Mackenzie Bennett begins her first season at New Mexico after joining the coaching staff in July 2024 and will work with the catchers and serve as a secondary hitting coach in her role with the Lobos.
Bennett joins the Lobos after spending the past season as a graduate assistant at Stephen F. Austin, where she worked with the catchers, following her collegiate career at SFA. The new assistant coach has ties to the entire UNM coaching staff as Bennett played for head coach Nicole Dickson and assistant coach Morgan Spearman at SFA from 2019-22 and played with assistant coach Sophie Hannabas in 2022 and 2023.
During her five years with the Lumberjacks, Bennett played in 164 games with 136 starts and finished with 139 hits, 31 doubles, two triples and 25 home runs, along with 101 RBI and hit .330, with a .591 slugging percentage and .387 on-base percentage. Of her 164 games, she recorded multiple hits in 42 of the games and multiple RBI in 33 and twice carried a 10-game hitting streak (in 2021 and 2022) as well as a 17-game streak of reaching base in 2021.
In her final season, she led the team at the plate behind a .367 batting average, 14 doubles and 49 RBI and was second on the team with 12 home runs and a .686 slugging percentage.
Bennett received several accolades at SFA, named to the All-Southland First Team in 2021 and the All-WAC First Team in 2023 in addition to being named to the Southland All-Tournament Team in 2021 and the WAC All-Tournament Team in 2022. She was twice named hitter of the week (Southland in 2022 and WAC in 2023) and was selected as the team MVP following the 2023 season. The Lumberjacks won the regular season twice during her time in Nacogdoches, first in the Southland in 2021 and won the Southwest division of the WAC in 2022.
Bennett earned her B.S. in kinesiology and went on to earn her MIS in interdisciplinary studies from Stephen F. Austin.