5 women lacrosse players allegedly threatened to kill teammates

Five women on a Maryland college lacrosse team have been suspended from the school after allegedly making violent threats against teammates, school officials said. (Screengrab/WBAL/NDN)

WASHINGTON — Five women on a Maryland college lacrosse team have been suspended from the school after allegedly making violent threats against teammates, school officials said.

The five University of Maryland Baltimore County athletes were suspended last week for violating team rules, school spokeswoman Lisa Akchin said in a statement on Monday. The investigation is continuing.

Athletic director Tim Hall told local media the mostly junior and senior players made the comments threatening to hurt freshman teammates on March 6 in an online chat group.

Hall identified the students as Alyssa Semones, Brittany Marquess, Mackenzie Reese, Amber Kovalick and Meghan Milani.

The Baltimore Post-Examiner website obtained 16 pages of text screenshots containing the posts. In one text, a player asked if she could threaten the freshmen.

Another player responded, “Can we just kill them?” One replied, “I’ll pitch in.”

Kovalick, Milani, Reese and Semones apologized in a statement on Monday. They called their actions “absolutely inexcusable” and “utterly inappropriate.”