Second-year forward Lauren McDonald has become the University of Rhode Island’s leading scorer for the women’s soccer team this season with four goals all coming within a four-game stretch.
Her journey to the Ocean State and developing into the player she is today started on the opposite side of the country along the Pacific Coast.
“My recruiting process was slower than a lot of people,” MacDonald said. “Compared to even the people on my club team, they were all getting recruited before me.”
MacDonald was originally scouted by Boston University and Atlantic 10 opponent University of Richmond. She was invited to their ID camps so their coaches could get a closer look at MacDonald. When she arrived at those ID camps though, she mentioned that she just didn’t like either program as much as she would eventually like the University of Rhode Island.
MacDonald, with her club, Century United, attended a tournament in California where a URI assistant coach found her and emailed her at the conclusion inviting her to URI’s ID camp.
“It was a pretty fast turnaround from when they first saw me play to when I actually committed,” MacDonald said. “It was probably within a few weeks.”
When MacDonald attended a tour of the campus and facilities the day before the ID camp started, she met URI Head Coach Megan Jessee for the first time. MacDonald said that coach Jessee was very welcoming and really cared about the team, which helped her make the decision to eventually commit to URI.
“We were surprised she wasn’t committed already,” Jessee said. “She had such great athletics, super great speed…her vision of the game, [and] her technical and tactical ability were very good.”
Jessee continued singing MacDonald’s praises, specifically talking about how she has a great character and what an amazing young woman she is. Jessee also mentioned how much they really wanted her to be a Ram just based off of their first phone call with her.
MacDonald said that she had no expectations going into her first year in regards to playing time and just wanted to work as hard as she could to earn that starting spot. After five other forwards went down with injuries, MacDonald went from playing 40-60 minutes a game to playing 70-85 minutes a game and becoming a starter at the position for the last nine games of the year.
“Every game she just kept getting better and better,” Jessee said. “There was a massive difference between her first few games and the end of the year in terms of the amount of impact she was making on the field.”
McDonald not only is the Rams leading scorer, but she is the only Ram this season with multiple goals scored. MacDonald’s first career goal came against George Mason University on Oct. 1st, 2023 in just her third career start in A-10 play. She scored an Olimpico, which is a goal scored directly off a corner kick, in the 15th minute. MacDonald then scored another goal in the 54th minute.
“It was such a surreal feeling with all my teammates running toward me,” MacDonald said. “I was just super happy.”
At the end of last season, MacDonald was named to the A-10 All-Rookie team. MacDonald said she found out about her selection to the team through a friend who saw a post from the GoRhody instagram page showing that she had been selected. MacDonald mentioned that she was walking to class at the time and stopped to call her dad to tell him the news.
MacDonald is originally from Gibsonia, Pennsylvania which is an eight hour and 45-minute drive from URI’s campus. MacDonald said the move to Kingston was a tough transition for her, as she had the same friend group for 15 years and had never been this far away from her parents for an extended period of time before.
“My parents, for the most part, were making every game except two of them last year,” MacDonald said. “They have continued to [make the trip to games] and supported me this year so it has made the transition a lot easier.”
MacDonald, along with her four goals this year, also has one assist on the year as she and the rest of the team look to qualify for another A-10 conference tournament and eventually end the season with the trophy in their hands.
The Rams continue A-10 play when they face the Richmond University Spiders on Thursday at the URI Soccer Complex at 7 p.m. You can stream it on ESPN+ or listen to the radio broadcast on RIU2.org .