her left ACL and missed her entire freshman season. It came before another torn ACL (plus a torn labrum) that ended her senior year before it even started.

A Long Island product, Shanahan has a blue-chip pedigree. Her uncle, Doug Shanahan, starred at Hofstra and won the first men’s Tewaaraton Award in 2001. She captained Sachem East High School and was named a USA Lacrosse third-team All-American as a junior in 2019 and also starred in field hockey. Other than how the pandemic canceled her senior campaign, Shanahan’s high school playing days went expectedly well, and committing to play for a program of Notre Dame’s caliber ran in the family.

But there were no silver platters once Shanahan arrived on campus.

“I was completely healthy,” Shanahan said. “I never injured anything — nothing. Then, my freshman year, it was like, ‘Bam, you're done.’”

Hearing it once was hard enough. But as “you’re done for the season” became a more common refrain than the “Notre Dame Victory March,” Shanahan fought to find bright spots.

“My injuries all required some type of surgery,” Shanahan said. “It wasn't an ankle sprain, where you miss a few games. It was, ‘You're out for the rest of the year.’ The hardest thing was just mentally, it was a journey of not being able to play, [and] figuring out different ways that I can support my teammates and get better.”

And she tried. Shanahan relished being her teammates’ biggest fan, challenged herself to try hard in rehab and watched film to improve her lacrosse IQ. It paid off.

As a captain in 2025, she mentored a young Notre Dame offense and finished second on the team in goals (27) and points (41). She tallied five points, including a last-second goal, in Notre Dame’s final game against Louisville, putting an exclamation point on a 17-6 Irish win.

At the time, Shanahan thought it was the punctuation mark on her career.

“Being able to end my career on Arlotta, in our white uniforms with Notre Dame across our chest, that last-second goal was just the right timing in the right place,” Shanahan told USA Lacrosse Magazine contributor Jake Epstein last April.

“I was done. My career was done,” Shanahan said. “At the end of the season, your body starts to hurt a little bit more, and with three surgeries behind me already, I'm like, ‘OK, I don't want to really risk it anymore.’”

But like the ground as winter turns to spring, Shanahan began to thaw.

“For a month, I was just watching and watching and watching, and I'm like, ‘I think I can give more. I want to give more,’” Shanahan said.

So, Shanahan graduated from her master’s program at Notre Dame in May. The next day, she entered the transfer portal. The Maryland staff noticed.

“I was at the final four when our staff was like, ‘Kristen's in the portal,’” Maryland head coach Cathy Reese said.

Notre Dame and Maryland don’t usually play one another. Reese wasn’t as familiar with Shanahan as she is, oh say, Northwestern’s Madison Taylor. She and Holman hit the film room to see whether Shanahan could be a difference-maker.

Maryland wasn’t undergoing a total roster overhaul. The Terps were young in 2025, regularly starting more than a handful of freshmen. They were set to return leading scorer Kori Edmonson (59G, 14A), but they were losing a top threat in Chrissy Thomas (18G, 39A).

Reese felt the attack could use a veteran leader, someone who could take pressure off Edmonson as she ran point in the midfield and bring balance. Shanahan fit the bill on film.

But scheduling a campus visit or an in-person meeting proved tricky. Reese was out of town for one week. Shanahan had vacation plans the next. Of course, when you’re the sport’s winningest program, a lot of name recognition can go a long way. Reese put a human touch on the blue-blood brand.

“When Cathy and Alex reached out to me, at first, I was like, ‘Oh my God, Maryland lacrosse.’ Shanahan said. “When I talked to Cathy on the phone, her voice and coaching style [sold me]. I was like, ‘OK, this is where I want to be. This is who I want to be coached by.’”

The style? Mothering with a competitive edge.

“It's always about the team,” Shanahan said. “Everything that she was saying to me was just so meaningful. And I think it does show that, at the end of the day, she is a mom to four kids, so she does have that motherly figure, too.”[1]

Shanahan never visited the campus or met any of the coaches or players before arriving in College Park in August. Reese called her at halftime of the national championship game and made her a verbal offer that meant the world — and that she couldn’t refuse.

‘She's like, ‘We're doing this thing right now,” Shanahan said. “She had the trust in me to not even meet me and pick up the phone, obviously, during a national championship where she was watching, and call me and say, ‘Let's do this. I want you here at Maryland.’ And I obviously can't say no to that.”

Shanahan wasn't taking that trust for granted. Mentally, her head was in the game starting in May. But she wanted to take herself to new heights physically.

“I think I ran the most and lifted the most that I ever have before any preseason,” Shanahan said. “It's so unknown, coming into a program. I wanted to come into this program in August and be in some of the best shape of my life and prove why I'm back. I wanted to feel in shape and healthy.”

But to come back stronger, Shanahan also had to come back wiser.

“[I’m listening] to my body about taking off days, which I have done a lot,” Shanahan said. “But on those good days, I’m pushing myself to my fullest potential.”

And she’s reaching it in different ways each game. Shanahan is tied for first on the Terps in points (20) with 11 goals and nine assists. Six of those assists came against Virginia on Feb. 14, a Maryland win.

“She used to be a finisher,” Reese said. “She could catch and shoot and finish inside. And then all of a sudden, we're in game two of the season, and she's throwing out six assists. She’s shown that she is an all-around offensive player and can do whatever the team needs.”

And that's the goal. Because Shanahan can still catch, shoot and finish inside. Four days after the Virginia win, Maryland played at Georgetown.

Shanahan’s four goals paced the Terps to a 10-7 win.

“I never go in a game like, being like, ‘OK, I need to feed,’ or, ‘Oh, I need to score,” Shanahan said. “As an attack, we need to put up points, and whatever position I am in that game, whether I'm behind feeding, or I'm up top scoring, I'm doing it for the best of the team. Cathy always talks about going 1-0 every game. That's something that really did stick with me. It's keeping me focused on the small things instead of looking ahead or getting super overwhelmed.”

Sure, Shanahan and Reese would rather compete in a national championship game than talk on the phone at halftime. But neither wants to talk much about that, with snow blanketing much of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Yet, finally healthy, Shanahan can live in the moment instead of looking for a light at the end of the rehab tunnel.

“I truly don't take a day for granted,” Shanahan said. “You never know if something's going to happen, if an injury is going to happen, when your season is going to end, if you're going to lose a game. In high school, you have so many years of lacrosse ahead of you that, until you're actually in this position, you don't feel like it's going to end. I wish I told my younger self this.”

Still, the end of one tunnel is near. Shanahan will hang up her cleats for the final time. Seriously, this time. Her eligibility clock has run out.

She's working on a master's in management and applying to jobs, like most soon-to-be grads. But her resume can't tell the full story of the journey that she's taken in those cleats, one full of lessons that she'll take with her as she turns the page.

“These injuries have made me such a better person, and I look at things totally differently now in life,” Shanahan said. “When someone does get injured, I feel for them. Everyone has their different journey, and everything does happen for a reason — injuries, not playing, athletes transferring. It does have a specific reason.”

All the above led her to College Park.

“This is totally my silver lining — being here at Maryland,” Shanahan said.