From Rags to Riches: WVU Women’s Club Lacrosse
September 6th, 2007
-- By Megan Osgood, WVU Women's Lacrosse Co-Founder/Social Chair

In February of 2006, 5 girls got together to throw around and decided it was time to create a team. We knew that the interest would be there especially knowing from what parts of the nation this university draws its students (et hem, the lax powerhouse that is the east coast). We took that idea and ran with it. Last fall, we showed up as a band of mis-fits in our ‘so nice throwbacks’ to Athens, Ohio for not only our first Fall Ball tournament, but our first ever game as a team. The other teams at the tournament were 2 separate teams representing Ohio University and what would then become our first enemy as a club, Kent State University. Getting out of our self-provided rides, the other teams may have looked at us funny, what with our array of different shorts, and the sweet self-made jerseys with crooked letters across our chests. But that was fine by us, we showed up and cleaned house. Without a proper warm-up, we had to start the first game right then and there. We beat the first OU team 6-3. We followed that with another win over the other OU team, 8-4. Then, battle-weary, we headed into our final game, as the only team still unbeaten in the tournament, vs. Kent State. After a series of bad calls, all in the favor of KSU, tempers started to flare on and off the field. We may be girls, but come game-time, we get feisty and often language can be heard that is anything but ladylike. We ended up losing that game by one point, 5-6, and the bitter taste it left in all of our mouths lasted until we would meet again in the regular season in the spring. But when all was said and done, we finished on top of the OU Fall Ball Tournament 2006. In November of the same year (2006), myself and the team’s treasurer, Lisa ‘LJ’ Johnson, headed to Toledo to present our case to be let into the league. We got in easily, with a lot of buzz and excitement about us from the league’s governing board. We created our first season’s schedule while in Toledo, and then headed home to Morgantown to spread the good news. From here, it was smooth sailing. We filled our off time in the winter with an indoor winter league at a brand new local indoor facility, ProPerfomance. We broke our team into two small groups of 8-9, WVU Blue and WVU Gold, to compete in the winter league. Basically, every game either of the WVU teams played were less demanding then our laid-back practices. We were facing groups of high school girls, ranging in ages from 14 to 18. Needless to say, it turned out to be a bloodbath every Sunday. Our teams would light up the scoreboards like a Christmas tree, with our ‘closest’ victory being 17-3. Until the WVU Gold and WVU Blue teams faced each other, there was basically no competition. Parents from the other teams of girls we were facing would often give flattering compliments to us after every game. One mother even approached us and said how fun it was to watch us play, and how good she thought we were, even though she knew that practically our entire roster was most likely “hungover”. Not even a bad case of the spins can keep us off the field. Spring approached faster than anyone could believe. We got our uniforms in the knick of time to look so fresh at our opening game. We kicked off our inaugural season with another trip to Athens, Ohio on February 24th, 2007, to take on Ohio University, and once again returned to Morgantown with smiles on our faces. First regular season game of WVU Women’s Lacrosse goes in the history books as a ‘W’ (6-3). From there we reigned victorious over Slippery Rock, Carnegie-Mellon, WV Wesleyan and Penn St-Behrend, with only two losses to Grove City and arch-rival, and nationally ranked in the top 10, Pitt. The final game of our first season was against none other than the team that infuriated us in the fall, Kent State. And this time around we wanted them to feel our wrath. Although it was mid-April, we found ourselves playing on a snow covered field in Kent, Ohio. This time the end result wouldn’t mimic that of the fall. We came out on top 7-6, which was a perfect way to end the season. We as a team bonded over the whole season and genuinely became close friends besides just teammates. Everyone did their part to make our first season great. Our team’s, (founding and current) president, Lisa ‘LC’ Connors, has put in countless hours of work, of which can probably never be fully thanked for, to maintain our level of what we like to call, ‘Baller Status’. We have already begun our initial plans for this upcoming season, and look forward to meeting and bringing in a whole other class of girls to join our close-knit family that is West Virginia Lacrosse. Look for us to be making big moves, off and on the field, this year. WVU Women’s Lacrosse; the most legit chicks on campus.