2008 Woodie Awards
Women's lacrosse ranked No. 15 in country
Matt Pavao
Issue date: 2/28/08 Section: Sports
02/28/08 - Head down to the lacrosse fields on Plains Road and you might find one of the University of Rhode Island's best-kept secrets.
The women's lacrosse team is a relative unknown around campus despite its success over the years. But this all may change after a recent West Coast trip that has URI ranked No. 15 in the country out of 211 club teams.
The team is in good shape early on to win its conference and earn a bid to the nationals for the second time in four years.
"I think we're a lot better and a lot more competitive than people think," senior Gillian Spealman said. "Everyone on this URI team could play Division I lacrosse."
The team won three of four matches during its trip from Feb. 16 to 17 in California with the only loss coming against No. 5 ranked Santa Clara University. The Rams may not have had much of a reputation heading into California, but they certainly left with one.
"I think at first when we went out there teams didn't take us seriously but then we won our first three games and they started to," Spealman said. "The teams on the West Coast don't have Division I [lacrosse] out there so they have some of the best club teams."
The team's success may come as a surprise to some but not to the women on the team who put in as much work as any varsity sport on campus.
The team has no coach, so practices are run by the team captains, who are also responsible for scheduling games, booking flights, raising money, hiring referees and even lining the fields.
"Nothing comes easy to us," Spealman said. "We have to take care of everything. The captains do a lot of work. It's like a full time job and the fact that they can get it all done is even more impressive because they all have hard majors."
All of this is made possible thanks to the contributions of the team's veteran players, especially its three senior captains, Eileen Farrell, Sally Dowd and Alex Mevs.
"The seniors do a good job of organization," Spealman said. "Our practices aren't time for hanging out. We take them very seriously and whatever the captain says goes. It was kind of weird at first [not having a coach] but we've gotten used to it."
The women's lacrosse team is a relative unknown around campus despite its success over the years. But this all may change after a recent West Coast trip that has URI ranked No. 15 in the country out of 211 club teams.
The team is in good shape early on to win its conference and earn a bid to the nationals for the second time in four years.
"I think we're a lot better and a lot more competitive than people think," senior Gillian Spealman said. "Everyone on this URI team could play Division I lacrosse."
The team won three of four matches during its trip from Feb. 16 to 17 in California with the only loss coming against No. 5 ranked Santa Clara University. The Rams may not have had much of a reputation heading into California, but they certainly left with one.
"I think at first when we went out there teams didn't take us seriously but then we won our first three games and they started to," Spealman said. "The teams on the West Coast don't have Division I [lacrosse] out there so they have some of the best club teams."
The team's success may come as a surprise to some but not to the women on the team who put in as much work as any varsity sport on campus.
The team has no coach, so practices are run by the team captains, who are also responsible for scheduling games, booking flights, raising money, hiring referees and even lining the fields.
"Nothing comes easy to us," Spealman said. "We have to take care of everything. The captains do a lot of work. It's like a full time job and the fact that they can get it all done is even more impressive because they all have hard majors."
All of this is made possible thanks to the contributions of the team's veteran players, especially its three senior captains, Eileen Farrell, Sally Dowd and Alex Mevs.
"The seniors do a good job of organization," Spealman said. "Our practices aren't time for hanging out. We take them very seriously and whatever the captain says goes. It was kind of weird at first [not having a coach] but we've gotten used to it."