The NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Finals were held in Annapolis, MD this year, featuring the newcomers from Northwestern playing the old hands from Virginia in what was sure to be an epic battle. Since my Father-in-law was here from Chicago, we decided to check-out the matchup.

I haven’t been to a women’s lacrosse game since high school, and this was nothing like any of those games that I had seen. Unlike the men’s version, women’s lacrosse is “supposed to be” a non-contact sport. I saw at least 5 women take rough falls, 1 cross-check, a couple poke-checks, and an all out stick-across-the-back-of-the-head (no call!). That is a rough sport!

The first half was a game of two teams searching for each other’s weakness. It ended with a one point difference. I don’t know what they gave those Northwestern girls in the locker room, but they came out en fuego! They took a quick lead, and Virginia spent the rest of the game playing catch-up (while Northwestern played a strong game of keep-away). Virginia did manage to bring it within 2, but everyone knew the game was already over by then.

Talking with Margaret (who grew up outside Chicago), I was very surprised to hear that Lacrosse wasn’t a sport at her high school (neither was Field Hockey). Both sports were very big women’s sports at my high school. But I read a Chicago Tribune article that explained that Lacrosse is big in the East and Northeast. Just goes to show you how easy it is to become blinded by your background.

The only thing that would have made the experience perfect: Someone to explain to me what was going on. While I knew the basics of the sport, there were many times where I was completely befuddled by what was going on. Usually whenever the ref got involved for whatever the infraction was. It looked like she spent a lot of time repositioning player to where they were before the whistle blew.

At my high school, there was really no equipment for women’s lacrosse except the stick, the uniform, and cleats. It looks like they have upped the safety factor as every woman on the field had some kind of eye protector on. It looked like a much slimed down version of a home plate umpires mask. At first I couldn’t figure out why they wouldn’t just want to wear helmets. Then it struck me: Almost every girl out there had her hair in some kind of ponytail. Hair like that would never fit under a full helmet…

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