NCAA DI commit scores 100th-career goal in Battle Mountain’s 18-4 win over Air Academy in girls lacrosse state tournament

Izzy Kovacik has scored a lot of goals in her three-year high school career. One person who has seen them all (and contributed to most) is her twin sister.

“I feel like she’s assisted almost every single one of my goals,” Izzy Kovacik said after scoring twice — including her 100th-career goal — in Battle Mountain’s 18-4 second-round win over Air Academy on Thursday in Edwards.

“We just look at each other and know,” Kate Kovacik added. “Our connection is just unstoppable but I also think the team really helped her out with those 100 goals. And she just deserves it so much.”

“To see her get that as a junior is a huge accomplishment,” added assistant coach Chris Inks, who joined the Huskies’ coaching staff when the Kovaciks arrived as freshman. He described the pair’s two-man game as “telepathic.”

“They can just find each other anywhere on the crease,” he continued before adding how Izzy Kovacik has stepped up her game this spring. “She’s found this gear she can shift into. We saw it in the first Steamboat game, the Mead game — she has this ability to take over the game.”

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The Kovacik’s have been offensive juggernauts ever since they arrived at Battle Mountain. Izzy leads the team in points with 42 goals and 25 assists and Kate has poured in 32 and 21, respectively. But Battle Mountain wasn’t dominating right away on Thursday night. In fact, the Huskies lost the first couple draws and went down 2-1.

“This is pretty much across the board on our wins and losses — possession in this game is so important and (that) starts at the draw circle,” Inks said. “If we’re getting the 50-50 ball off the draw, 9 times out of 10 the dawgs are putting the ball in the back of the net. …We won every draw the rest of the first quarter and you saw that on the scoreboard.”

Battle Mountain scored 12 unanswered goals to head into halftime with a 10-point lead. The Huskies never looked back.

“We had good connections,” Kate Kovacik said. “I think we all played as a team and were pumped up and ready to win.”

“I was super proud of the second line,” Izzy Kovacik added. “I think they’ve really come a long way in the season.”

Gracyn Nestlerode led the Huskies with four goals and two assists. In addition to the Kovaciks’ haul, Izzy Adochio added two more goals and Catherine Provencher, Isabel Thomas, Addie O’Connor, Abigail Rowe, Murphy Werner, Palmer Ulvestad and Kingsley Blair all got in on the scoring action as well. Huntley Blue and Hallie Holleman teamed up in the net with two and three saves, respectively. For Inks, the difference in the game started at midfield, where Thomas and Provencher won a combined 16 of 26 draws. The coach knows face offs will be even more front and center — as they were in a 10-point home loss to Green Mountain a weeks ago — as the squad advances in the tournament.

“We’ve tried to put more work in on the draw,” he said. “Saying like, ‘if we’ve got somebody dominating us on the first draw, what can we do to turn that into a 50-50 ball instead of just possession gone?’ So, we’ve kind of been building that into practice plans since that loss especially.”

No. 3 Battle Mountain will face No. 6 Steamboat Springs in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 11 a.m. in Edwards. The Huskies swept the season series against the Sailors, though the first meeting on March 12 was a tight 12-11 affair.

“And I think for us we got a little bit chippy with ourselves,” Inks said. “Since then, we’ve done so much work growing as a team and building that team chemistry, and I think if you look at our more recent games that speaks for itself.”

The Kovaciks are a big reason. In addition to the spring season, the siblings have been honing their two-man game all year with their club coaches at True Lacrosse in Denver.

“I think over the summer we just put in a lot of work and it’s starting to show,” Izzy Kovacik said.

The twins committed to play at Akron University after they graduate in 2026. They were also looking at Coastal Carolina, Mercer, Jacksonville State and Queens University.

“Coach Jones made it so much fun and was so supportive of us, and the team is just unbelievable, super sweet, super welcoming, amazing players,” Kate Kovacik said.

“It was automatically like, ‘this is where we want to be,'” added Izzy Kovacik.

That means four more years of stat-sheet stuffing when their Husky days are over. Before suiting up at the NCAA DI ranks, however, they have some unfinished business in the state tournament.

“We have to treat every single game the same,” Izzy Kovacik said. “As if we want to go to the state championship, which is what we want to do.”