After an eventful season of team bonding and tough competition with other schools, this week the women’s lacrosse team is finally heading to the national championships in Denver.
UCLA lacrosse is a club sport, not a varsity sport, but that does not make the team any less competitive.
“I wish people knew we were competitive,” team captain Taryn Muchnick said. “We like to have fun, but it’s not just for fun. We compete against other schools for UCLA.”
This year the team consists of 21 girls, with a fairly even mix of underclassmen and upperclassmen. These 21 girls were picked in the first week of winter quarter after official tryouts, following an entire quarter of practices and a semi-tryout process.
From there, 21 girls were picked to be on the A team, while the other girls who tried out now comprise the B team. The B team still competes, but on a different level. This team is made up of 20 girls, some of whom never played before this year.
“The B team coach is a really good teacher,” Muchnick said. “The learning curve for a new sport is really high. The team was really good this year.”
The lacrosse team is picked by coach Nick Liebman and assistant coaches Jenny Cavnar and Shanta Loecker. During the year the team consistently practices four times a week, but practice times and locations vary with the quarters.
Since lacrosse is a club sport, the practice space is determined by the varsity sports and their priority over facilities. The drills are determined by who the team will be playing in the next match.
Besides practice and games, the team bonds through team dinners and road trips.
“We try to mix the roommates so that everyone rooms with a different person every time,” Muchnick said.
As one of the team captains, Muchnick has the responsibility of arranging the travel logistics for road trips, as well as keeping the morale of the team at a high level.
“It’s our job to lead by example and motivate everyone,” Muchnick said.
Spirit is the team’s biggest asset. The contribution of each player helps make the team strong on and off the field. This high morale and positive attitude were essential to rebounding from tough losses and tough games. The team’s morale also helped it win a game against USC earlier in the quarter.
“It was right after spring break, and we hadn’t practiced for a while,” co-captain Anna Garahan said. “The stands were filled with USC fans, and we won the game in the final moments with a score of 15-13.”
Throughout the season, the team has focused on each game individually, trying to determine the weaknesses of its opponents. But being on the team is about much more than the games for the participants. One of the most memorable moments for Muchnick this year was the team’s road trip to UC Davis.
“It was the day when the crane fell on the 405 (Freeway), and we had like 10 hours in the car together,” she said.
The team this year is strong, with top scorers including Heather Chin, Marissa Nagler and Kalyn Olson.
The UCLA lacrosse team also had two all-star second-team award winners, Marissa Nagler and Heather Chin, and two first-team all-league players, Kellee Quane and Kalyn Olson.
After taking the consolation championship at league finals, the team is looking to prove itself at nationals this week. League finals week was the most memorable moment for Olson.
“The field was full of holes and cones everywhere,” Olson said. “In our second game we had to play Santa Clara, one of our toughest competitors this year. We played our hearts out and won.”
At nationals this year, the lacrosse team will start by playing against Colorado University as the No. 10 seed. Based on its 13-5 record and the strength of the schedule played, the team was picked by a committee to be one of the 11 teams that received an at-large bid. The other five teams that will make up the competition at nationals were given automatic bids after winning their leagues.
This season the team played in the Western Women’s Lacrosse League, which includes teams from the Pac-10 and other West Coast teams. The winner of the league was Cal Poly, one of the schools that has provided some of the toughest competition for the UCLA team.