Sports & Outdoors

Women’s lacrosse hoping to add new faces

Photo Courtesy of Logger Athletics

By Tayla MacPherson

Photo Courtesy of Logger Athletics

Women’s lacrosse is a new sport in the Northwest Conference, having had their first season in the spring of 2015. As of last season there were only five teams including the Loggers participating in the conference. Other schools within the Northwest Conference are wanting to expand and incorporate a women’s lacrosse team within their athletic programs, which may be one reason for the lack of players for the Loggers.

The Logger women’s lacrosse team has just finished their fall season with a series of fall practices and one game against Logger alumni. However, the team was only able to field 11 players this fall because of injuries, study abroad students and lack of first-year student recruits. The team hopes to bring out more players during spring tryouts.

The Loggers will not start preseason until February. Until then the women will be having lifts and captain’s practices.

Kathryn Hart, a junior on the team from Corvallis, Oregon, is very excited about moving to forward with this year’s team. She discussed the hard work she and her teammates put in during the fall season: “I think that for the upcoming spring season, I am most excited to see all of the hard work we put in this fall come together and pay off. We had a really incredible fall season, and we are starting to work well as a team. Every woman on our team is so talented, and also we have awesome individual and group attitudes, so it is really fun and exciting for me to think about this upcoming spring season and all the progress we have made and will continue to make,” Hart said.

Last season the women had five wins and eight losses. The Loggers hope to improve their record and continue to improve as a program this upcoming spring season.

Coach Sabochik described the team’s fall practices. “Fall ball is a great way to get players back together after the summer and it’s also a great way to introduce new players to the team before the traditional season. We just finished up with our practices and I am very pleased with the talent and skill that I saw. The team is really ready to work hard in the off-season and come back in January ready to tackle the season head-on,” Sabochik said.

Although fall ball was productive from Coach Sabochik and Hart’s descriptions, it will be a challenge to have effective practices with only 11 players.

Hart discusses the reasons and the challenges to having limited players.      “We have a few women coming off of injuries and working through rehab right now, and I think that may be a challenge for us in the spring. We have a smaller team this year, but I think we are looking at that as more of an opportunity to grow and improve rather than a huge challenge that we are facing,” Hart said.

Another change that is occurring throughout all Division-III women’s lacrosse is a 90-second shot clock. Coach Sabochik discusses this change and how it will affect the team. “90 seconds to move the ball down field and get a shot off is something the sport has not had before; there has never been a timed element to lacrosse. This changes the speed and style of play and will be an adjustment not only for our team but for all the teams at the D-III level. I think this is an exciting challenge. In a sense it levels out the playing field and every team will have to make adjustments to strategy and focus on a different style of play,” Coach Sabochik said.

Although there are big changes occurring in lacrosse this season Coach Sabochik and the team are up for the challenge to make do with what they have and the changes they are facing.