By William Britt

Lacrosse is a sport that combines aspects from football, basketball, and soccer. It has physicality and ferocious hits like football, screening and cutting is used on offense like basketball, and it requires endurance and excellent technique and finesse like soccer. All of this, as well as many other factors, have led to lacrosse, especially college lacrosse, being the fastest growing sport in America. 

Cornell Big Red lacrosse player Mike O’Neil. Photo credit: Tommy Gilligan via Wikimedia Commons.

At colleges, there are three divisions of NCAA lacrosse. Division I NCAA lacrosse is offered at little more than 70 colleges within ten conferences. Division II NCAA lacrosse is also offered at just north of 70 colleges within eight conferences. Division III NCAA lacrosse is easily the largest of the three, with teams from over 200 colleges within 24 conferences. Then there are around 50 schools offering college lacrosse between National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and National Junior College Athletic Association (JUCO). The team sizes have also increased, meaning more opportunities for lacrosse at the college level, as D-I teams can now carry 44 players. According to U.S. Lacrosse, between 2003 and 2008 men’s D-I lacrosse grew 61% and women’s grew by 97%. Additionally, according to U.S. Lacrosse, lacrosse increased by 32% between all age groups from 2008 to 2018. All of these figures and statistics, along with its popularity in youth sports, bode well for lacrosse’s continued growth in the future.

UVA lacrosse players. Photo credit: Rich Collins via flickr.

Regular season college lacrosse games have never provided an electric atmosphere compared to college football and basketball, especially considering most games are played on Thursday or Friday nights. However, that was not the case March 18 at Klöckner Stadium in Charlottesville, when the University of Virginia Cavaliers men’s lacrosse team took on the University of Maryland Terrapins. Mac Eldridge, a graduate of Georgetown Prep who attended Collegiate through his freshman year, and is the brother of Emma Eldridge (‘23), is a member of UVA’s team as a face-off specialist. This particular game featured the two teams responsible for the last three men’s college lacrosse national champions. In total, Maryland has won four national championships, while Virginia a staggering seven. In the highest attended UVA home lacrosse game since 2013, 5,745 people, including myself, were in attendance for an incredible game filled with runs, and it took an overtime to decide it. I was shocked when I walked into the stadium and saw the grandstands packed and people surrounding the field in its entirety. 

Maryland lacrosse players. Photo credit: Kyle T. via flickr.

The game itself gave every single one of these fans a thriller of a game. It was a game full of runs, with Maryland starting the game scoring three unanswered goals. This was followed by six straight goals by Virginia. Heading into the half, the score was 6-4 in favor of Virginia. A third quarter that heavily favored the Terps was followed by a few goals to start the fourth, and the Hoos saw themselves down 9-12 early in the fourth quarter. 

But after yet another run from Virginia and a game-tying goal from senior midfielder Thomas McConvey with 1:18 remaining in the final period, the game headed into overtime. The college lacrosse overtime rule is sudden death, meaning that the first goal scored in overtime wins the game. In overtime, the action was up and down the field, both teams had several opportunities to win it, and Virginia had a great sequence of chances, where three shots were fired on the Maryland goal all within 10 seconds. But Maryland’s freshman goalie Brian Ruppel stopped all three shots in acrobatic fashion, and Maryland scored on their ensuing possession. The goal at Klöckner Stadium was disappointing for myself and Virginia fans, but we had just witnessed a fantastic game. 

A game like this matchup between UVA and Maryland is a perfect example of why college lacrosse is the fastest-growing NCAA sport. Lacrosse is a game that is not confusing to understand and is extremely fast-paced. When paired with an atmosphere like the one at Klöckner, it’s an incredible event to witness.