Skip To Main Content

Schedule

Calendar
WLAX Announcement

General

Wilson College to Launch Women's Lacrosse

General

Wilson College to Launch Women's Lacrosse

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. ─ Wilson College continues to expand its intercollegiate athletics program with the addition of women's lacrosse─the fastest-growing NCAA women's sport of the past 15 years.

Women's lacrosse will become Wilson's 11th NCAA Division III program. In the last six years, the college has added six intercollegiate programs─most recently baseball, which will begin its inaugural season this spring with a home opener at Chambersburg's historic Henninger Field.

"Our sport sponsorship continues to expand and we are excited to add the growing sport of women's lacrosse to Phoenix Athletics," said Wilson Director of Athletics Lori Frey.  "We look forward to yet another sport competing in the Colonial States Athletics Conference."  Wilson's first lacrosse season will occur in the spring of 2021.

A national search for a head coach will begin immediately to allow for the new coach to begin recruiting during the 2019-20 academic year, officials said.  The full-time head coach will also coordinate a new recreation and intramural program. 

"The CSAC is thrilled that Wilson College is enhancing its sport sponsorship offerings with the addition of women's lacrosse," Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Commissioner Adrienne Mullikin said. "Wilson will become the seventh core member in the conference to sponsor women's lacrosse in 2020-21, which allows the CSAC to achieve one of its primary goals of maintaining automatic qualifiers to the NCAA tournament. The CSAC applauds the administration at Wilson for recognizing this opportunity to strengthen the conference and we look forward to watching this program flourish in the years to come."

According to the NCAA, over the past 15 years the number of women's lacrosse teams has increased by 97.3 percent, making it the fastest-growing sport for women during that time. The sport's growth shows no signs of slowing. In the past two years alone, women's lacrosse has added a net 22 teams. In 2017-18, 45.3 percent of NCAA schools sponsored women's lacrosse.

Lacrosse has a long history at Wilson. The college officially fielded a team in 1934-35 and continued to do so until 1984, when the college shifted its sport sponsorship. During the late 1960s, the lacrosse team was coached by Kathy Heinze, an English Reserve player who went on to coach the U.S. Lacrosse Team that included Wilson alumnae Sandy Walker '74 and Constance Burgess Lanzl '72, who was later inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

"Expanding our athletics offerings is a strong component of Wilson's overall enrollment growth and student retention strategy," said David Boisvert, vice president for enrollment management. "Adding women's lacrosse is another important step in reaching those goals." 

Follow us on Twitter: @ignite_the_fire 
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WilsonCollegePhoenix
Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/phoenixathletics/

 
Print Friendly Version