Author: Yennaedo Balloo
Enjoying a very successful season, Women’s lacrosse played their last regular season game against UCI on Sunday April 13, 2008. They closed the season with a 12-7 win and an overall record of 5-1. The team’s next challenge will be the WWLL, the Western Women’s Lacrosse League Championships in Chico, CA.
While the team has been very pleased with their performance thus far, there have been a number of challenges the Women’s Lacrosse team has had to face.
The first being empty positions which the team has finally filled or compensated for. Coach Herbie Huff said, “Well, senior Michelle DeLateur stepped in the cage and saved all of our asses. That was the number one change positions-wise. At the beginning of the season, we didn’t have a goalie, nor did we have anyone with any experience playing in the goal. Luckily for us, the person who happened to volunteer was extremely fast and fiercely determined – the stuff of which goalkeepers are made.”
On the whole, the problem of empty spaces is offset by enthusiastic first-years joining the sport. Team member Nathalie Morison (sophomore) said, “We love our first-years. Many first-years come in with lots of talent. We’ve been blessed with the infectious enthusiasm of Lucy Vallejo-Anderson and Sarah Kushner. As a team, we also welcome people who have never played before and Ginger Grimes is just such an athlete that you could never tell she just started to play lacrosse this spring.”
The biggest challenge for the team is still one of numbers though. Coach Huff commented on the problem of numbers: “Our biggest challenge is numbers. We ask a lot of our players and that might have scared some people away. But now that comps are over we have some seniors coming back who had been too stressed for the last couple weeks.”
The wavering support resulting from academic stress does not deter the core team. Team member, DeLateur said, “Things always come up such as Comps, huge exams, stress-all of them factor into player availability. As a team we have always had an issue with number of players for the last few years, but I think our core roster is quite strong.”
Team member, Ali Tamaki (junior) echoed DeLateur’s appraisal of the challenge of numbers, but pointed to another issue the team faces season to season. “The girls who remained committed to the team are the reason we were able to play at all this season. We have also have no money, and have been working hard to fundraise for our team so we can go to Championships,” she said.
Last week the team sold cupcakes in the quad as a means of raising funds. Since Lacrosse is a club sport, players must pay dues to be members of the team.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize how much money is required to play sports in general. With league dues, tournament dues, referee fees, travel expenses, lodging for championships, coach payments, and equipment, we are left with a lot of costs that our budgets can’t cover,” Morison said.
Coach Huff also added that while fundraising helps offset the dues paid by individual players, the fundraising is necessary since other costs are not covered in the budget afforded to the team by the school.
“We get funding from club sports, but we try to raise money so that dues can be lower and because the expenses for our trip to WWLL championships are not covered in our budget,” she said.
The championship approaches, and the team now stands two matches away from claiming the win within their division and league. The team is excited for their first game in the WWLL followed by the second on Sunday for the championship if they earn a victory in their Saturday match.
Along with the rest of the team, DeLateur is excited for the WWLL this weekend, looking forward to the opportunity to play UCSB again, which the team recently lost 6-8 to.
“I hope that we have another chance to play UCSB in championships . . . I think we have a stronger team and a much better attitude. We were pretty jittery and nervous (myself included) last Wednesday when we played them on Patterson. I think given another opportunity we would play even stronger,” DeLateur said.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.