Kailah Kempney - Lacrosse Coach - University of Colorado Athletics

Kailah Kempney

Title:
Assistant Coach
Year At CU:
2nd Season
Alma Mater:
Syracuse University '15
E-mail:
kailah.kempney@colorado.edu
Phone:
303-492-5435

Kailah Kempney is entering her first season as an assistant coach for Colorado lacrosse. She joins the Buffaloes after a four-year playing career at Syracuse University.

The 2016 season, Kempney’s first year, was the best season yet for the lacrosse team in Boulder. CU won a school-record 13 games, going 13-5 overall and finishing third in the MPSF with a 7-2 conference mark. The Buffs reached the semifinals of the conference tournament, defeating Oregon 11-3 in the first round. All five losses during the season came to teams ranked in the top 10 nationally and the Buffaloes received votes in both the IWLCA and the Inside Lacrosse top-20 polls several times during the year.

CU was particularly strong at home, posting a 6-1 record at Kittredge Field with its lone loss coming in a 9-8 decision off a final-minute goal by No. 7/6 Southern California on April 8. For the season, CU averaged 15.94 goals at home and surrendered just 5.27 per game at Kittredge.

Defense was an emphasis for the Buffs, who ranked second in the MPSF and seventh nationally in scoring defense (7.00). They also were second in the MPSF and eighth in the nation in scoring margin (+5.61 goals per game). Offensively, CU ranked third in the MPSF and 14th in the country in scoring (12.61) and the team’s .722 winning percentage was the 14th-best in the country.

Despite the excellent season on both ends of the field, CU was left out of the 28-team NCAA Tournament field. The Buffs faced six teams during the year that were selected to the postseason, including James Madison, which they defeated 15-14 in overtime on March 3.

Five Buffs were selected all-MPSF at the end of the season, the most in CU’s three-year history. Marie Moore, Darby Kiernan and Sarah Brown were all first-team selections and Moore and Brown were both second team all-region picks by the IWLCA.

Not to focus all of the attention on the field, the Buffs were also outstanding in the classroom, placing eight on the MPSF All-Academic Team in 2016. As a team, CU posted a program-best 3.240 grade point average during the fall semester and a 3.191 GPA during the spring season, marking the fourth consecutive semester above 3.0 for the team.

As a senior at Syracuse in 2015, Kempney was named IWLCA second team All-America and second team all-ACC. She holds the Syracuse career record for draw controls and broke the single-season mark for draw controls three times, finishing with 253 over four seasons.

A winner and leader of one of the nation's top programs, Kempney helped the Orange reach the NCAA semifinals all four years and finish runner-up twice. She also led the Orange to an ACC tournament championship as a senior, and a pair of Big East regular season titles in her first two seasons. Over her four-year playing career, she helped Syracuse to a 74-19 record.

Kempney, a native of Carthage, N.Y., graduated from Syracuse in 2015 with a bachelor's degree in health and exercise science.