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Bringing It Home – The Saint Rose Blog

New Golden Knights Women’s Lacrosse Team Starts Season at Home: A Primer on the Women’s Game

Saint Rose women's lacrosse team practicing on the field

This Saturday, February 29, the Golden Knights women’s lacrosse team will play the first home game of its inaugural season, taking on the University of the District of Columbia at noon at the Christian Plumeri Sports Complex.

“This will be the first time you’ll ever see our lacrosse uniforms, and many people will ever see the game,” said Head Coach Kaitlin Gaghan, a former Division I and II player who has been preparing since she was hired in 2018 to launch the Saint Rose program.

“We want to spread the word to professors and administrators and staff to join us for the inaugural season of our women’s team happening the same year as the 100th anniversary of Saint Rose’s founding as a women’s college,” she added. “We are pretty excited to get out there and get our legs rolling.”

Gaghan is committed to building a top-tier team, in the tradition of the College’s highly-ranked women’s soccer program. The women’s lacrosse team had a respectable first game last week, falling to St. Thomas Aquinas College 13-8 at its Rockland County campus.

Gaghan notes the first year for a new team is always unusual because there are no veterans the team can draw from. All but two players are first-year students.

Lack of intercollegiate experience, however, offers the lacrosse team the advantage of giving players up to four years to meld as a team.

The players, who come from a broad geographic background, represent an important demographic for Saint Rose. They are taking part in the nation’s fastest-growing women’s intercollegiate sport.

And, they are playing a game that is unique because it is distinct from the men’s version. Men wear helmets and hit each other a lot. Women, protected by goggles and a mouth guard, emphasize speed and precision over physicality.

Here are other differences:

Men’s lacrosse:
Equipment: helmet, gloves, chest protector, shoulder pads, lacrosse stick
Number of players on the field: 10
Shot clock: 20 seconds to clear, 60-second possession
Time of the game: four quarters
Contact: full contact and stick checking
Start of play: faceoff – both players are on the ground, with the ball placed in the middle

Women’s lacrosse:
Equipment: goggles, mouth guard, lacrosse stick
Number of players on the field: 12
Shot clock: 90-second possession clock
Time of the game: two halves
Contact: limited contact and stick checking
Start of Play: draw – the ball is placed in between the two women players’ sticks, while holding it in between their heads in the air.

For the roster and schedule click here.

Click here to learn more about the program and the team.

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