Having flown halfway across the country into the sweltering heat
of St. Louis, where lightning threatened to lance the lacrosse
fields and tornado sirens forced team members from their hotel
rooms, the UCLA women’s lacrosse team embraced the unfamiliar
at the Women’s Division Intercollegiate Associates
Championship.
Upon arriving at the Anheuser Busch Center on May 10 for the
final match, the team found itself facing home rivals Cal Poly San
Louis Obispo.
“It was kind of funny to see how we’ve traveled all
the way to St. Louis, Missouri, only to play the team that we beat
two weeks earlier,” senior co-captain Sharon Covitt said.
“It also showed the competitiveness of our league.”
Although UCLA did not live up to its top seed, taking second to
Cal Poly SLO in an 11-9 loss, the Bruins nevertheless demonstrated
the skill and sportsmanship that had brought them that far.
The team’s little-recognized prestige outside of the
lacrosse world underlies the resourcefulness of the club team.
Under the coaching of Johanna Williams and assistant coach
Alison Lee, the team practiced hard all year despite unfavorable
conditions.
Training two hours in the evening, twice a week, on half of the
intramural field with only half the lights working, severely
limited the team.
Team members also found themselves occasionally kicked off the
field when IM softball had priority.
A lack of financial support forced the team to come up with its
own funds for travel, equipment, even water and athletic tape.
“It’s hard because we don’t get as much field
space or financial assistance (as varsity sports),” senior
Meghan Brown said. “But every one of our teammates are just
as good, if not better, because we love the sport.”
The fact that Stanford and Cal boast Division I women’s
lacrosse teams and that Oregon’s club team will gain varsity
status next year brings added frustration.
Despite this, the team gets e-mails every week from hopeful
players. Many current members decided upon UCLA after turning down
schools with Division II lacrosse teams.
The Bruin lacrosse players constantly strive to prove they are
more than just athletes.
“What blows me away the most about this team is our
sportsmanship,” Covitt said. “Everyone respects us, and
we’re just there representing UCLA.”
The matches in the WDIA Championship, then, found the Bruins
having to improvise until the very end, with the weather severely
affecting the two top club teams in the nation.
The six teams that the Bruins had beat out to get to the final
match, including Virginia Tech, the U.S. Naval Academy, and
University of Michigan, stood on the sidelines to cheer for UCLA,
demonstrating the status the women’s lacrosse team has
achieved.