UW-Stout (D3 WI) Adds Women's Lacrosse

MENOMONIE (September 22, 2021) – The fastest growing collegiate sport will be coming to UW-Stout when the Blue Devils introduce women's lacrosse to the sports module. UW-Stout will immediately begin a national search for a coach to develop the program with the intent to begin competition in the spring of 2023. Lacrosse becomes the 19th NCAA varsity sport in the UW-Stout sports module and the 11th NCAA varsity sport for women. The lacrosse team will play their home games at Nelson Field. Esports, a non-NCAA sport, became a varsity program during the 2020-21 school year.

The fast-paced sport of lacrosse is growing collegiately not only nationwide - 26 NCAA schools added lacrosse in 2020 - but among schools in the area. UW-River Falls was the first conference school to play lacrosse, beginning in the 2018-19 school year. The Falcons earned an NCAA playoff bid this past spring. UW-La Crosse began their women's program in 2020 and UW-Eau Claire played their first games in 2021. In addition to the three WIAC schools, seven colleges and universities in Wisconsin offer Division III women's programs. Nearby Augsburg University, Hamline University and the University of Northwestern in St. Paul offer Division III women's lacrosse programs. With the start of the 2020-21 season, there were 293 NCAA Division III women's lacrosse programs.

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Posted in: Division III,Wisconsin

Augustana University (D2 SD) Adds Women's Lacrosse

 SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Continuing with Augustana University's strategic plan — Viking Bold: The Journey to 2030 — of providing students opportunities and to help fuel enrollment growth, Augustana Athletics is proud to announce the addition of women's lacrosse beginning in the 2023-24 academic year. Augustana will house the first collegiate lacrosse program in South Dakota, regardless of division or affiliation. The Vikings will compete at the NCAA
Division II level.

"We are excited to add this fast-growing, dynamic sport at Augustana," Augustana Director of Athletics Josh Morton said. "This is a natural fit for our campus, community and region and, once again, we are able to find ways to grow and differentiate ourselves." There has been strong growth of the sport in the NCAA, including nine new programs at the NCAA Division II level since January 2020. In total, there are currently 114 programs competing at the Division II level across 10 conferences. Across all three divisions, there are 524 women's teams.

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Posted in: Division II,South Dakota

University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy (NAIA MO) Adds Lacrosse

In addition to its efforts to improve the student experience, the University will also build a foundation of aggressive recruiting and student support for extracurricular and intercollegiate athletics participation through its existing sports teams, and create new teams and programs as part of the Eutectics Forward plan. "Over the years, UHSP's student-athletes have continued to lift the academic caliber of our
institution, and we've seen very high retention rates among our first-year student-athletes," Allen noted. "With these factors in mind, we will be partnering new and existing athletic teams with our new academic programs in an effort to bolster enrollment and provide student-athletes with new ways to grow and learn with us." 

New athletic teams that will begin recruiting students for fall 2022 include: 
Baseball
Men's and Women's Bowling
Competitive Cheer
Competitive Dance
Men's and Women's Golf
Men's and Women's Lacrosse
Men's Rugby
Men's and Women's Wrestling

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Posted in: Missouri,NAIA

Anderson University (D2 SC) and Dominican University (D2 CA) Add Women's Lacrosse

ANDERSON, S.C. – Anderson University Vice President for Athletics, Dr. Bert Epting, Jr., has named former Alabama Huntsville women's lacrosse coach Gail Wallach as the Trojans' head women's lacrosse coach, as announced Thursday morning. 

The Black and Gold's inaugural season will be during the 2022-2023 academ
ic year and will raise AU's varsity sports offerings to 21 sports, including the coed cheer squad. 

 "We are so excited to welcome Gail and her family to the Trojan Family," said Epting. "She has tremendous experience in building a program, recruiting at a high level, and leading young women, all while integrating Christ into all she does. She truly exemplifies a Christ-centered approach to sport and we are blessed to be able to name her as the first women's lacrosse head coach at Anderson University. Go Trojans!"

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SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican athletics is pleased to announce the hiring of Joseph Manna to lead the first ever women's lacrosse team in Penguin history. "I'm excited for the opportunity to start the program here at Dominican," Manna said. "Dominican is the perfect place to start a women's lacrosse program with its location and job connections in the Bay Area and its high academics supported by the Dominican Experience." 

Manna will spend the next year recruiting in preparation for the Penguins inaugural season in 2022-23. He will spend the next month attending lacrosse events all over the western US beginning in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the Legends Western Freakshow and Legends Western Invitaitonal. Manna will then attend the Adrenaline Western Shootout July 9-11 (Colorado Springs, Colorado), the Rose City Showdown July 16-18 (Portland, Oregon), the IWCLA West Coast Cup July 24-25 (San Jose) and the USBOXLA Nationals August 6-8 (San Diego). Most recently he spent time as an assistant at the University of Detroit Mercy with men's lacrosse and gaining his first experience in women's lacrosse. Manna oversaw the No. 11 face-off unit in the country for the men's side, while being the lead assistant for recruiting and goalies for the women. He also spent time assisting the offense for the Titan women and helped set a new conference record for points scored in a single game with 24 against Youngstown State in 2020.

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Posted in: California,Division II,South Carolina

Clemson University (D1 SC) Adds Women's Lacrosse

CLEMSON, S.C. – Clemson University will add women’s lacrosse and women’s gymnastics as varsity programs in the next two years, Director of Athletics Dan Radakovich announced on Thursday, live on Packer and Durham on ACC Network. Lacrosse is projected to begin competition in 2022-23, with gymnastics beginning competition in the 2023-24 academic year.

“We are thrilled to be able to add these two high-profile women’s sports and expand opportunities for female student-athletes,” said Radakovich. “Over the past six weeks, we’ve heard from many representatives of various potential sports, and spent a great deal of time examining several possibilities and ultimately evaluating which sports would be best for Clemson Athletics. The combination of women’s lacrosse and gymnastics gives us the ability to compete for ACC and NCAA Division I Championships, and we know our community will embrace these new programs. We are grateful to the University for their partnership which will enable us to bring these new opportunities to Clemson.”

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Posted in: Division I,South Carolina