The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- March 29, 1999

Caught in the crease

Women's lacrosse coaches wonder if emphasis on regional play will water down national field

BY MARTY BENSON
STAFF WRITER

As if Y2K were not enough to fret about, Division III women's lacrosse coaches are faced with the double whammy of having to prepare for AQ in Y2K.

Because of the adoption of 1999 NCAA Convention Proposal No. 38, automatic qualification (AQ) to the national championship tournament will come to all of the division's team sports in 1999-00. In some sports of a more national scale, the effect might be a smidgen above ho-hum.

But a regional sport like lacrosse is different. The sport's map is restricted to the East Coast from the extreme north to an eight-meter shot or two below the Mason-Dixon Line. Everyone in that neighborhood -- powers, wannabes and never-thought-of-its alike -- is scrambling for survival kits.

Once the new millennium starts, no longer will the Division III Women's Lacrosse Committee select the 12 championship participants from each of five regions, with the strength of those regions determining how many teams each area gets.

Eight berths will be reserved for conference champions. The Centennial Conference, New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), New England Women's Lacrosse (NEWL), North Coast Atlantic Conference (NCAC), Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC), Pennsylvania Athletic Conference (PAC), State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) and Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association (UCAA) are assured of at least one team each -- assuming those conferences apply for AQ. The change is only cosmetic for the Centennial, NESCAC and ODAC champions, locks under any reasonable system. Then there are the NEWL and PAC, which have not had a bid in the event's 14 years.

Carolyn Urban, coach of PAC member Eastern College, sees this as a chance for improving her program.

"We have already upgraded our schedule, playing some teams that we would not have normally played, to help us get ready for this," she said. "I think this will change our whole conference. Making the tournament will be our goal and not just making it but doing well."

Effect on championship

Jan Hathorn, chair of the division's lacrosse committee and coach at ODAC member Washington and Lee University, expressed concerns.

"This is not promoting our sport at the highest level," she said. "If you take that many conference champions, you are watering (the tournament) down.

"I am speaking from a coach's standpoint, and I understand that the ADs and presidents are not necessarily worried about having a true national championship. They are more concerned with participation and promoting conference play.

"Before, if you were at a school where national-level play was not the focus, you had to find a way to get in the tournament by becoming good enough. Now we are leaving slots open for teams that have not previously qualified. That seems backward."

Bridget Belgiovine, assistant chief of staff for Division III, explained the rationale of the legislation.

"The (Division III) championships committee created this at the direction of the Presidents Council and Management Council to refocus the championships back to regional and conference competition, to increase access and to eliminate the 'necessity' for teams to prove they are better than others (and therefore more worthy of a national tournament bid) by traveling to play teams in other regions," Belgiovine said. "The intent is to get schools to play in their own region, which should assist in lessening missed class time, travel and expense pressures."

Katrina Silva, coach at ODAC member Roanoke College, which has made the tournament seven times, said in an off-handed way that the change might meet its goal. But that does not mean she likes it.

"It doesn't encourage out-of-region play or play outside of your conference," Silva said. "If I wanted to, I could play the weakest schedule possible, (win the conference) and still get in. That's not what I plan to do, but I could.

"We are going to have teams that don't belong there replacing teams that do."

Nonchampions from stronger conferences may be among the replaced. Teams will be considered in pools, with pool A reserved for the AQ conference champions. Pool B would be independents. Pool C is for nonchampion teams from the AQ conferences. The number of selections from pool B is determined by awarding one bid per every eight eligible independent teams in that group. That could complete the 12-team bracket, crowding out pool C. A stipulation forwarded to sports committees by the championships committee prevents combining pools B and C. Further, each pool must be considered on a national basis.

Conference affiliation or independence?

Haverford College plays in the Centennial Conference, four teams of which have participated in NCAA postseason play. Ursinus College has won two national championships. Facing the stiff competition in its region, Haverford has not made the field since 1991. Knowing how the qualifying criteria are going to change, coach Anne Livezey is looking at how best to play her hand.

"We have talked about (going independent) on a school and conference level," she said. "(If we are qualifying as a conference) our philosophy is if you win it, you're in it, so let's win. We are looking at playing as an independent but I doubt it will happen. It looks like a nice option because it could improve your chances of getting in. I don't think it should be an option, but if you're looking out for what's best for your team, it's attractive."

But independence has no guarantees. Coach Anna Meyer of Hartwick College, which made the tournament for the third time last year, said the independent Hawks would like to join a conference, but have not been able to find a taker. Faced with qualifying from pool B, Meyer must determine whether the team should schedule other strong independent teams from out of her region, such as nine-time champion College of New Jersey or two-time qualifier Rowan University. Both schools are members of the New Jersey Athletic Conference, but the league does not meet the seven-team criterion.

"If you schedule those schools, you are driving all over the place, which defeats one of the purposes (of the legislation)," Meyer said.

William Smith College, an 11-time tournament participant, including two runner-up finishes, belongs to the UCAA as an institution but has not previously played a conference schedule. Coach Pat Genovese has preferred the flexibility to schedule out-of-conference powers. With AQ, Genovese wanted to start UCAA play in 2000, but because of advance scheduling cannot until 2001. So the Herons will swim the independent pool for a year.

"I did not want to hurt our schedule by what we needed to do as far as getting into the tournament, but that is what has happened," Genovese said. "I feel as we continue there will be other teams we have to delete.

"In the past we have gone home and away with some strong teams from other regions to prepare for the tournament -- now it seems we are going backward (by not being able to play as many of the strong teams)."

Bracket expansion

Two factors could ease the number of teams left out. The Championships Committee will recommend that the Management Council and Presidents Council increase the ratio for championships access from one for every eight teams to one to every 7.5 during its April meeting. If approved, that would expand the field to 16 teams, with the additional four berths going to pool C. Division III conferences have until April 1 to declare, by sport, in what conference they will participate for the next three years, but the Council meetings do not take place until later the same month.

Another spin is that NESCAC presidents voted last April to restrict postseason play to only their champion starting in 2001-02. NESCAC teams were allowed to go to the tournament for the first time in 1994. In that short time, NESCAC teams have been up to the task. Conference member Middlebury, the 1997 national champion, is the only team to have won the championship besides College of New Jersey since 1991. The Panthers were runners-up in 1996, Williams College, last year. Four other conference teams have earned berths.

All coaches hope collectively that AQ eventually will cause the sport to grow in regions where it has not been a priority. While that is not a given, becoming a national-level team relatively quickly is possible. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute started its program five years ago and in 1997 -- without the benefit of AQ -- made the tournament. But the Engineers lost to Middlebury in the first round, 24-5. In addition to showing that relatively rapid ascension is possible, it also shows that blowouts could happen under the old system. With AQ, many fear they could grow in regularity. A possible positive of that is that such games might prompt those on the losing end to become more competitive.

Suzanne Coffey, director of athletics at Bates College and former chair of the lacrosse committee, agreed that such improvement, while difficult, can be done.

"(Avoiding such blowouts) may depend on which region you're in and who you play in the first round," she said. "The chance to become good in four or five years is a legitimate one.

"The reason so many presidents supported AQ was to afford the opportunity to qualify to those conferences that would have no other chances at making it. I'm going to err on the side of the positive. I could see where in a sport like lacrosse, where it assumed that it is growing, such a team could benefit greatly by AQ."

If that happens, Y2K could indeed be a benchmark year for the sport.