The Oregon women’s Club lacrosse team has heard all about nationally ranked teams. But today at the US Lacrosse Women’s Division Intercollegiate Associates National Championships, the Ducks (16-4 overall, 8-1 Northwest Region) will finally see what the hype is all about.
Oregon, 12th in the nation, will play No. 5 Texas A&M at 9 a.m. in St. Louis at the Anheuser-Busch Sports Center. The tournament starts today and will run through Saturday.
Nineteen women are representing the Ducks in their first National Championship appearance. Oregon also represents the newest region to join the tournament ­ the Northwest ­ and will serve as the first team from the region to compete at Nationals.
“I think we are most excited about playing teams from different regions and skill levels,” co-Coordintor Marissa White said. “We haven’t seen any teams from the East Coast, so that should be a great learning experience.”
The Ducks began their trek to the National Championships at Linfield College on April 17 and 18 during Regional Tournament action. Oregon began the tournament ranked third in its region, but after a 10-2 win over Willamette and a 10-5 victory over No. 2 Whitman in the semifinals, the Ducks found themselves in the championship game. Pitted against Washington — the Northwest region’s defending champion — Oregon beat the tournament’s top-seeded team, 10-9, to earn the title of Northwest Women’s Lacrosse Division Intercollegiate Associates Champions and a trip to Nationals.
“Our team really has no weaknesses,” White said. “We have a good core of seniors who display great leadership and we just have great team chemistry both on and off the field.”
For Oregon, traveling to St. Louis has been a dream that was cultivated a long time ago. Co-Coordinator Traci Geist said the team’s success at regionals can be directly attributed to the team’s work ethic.
“Everyone decided to get better,” Geist said. “We were sick of losing. Every year our team had such a big turnover of girls, but this year we have a core group that has really stuck together.”
When Oregon takes the field today, Geist admits the team members are not quite sure what they are getting themselves into. The Ducks have never played a team from outside the West Coast area and have been able to do little scouting on the Aggies.
“We know they have an All-American, but that’s about it,” Geist said. “We are a very quick team so we will try to take advantage of that.”
Although this is Oregon’s first time competing against nationally ranked teams at such a high profile event, the Ducks still have high expectations.
“We would really like to win some games,” senior Mary Beebe said. “We want to know how West Coast teams compare.”

Men eliminated
The No. 8 Oregon men’s lacrosse Club team stuck to its winning ways on Tuesday, defeating No. 9 Boston College, 14-10, at the U.S. Lacrosse Men’s Intercollegiate Associates National Championships, also in St. Louis.
The Eagles took a 4-3 lead, but the Ducks regained control just before halftime. From then on, Oregon took control for good and won the opening match of the tournament, 14-10.
The Ducks advanced to the quarterfinals, where they fell to No. 1 UC Santa Barbara, 12-5, on Wednesday.