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Having flown halfway across the country into the sweltering heat of St. Louis, where lightning threatened to lance the lacrosse fields and tornado sirens forced team members from their hotel rooms, the UCLA women’s lacrosse team embraced the unfamiliar at the Women’s Division Intercollegiate Associates Championship.

Upon arriving at the Anheuser Busch Center on May 10 for the final match, the team found itself facing home rivals Cal Poly San Louis Obispo.

“It was kind of funny to see how we’ve traveled all the way to St. Louis, Missouri, only to play the team that we beat two weeks earlier,” senior co-captain Sharon Covitt said. “It also showed the competitiveness of our league.”

Although UCLA did not live up to its top seed, taking second to Cal Poly SLO in an 11-9 loss, the Bruins nevertheless demonstrated the skill and sportsmanship that had brought them that far.

The team’s little-recognized prestige outside of the lacrosse world underlies the resourcefulness of the club team.

Under the coaching of Johanna Williams and assistant coach Alison Lee, the team practiced hard all year despite unfavorable conditions.

Training two hours in the evening, twice a week, on half of the intramural field with only half the lights working, severely limited the team.

Team members also found themselves occasionally kicked off the field when IM softball had priority.

A lack of financial support forced the team to come up with its own funds for travel, equipment, even water and athletic tape.

“It’s hard because we don’t get as much field space or financial assistance (as varsity sports),” senior Meghan Brown said. “But every one of our teammates are just as good, if not better, because we love the sport.”

The fact that Stanford and Cal boast Division I women’s lacrosse teams and that Oregon’s club team will gain varsity status next year brings added frustration.

Despite this, the team gets e-mails every week from hopeful players. Many current members decided upon UCLA after turning down schools with Division II lacrosse teams.

The Bruin lacrosse players constantly strive to prove they are more than just athletes.

“What blows me away the most about this team is our sportsmanship,” Covitt said. “Everyone respects us, and we’re just there representing UCLA.”

The matches in the WDIA Championship, then, found the Bruins having to improvise until the very end, with the weather severely affecting the two top club teams in the nation.

The six teams that the Bruins had beat out to get to the final match, including Virginia Tech, the U.S. Naval Academy, and University of Michigan, stood on the sidelines to cheer for UCLA, demonstrating the status the women’s lacrosse team has achieved.

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