When you read the story Tuesday that the Athletic Department was adding women’s lacrosse in two seasons, you probably had the same reaction as most of your fellow West Coast students.
“Oh, that’s nice. What’s lacrosse?”
“It’s kind of a mix of soccer, basketball and hockey, played in the air,” said Chip Rogers, a representative of the United States Lacrosse National Committee.
Lacrosse bills itself as “the fastest game on two feet,” and it is. Unless you’re talking about the 100-meter dash in track.
But, seriously, lacrosse is a foreign entity to most of us. So without further ado, the Emerald proudly presents its “Official Guide to Women’s Lacrosse,” © 2003.

The basics
The main goal of lacrosse is to score goals — in particular, to score more goals than your opponent. Odd, isn’t it? Each team fields 12 players, including a goalkeeper to guard a goal that is slightly taller than an ice hockey goal.
The players use long lacrosse sticks with “baskets” on the end, and the goalie has a larger basket than a field player. They can’t pick up the small, hard ball with their hands, and they run down the field “cradeling” the ball, slinging the ball in the net to score goals.

The rules
The lacrosse playing field is approximately 120 yards wide by 70 yards across, but there are no out-of-bounds lines on the field. The teams play two 30-minute halves and have one two-minute timeout per half. Overtime is two three-minute periods, followed by as many sudden death periods as needed.
Now, here’s where it gets complicated. Like hockey, there is an “offensive zone” on each end of the field, with the restraining line 30 yards out from the goal. Only eight defensive players and seven attacking players can be in the zone at the same time, or offsides
is called.
There is an eight-yard arc in front of the goal, in which a defender can only stand for three seconds unless she’s directly guarding an offensive player. If a defender fouls an offensive player inside the arc, the offensive player gets a penalty shot from a nearby hashmark. A circular “crease” surrounds the goal where no player is permitted except the goalkeeper.

The difference
Women’s lacrosse is vastly different from men’s lacrosse for one reason.
The men check.
The women don’t.
Women’s lacrosse players are allowed to stick-check other players, meaning stick-on-stick contact only, and only if the offensive player is carrying the ball. In men’s lacrosse, the players are heavily padded, wearing helmets and allowed to body check each other much like hockey.
The women don’t wear pads
or helmets.

The history
Lacrosse is one of the oldest sports in North America. American Indians played the game prior to the 1600s to, as legend has it, settle territorial disputes.
The sport took off and was modified by French settlers in Northeastern territories, in what is now Canada. Now, it’s the official summer sport of Canada.
The modern college game is dominated by East Coast schools, most of which have had programs since the mid-1900s. The first men’s national championship was held in 1971, and the first women’s championship was held in 1982.
Maryland has won the most women’s championships, nine, after dominating the sport from 1995-2001. The Terrapins won all seven national titles in that time span, going undefeated in four of those seasons.

The Ducks
All of that may seem daunting for a fledgling West Coast program, but the Oregon women will be pioneers of the sport on the left coast. They will play in the Mountain Pacific Lacrosse League with Stanford, California, California-Davis, St. Mary’s and Denver. They’ll start play in 2004-05.
Which means you’ll have to wait two more years to use all that newfound lacrosse knowledge.