By Molly McSweyn |
The night is crisp and freezing. Shouts echo over the field as the team diligently works through their drills and scrimmages. They are focused on their play, the mark of a competitive team.
This is not the women’s soccer team, nor the men’s baseball team. It’s The Bluff’s newest club D1 team: Women’s lacrosse.
The women’s club lacrosse team decided to move up from D2 in the last few weeks because they were beating every D2 team they played.
Head Coach Allie Boyd, who plays for Portland Purple (a post-collegiate women’s lacrosse league), heard about the team’s need for a head coach and contacted the team during fall break.
“I was surprised when I was talking to them and they said ‘Yeah were D2 but we win most of our games,’” Head Coach Allie Boyd said. “They seemed impressive enough to me at least to the point that I said, ‘We should try and go D1.’”
In the 2010-11 season they were still a provisional team. Provisional teams aren’t technically in an official league and instead only play friendlies, games that don’t mean anything in league standings.
Once the team was inducted into the D2 division of the Northwest Womens Lacrosse League, they quickly began to prove themselves.
At the Las Vegas Lacrosse Showcase on Nov. 9-10, the team played D1 teams including BYU, University of Arizona and D2 team University of Northern Las Vegas (UNLV). They held their own in the games, only losing to showcase winner BYU 13-7.
“It was a pretty intense tournament, so winning one of the games was pretty sweet,” freshman Abby Kessi said.
The team’s strong showing at the showcase helped Boyd and captains Katie Smiley, Eleina Santos and Rea Cochran make the decision to move up to D1.
“The new competition is gonna be huge for us,” Smiley said. “I think going to Vegas really helped, because we saw other D1 teams, and the competition against other D1 schools, and were like ‘Ok we can hang.’”
A trip to Las Vegas is rare for club teams as they do not have the money NCAA teams have to travel. The players had to pay out of pocket for their plane tickets and meals.
The rest was paid for with team dues, which were $150 this semester. In comparison, the men’s club lacrosse team fee is $1,000 for the year, and they travel to Idaho and Washington for games during their regular season.
The team didn't receive funding from ASUP because they initially thought they wouldn’t have enough players to attend the showcase. Instead they went through their school account, set up by the University, to pay for the $1,000 fee.
“I hope that we get some recognition from the school,” Smiley said. “Like getting practice times and getting money from ASUP, you kind of have to show them that you're worthy and that you're working hard. And we deserve more practice time because were going out and showing the competition that were representing the University of Portland well,”
With the help of Boyd, the team is prepping for the upcoming season, which begins in early Feb. The team practices three times a week late at night or early in the morning.
Boyd played four years at the club level when she attended the University of Washington, and understands what it takes to compete as a club lacrosse team in the Northwest.
“Allie has been really good because she has had coaching experience in the past,” Smiley said. “I really feel like we're actually being coached and not just someone telling us what were doing wrong.”
Along with working towards higher competitive play, the team is focused moving through the division as a strong group.
“No tryouts, no cuts, we are super big on welcoming people with experience or no experience,” Santos said. “We have some girls who have never touched a stick before and we've had some girls who have gone to nationals and played, so the range of experience on the team is immense. It’s crazy, but I think as a team we all kind of gel together anyway.”
Molly McSweyn is a sports reporter for The Beacon. You can reach her at mcsweyn18@up.edu.
