The NCAA News - News and Features

April 14, 1997

Smooth transition

Not only is women's lacrosse enjoying an upswing in sponsorship, it's also watching some of the newcomers make an impressive jump to national competition

BY MARTY BENSON
Staff Writer

When Jenny Slingluff was growing up in the lacrosse hotbed of Baltimore, she dreamed of playing her favorite sport at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, or the University of Virginia -- two of the top-name schools in the male version of the game.

"All the boys wanted to go to one of those schools, Johns Hopkins, or Syracuse, if they were from up North," she said. "When I found out that North Carolina didn't have a women's program, that made my choice easier."

These days, women with similar aspirations have more options.

North Carolina's program is in its second year, and 37 other schools added the game this season, including such traditional athletics powerhouses as the University of Notre Dame and the University of Connecticut. Syracuse University's program will start next year.

Schools in other divisions and outside the sport's regional stronghold -- such as Division II University of California, Davis -- also have added the sport. In all, 74 institutions sponsor women's lacrosse at the National Collegiate level, which includes Divisions I and II. In Division III, numbers increased from 92 to 107.

These days, Slingluff coaches at North Carolina, where the Tar Heels are nationally ranked, just as they are in virtually every other sport.

A sign of how far the newcomers have progressed came recently. The Heels gave two-time defending champion University of Maryland, College Park, a scare before the Terrapins won, 10-8, extending their NCAA-record winning streak to 42 games.

Reasons for adding lacrosse

North Carolina associate athletics director Beth Miller said that the school added women's lacrosse to meet students' interest. The institution had an active club program whose leaders made a formal request to upgrade to varsity competition.

Other schools have added the sport to square their participation numbers with gender-equity guidelines. Chris Sailer, coach at Princeton University and president of the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA), said adding the program for that purpose makes sense.

"We have high participation numbers, and compared to some other sports, our equipment costs are low," she said. "Also, if you put some money into it, you can contend for a national championship in a relatively short period of time.

"It's fast-paced and is a good spectator sport. There are a lot of schools with a men's program and no women's program, so it's a natural choice."

But how can a program become as good as North Carolina has so fast?

At Syracuse, where former Brown University assistant Lisa Miller will guide the Orange in its inaugural season next year, an active club team also got the sport started. Some of the club players hope to make the varsity next season, but the club team will continue to exist. The Syracuse coach expects the majority of her players to be new arrivals to campus.

"There's a big difference between getting up Saturday morning and going to play and making the commitment necessary to play Division I lacrosse," said Miller, who played at the College of William and Mary and has been head coach at Wheaton College (Massachusetts). "We have a few club members who are working very hard and will be members of the team, but the bulk of the team will be players who have excelled in high school and have set their sights on playing Division I lacrosse -- for a long time."

Deep tradition

In some ways, Lisa Miller faces the same situation as Slingluff -- starting a program at a school that has a deep tradition as a powerhouse in men's lacrosse and academics. Just as the Tar Heel legacy has helped Slingluff's team, Miller believes the Syracuse tradition will help build her program.

"(Men's coach) Roy Simmons (Jr.), in his own right, is a legend in the game," she said. "It certainly helps to be viewed as potentially on par with a team that has won six (men's) national championships.

"Now all we have to do is get Roy to promise us his players' first-born female children and we'll be all set," she joked.

Although similarities exist, Miller faces challenges that Slingluff does not -- rugged spring weather being one. She does not expect to get many players from the South, even though the team will be insulated by the warmth of the Carrier Dome for at least part of the season.

The Tar Heels have been able to borrow two players from their perennial national-championship women's soccer team. Syracuse's women's soccer program, by contrast, is a relative newcomer, so that pipeline, if it exists at all, is not likely to be as productive for the Orange.

One advantage Syracuse has is that the state of New York plays high-school girls' lacrosse; North Carolina does not.

"Most of the players, both girls and boys, grew up watching the Syracuse men play," Miller said. "It's a fast, up-tempo, aggressive style -- the kind I like to play and coach."

The coach of the Orange expects it will take three or four years before her squad can challenge for a tournament berth, but said she will not schedule weak teams to pad her record in the meantime. Instead, she plans to divide her schedule into thirds: One-third will be games against teams that Syracuse should beat; one-third will be against teams of equal talent; and in the remainder, "we should get crushed."

"It's easy to back down and play an easy schedule, but you don't grow by doing that," she said. "Coming to Syracuse is not about being mediocre. To get better we will have to play the toughest teams."

Championships might change

Amy Campbell, chair of the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Committee and senior woman administrator at Princeton, could not be happier about the growth of the sport. She expects it to continue.

"Depth in women's lacrosse can only help the sport," she said. "It also means someone will be knocking on the traditional powers' doors, which makes the sport really exciting."

As the game grows and parity develops, more teams will want tournament bids. Until last year, the National Collegiate championship bracket included only six teams. This year, that total has increased to eight. With the influx of schools, Campbell said expansion to 12 teams is both needed and justified.

If that goal is achieved, the committee will look at adjusting qualifying criteria so that teams from nontraditional areas will have access to the tournament. Currently, the committee extends all bids on an at-large basis.

Sailer, who is in her first term of three years as IWLCA president, said one of her goals is to create a kit that the organization can make available to schools that are considering adding the sport.

At this point, those seeking information on the game can find it on the World Wide Web:

www.ivyleague.princeton.edu/ncaawlax/.