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