Sports 360: Lacrosse

By (LAX queen) Kelly Kinas ‘16

I’ll level with you all. I have never played lacrosse. I know it’s the one shortcoming of my sports education. But just because I have not played it does not mean I cannot enjoy it. And I do enjoy it and YOU SHOULD TOO.

USC’s women’s lacrosse team is absolutely KILLING IT this season, so to get you all ready to support them at their next game, I’m here to break down the game of lacrosse for you.

Get ready. Get set. LAX.

First thing’s first, “LAX” is an abbreviation for the word lacrosse (and laxative but not one wants to talk about that). The L and the A and the X that CROSSes. You get it. You got into USC.

Now for some more basics:

Above is the Lacrosse field and where the players stand in relation to the field. Some places have a lacrosse specific fields (like my high school randomly) but at USC, we use McAllister Field and sometimes the Coliseum(!!). 

The sport consists of four positions: midfield, attack, defense and goalie. In field lacrosse, attackmen are solely offensive players (except on the “ride”, when the opposition tries to bring the ball upfield and attackmen must stop them), defensemen or defenders are solely defensive players (except when bringing up the ball, which is called a “clear”), the goalie is the last line of defense, directly defending the goal, and midfielders or “middies” can go anywhere on the field and play offense and defense, although in higher levels of lacrosse there are specialized offensive and defensive middies.

Lacrosse is a full contact sport. It is aggressive and very tough. There are 10 players on each team on the field at any time, including the goalie. Equipment for Men’s Lacrosse includes a lacrosse stick, helmet, shoulder pads, elbow pads, athletic cup (recommended for the dudes for reasons), gloves, and natural light balls.

In general, Lacrosse is a contact team sport played between two teams using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick. It is often considered as a rough sport (as stated before and I will continue to say it because IT’S TRUE) The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh designed to catch and hold the lacrosse ball. 

Offensively, the objective of the game is to score by shooting the ball into an opponent’s goal past the goalie, using the lacrosse stick to catch, cradle, and pass the ball to do so. Defensively, the objective is to keep the other team from scoring and to gain the ball through the use of stick checking and body contact or positioning.

The rules of women’s lacrosse differ significantly from men’s lacrosse, most notably by equipment and the degree of allowable physical contact. Women’s lacrosse does not promote physical contact, primarily because the only protective equipment worn for this sport is a mouth guard sometimes and face guard and thin gloves (literally HOW HARDCORE). As of late there has been discussion on the wearing of a padded cap or minimalistic helmet. 

Stick checking, and not body checking as in men’s lacrosse, is permitted in the women’s game, but only in certain levels of play. Sometimes checking can lead to body checking; while this is still not permitted in a women’s game, some referees will allow limited body checking. Women’s lacrosse also does not allow players to have a pocket, or loose net, on the lacrosse stick. Another rule difference is that women start the game with a “draw” instead of a face-off. The primary difference is that while the crosses are held in the air above their hips the ball is placed between two players crosses (stick and head) instead of on the ground.

^^ But not for the lady Trojan Lacrosse team!!

USC Women’s Lacrosse (NCAA Division I team) is UNDEFEATED RIGHT NOW. They have won all 11 of their games so far this season and is ranked #6 in the nation. They are hailed as having some of the best offense and defense in the country. OH, AND DID I MENTION THE PROGRAM IS ONLY FOUR YEARS OLD?? The Women’s Lacrosse program is relatively young and they are already building this amazing legacy.

So what can you do? USC Women’s Lacrosse is playing Stanford (PAC-12 rivalry grrrr) in the LA Coliseum on April 22nd at 4:30pm. BE THERE. SUPPORT YOUR GIRLS.

Hope y’all learned something about lacrosse and are fired up to support the Trojans in two weeks.

LAX 4EVER and Fight on!