While standing in the HyVee parking lot on Wednesday with a few groceries she had just purchased, KU senior Mackenzie Boeve received an unexpected surprise.
She had just been named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week for the second time in her career and found out about it through a notification on her phone.
“I saw I was tagged in something and I was like, ‘What are we posting on Twitter right now,’” Boeve told R1S1 Sports a few hours after learning about the honor. “I saw it and kind of dropped my bags at my car and called my parents right away. They were both really excited.”
So, too, was Boeve, the fifth-year senior defender from Lincoln, Nebraska, who spent most of last season thinking it would be her last as a Jayhawk.
“I had kind of talked about my fifth year with my family and stuff, but I just wasn’t sure if that was for me,” said Boeve, an exercise science major.
A couple of weeks before senior night of the 2023 season, then-KU coach Mark Francis pulled her aside and asked her if she wanted to use her fifth year.
Up to that point, Boeve had spent every week, each practice and all of her games thinking that she was doing something for the last time. Last day of offseason workouts. Last practice of camp. Last match against Iowa State. Last road game. On and on it went.
But the conversation with Francis changed all of that, and in a matter of hours she and her parents concluded, “Why not? Might as well.”
“One thing this staff is big on is winning plays. Whether they’re big or small. So, big tackles that us as defenders make, they don’t go unnoticed. We celebrate those just as much as we celebrate a goal.” — Mackenzie Boeve
For Boeve’s parents, Cheryl and Todd, one more year represented one more chance to pile up the miles on their car while following their daughter play the sport she loves.
For Boeve, it represented the chance to keep playing.
“There wasn’t really one specific thing that kind of swayed me to say yes,” Boeve said. “But one more semester of college sounded pretty good.”
There was a small wrinkle. Not long after that conversation with Francis, the longtime KU coach decided to retire. Boeve was still committed to coming back for one more season, but all of a sudden she was not exactly sure what that season would look like.
“I wouldn’t say I was nervous, but I was definitely kind of uneasy because the new staff could’ve come in and not wanted to keep the older girls,” she said. “But it all worked out for the best.”
New Kansas coach Nate Lie welcomed 15 newcomers but also kept 15 returners, bringing symmetry and balance to his first Kansas roster. Boeve said she appreciated the way her new coach kind of let the spring play out and left the decision to return in her hands.
After starting the season slowly following an offseason surgery, Boeve returned to her old ways, throwing herself and her body all over the field in an effort to win.
“In the beginning, it didn’t really feel like it was my last season,” she said. “But even just this week I was thinking, ‘Oh, I have three more home games and I’m done with RCP (Rock Chalk Park).’ So, I think the emotions will come soon.”
Until they do, Boeve will continue to keep playing the only way she knows how — all out.
She’s known by many as the best slide tackler on the team, and her aggressive style has fit her new coaches extremely well.
“One thing this staff is big on is winning plays,” she said. “Whether they’re big or small. So, big tackles that us as defenders make, they don’t go unnoticed. We celebrate those just as much as we celebrate a goal.”
Boeve said her best slide tackles tend to come at the most critical times and are the result of her simply doing “what needs to happen.”
“When I make a big slide tackle and it turns out to be a big play, the adrenaline rush and the excitement it fills me and other people with is great,” she said. “I just want to win. The competitive side of me is all about doing whatever it takes. I have an older brother, too, so it probably stems a little bit from that.”
Maybe even a lot bit.
Boeve credits her brother, Brett, who is five years older than her, for teaching her how to be tough. He made sure she graduated from the school of hard knocks long before she ever graduated from high school or attended college.
Boeve said the roughhousing between brother and sister came, “whenever and wherever.”
They used to play 1-on-1 basketball in the backyard — she still has yet to beat him — and their battles were always pretty physical. They never led to anything serious, like a broken arm or busted nose, but there were lots of tears, Boeve said with a smile.
“Our parents would always step in before it got to that,” she said, laughing.
Those life skills she learned from the arms, elbows and legs of Brett taught her to be fearless. And that has always served her well on the soccer field.
While a lot of people look at goals and the final score to find out who played best, Boeve said she appreciates playing for a coach who appreciates the defenders just as much as the forwards.
In fact, KU’s defensive efforts are critical to the style Lie wants to play, downhill, with the field tilted toward the opponent’s net.
“We can’t win without scoring goals, but we also can’t win without keeping goals out of our net,” Boeve said. “And I’m not afraid to go in for tackles and put my body on the line to make sure that happens.”
With six games remaining in the regular season, those three home games Boeve talked about will take place in the next 11 days, with KU (5-4-3 overall and 2-3 in Big 12 play) hosting Oklahoma State on Saturday (6 p.m.), BYU next Thursday (6 p.m.) and Utah on Oct. 13 (Noon).
After that, it's road games at Arizona (Oct. 17), Arizona State (Oct. 20) and Kansas State (Oct. 25) to close out the regular season.
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
