Welcome to “5-and-5,” a new series from US Lacrosse Magazine that features prominent athletes, coaches and personalities combining on-field perspective with off-field persona. WPLL Fight and U.S. training team attacker Kylie Ohlmiller is one of the best offensive players in the game. But who stifled her with a faceguard? These are her words.

Jasi Docal
Northwestern, 2016

We are friends now due to my connection with Brave Enterprises, the incredible company she works for and inspires so many people through, so any time we talk about this game, we have a good laugh. This was my sophomore year at Stony Brook, and we ended up losing the game 7-6 to Northwestern on their infamous field directly on the side of Lake Michigan. A chill in the air, and a top-10 battle that was a fight every year when we played them. Both teams knew it would be nothing less than the same going into that game.

I expected a hard mark from them, since they had shown a hard mark on me the year prior. This game, they put Jasi on me like glue (which I later came to find out was her first career start) for the entirety of the game. Legitimately she did not take her eyes off me for one second — not even when the ball was being held on the Northwestern offensive end for 15-plus minutes (pre-shot clock era). There were some of her closest friends in the bleachers right next to the sideline chirping me and hyping her up for doing such a great job at getting in my head. Let’s just say she did her job so well that I played all 60 minutes and did not have the ball in my stick ONE time, not even off a ground ball or a missed shot. Nothing. By far the best job at a faceguard I’ve ever seen. Luckily I can call her a friend now and we can laugh about it because at the time, it was far more frustrating than any game I’d played in in my career.

Alex Flobeck
Mount Sinai HS, 2013 & 2014

Alex was someone I played on my Long Island Yellow Jackets team with for years and an awesome person and incredible athlete. She was one of the toughest one-on-one defenders to beat and was most definitely way faster and more agile than I was in high school. Every time Islip (N.Y.) played Mt. Sinai (N.Y.) in our high school seasons, I knew that coach Al Bertolone would be putting Flo on me for the entirety of the game to try to eliminate my impact as much as possible. As a young player, I tried everything I could to shake Flo off me for the entire game every year, and her athletic ability would shut me down every time. I’d get the ball a few times every game and try to do something with it when I had the chance to, but most of the game she was right by my side.

Hope Kissick
New Hampshire, 2018

She told me during the game that her one and ONLY goal for the America East semifinal was to not let me score, and she did such an incredible job because I was frustrated the entire game about that exact thing. As an attacker, sometimes you don’t feel fully in your groove unless you get at least one shot on cage, and I had zero up until late in the second half of this game. Hope had done a great job at following her goal and forcing me to be mainly a feeder. I remember there may have been 15 minutes left and I had finally scored, but it took me about three dodges and some insane stick protection to even beat her and get myself in shooting position. But I remember her being very frustrated and sharing with me on the line for the draw what her goal for that game had been, and I respected that a ton — something I’ll never forget!

Lauren Murray
WPLL Pride, 2018

Again, another great friend of mine now. This was my first experience playing against Murr for the WPLL Fight, and she was incredibly loose in between whistles — confident, relaxed, making jokes. I have learned that is how she is off the field as a person, too. But once the whistle blew, it was a battle. She had a job assigned to her by her coach in our first professional season in a very hot and humid July day on Long Island, and she obeyed that assignment for every second. An awesome competitor, and I learned that the hard way by being the one she was up against — and have been marked up against ever since that day!

Katie Hertsch
WPLL Command, 2019

Katie is an insane athlete and one-on-one defender. Her IQ is off the charts, and she is incredibly difficult to lose when trying to get open for the ball. She marked me hard in our game against the Command last summer at Hopkins during another hot summer day and didn’t take her eyes off me for a second. It was a great battle, and I most definitely respect her intensity on the field as a player!

Kylie Ohlmiller’s 5 Favorite Songs on her Playlist
Because sometimes you just need to hear good vibes

1. “Caution” by The Killers

2. “Gummy” by Loud Luxury

3. “Summertime Love” by Captain Cuts

4. “Centuries” by Fall Out Boy

5. “Chasing Highs” by ALMA