Women use work, tradition to build lacrosse team
By Lauren Kane
Skiff Staff

They wear kilts and mouth guards, carry sticks and play against UTA, A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech. They are 20 strong, they are women — and they play lacrosse.

The team of less than two dozen does not have a coach, so the players must teach new teammates and work together to improve their performance.

“We play as a team even though we don’t have a coach,” said Meredith Widlaski, a junior business finance major. “All of the officers and other (women) put in a lot of effort to keep the team going.”

Many of the players had never played lacrosse before joining the team, and a handful of them had never seen a game before playing in one. But with a little practice, all of them have learned to play and compete.

“You bond with the (women) you personally teach and feel really proud when they finally get it,” co-captain Amanda Fila, a senior economics major, said. “It’s also neat to watch (women) who have never played before become amazing out of nowhere.”

Co-captain Trish Ajello, a senior English major, said, “Because lacrosse is so unique, it’s a hard concept to get used to. Many (women) think they should be able to catch, throw and pass like a pro after the first practice.

“It can be discouraging at first, but the process is fast if you practice.”

Lacrosse, a club sport at TCU, is a fast-paced sport that combines elements of soccer, basketball and hockey, Ajello said.

“It’s a sport that combines skill, strategy and teamwork for a really fun experience,” she said.

A women’s lacrosse game is played by two opposing teams of 12 women. They use sticks mounted with nets to catch, carry and throw a ball down the field toward the opposing team’s goal.

The women’s game is broken into two 25-minute halves, separated by a 10-minute break.

Unlike men’s teams, most women’s teams do not wear helmets or other protective gear with the exception of mouth guards, which are required.

“Women’s lacrosse is similar to men’s in its style, but the rules and equipment are different,” Ajello said. “Unlike the men, women do not wear helmets or padding because their game is technically non-contact.”

The players like pointing out that part of their uniform consists of a kilt.

“Not many other sports have uniforms like ours,” Widlaski said. “The kilt helps bring in the traditional aspect of the sport.”

Lacrosse, which was originally played by Native Americans training for war, gained popularity among European immigrants in the 1860s in the North and is quickly spreading in the South.

Several Texas high schools, including Plano Senior High School and Memorial High School in Houston, have created lacrosse teams in the past few years.

The TCU women’s team started for a variety of reasons. Widlaski wanted to meet new people and work out with a group, Ajello was curious about the sport, and Fila said she “wanted to learn how to play and ended up really loving it.”

The women’s lacrosse team, which started at TCU eight years ago, currently comprises about 20 women who travel throughout Texas playing games during the spring against schools such as the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Baylor University and Texas Tech University.

The team also plays in tournaments around Texas and Louisiana. Last year the women played in the Mardi Gras Tournament in New Orleans, the Annual Ladies Lax-Out Tournament at Baylor and the Texas A&M’s Annual Quickstick Invitational.

Ajello said the team also does a lot of team bonding, especially when traveling, which she said is reflected in the way the women play on the field.

“You have to trust your teammates during a game, and the more you know them and how they play, the better you will all be,” Ajello said.

Lauren Kane