Two years ago, the women’s lacrosse team at The Catholic University of America was embroiled in a hazing scandal involving the hiring of a male stripper, with photos of the event on the Internet. It was a scandal which paled in the scope of the tabloid coverage given the Duke men’s lacrosse team, but it was just as painful to those on campus.
Much has occurred since then. The women’s lacrosse program was placed on probation, three games were forfeited, a new coach was installed, and the team changed conferences, going from the Capital Athletic Conference to the Landmark Conference. This year, the Cardinals won the league and the post-season tournament, posting an outstanding mark of 15-3 to get into the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in program history.
Catholic’s run to the Final Four was stopped on Sunday by top-ranked Salisbury, 18-7, in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division III Tournament. Ironically, Salisbury was one of Catholic’s rivals in the Capital Athletic Conference.
The result should not discourage the program. Indeed, under head coach Meghan O’Connor McDonogh, the team has improved continuously and great things can be expected of them next year.
Also of note over the weekend, how about the fact that a team from California made it into the NCAA Division III Tournament? The Athenas of Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College, and Scripps College (colloquially known as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps) made it into the NCAA Tournament, defeated a very good Ohio Wesleyan University team 19-17 last week, only to fall at the hands of The College of New Jersey over the weekend by a score of 12-3.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps has players from Bainbridge Island, Wash. to Atlanta, from Brooklyn to Minnesota. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia are represented on this team.
It’s the melting-pot lineup U.S Lacrosse has envisioned and other national governing bodies can only dream about.
