Team to reach nationals

By Jenna Hudson

Monday night at 5 p.m., the Santa Clara women's lacrosse team got the news they had anxiously been awaiting. They were one of 12 teams invited to the Intercollegiate Associates National Championships May 11-15, in St. Louis.

"It was a room full of girls screaming and falling over each other crying," Assistant Coach Lauren Russell said of the scene.

"Waiting was a long day full of anticipation," senior center Shiloh Uhlir said. "I wish I had a video camera of the room because we were all sitting there and it just erupted. Everyone kind of just dove on the table and there was hugging."

And there was ample reason to celebrate. In their 12-year history, this is the first time a women's lacrosse team has gone to the national championships. The team, currently seeded No. 8 going into the tournament, went 15-3 on the season and was undefeated in their conference, the North Division I of the Western Women's Lacrosse League (WWLL). The only taem they've suffered losses to all year were to three-time defending-national-champion Cal Poly.

Going into nationals, both coaches and players believe that the team has everything it takes to beat their biggest competitors, No. 1 Navy and No. 2 Cal Poly, and to win the National Championships.

"Santa Clara can absolutely be the best team and give the other teams something to worry about," defensive coordinator Al Torabi said. "Our team is just as good fundamentally both offensively and defensively as those schools. We just have to work on keeping up the intensity from the get-go."

During the playoffs this past weekend in San Diego, which ended with a loss to Cal Poly, the team showed they have what it takes to win. With a seven-goal upset of UCLA, the team demonstrated championship-caliber play.

"I truly do think they could win nationals," Russell said. "Playing their best game like they played on Saturday against UCLA, they can beat anyone they truly want to."

The team would have needed to beat Cal Poly in the playoffs to get one of seven automatic bids to the tournament. Instead, they ended up as one of five at-large teams chosen by a national selection committee to partake in the tournament.

Although the team is considered an underdog, Head Coach Brendan O'Brien doesn't think that will hurt the team.

"Navy and Cal Poly have never played from behind," O'Brien said. "We just need to get an early lead and hold it. Teams overlook us and that's fine."àààà

O'Brien and assistant Drew Whyte took over the lacrosse team three years ago, when the team wasn't even ranked in the top 100. Banking on a three-year plan to move the team from mediocrity to the nationals, they improved Santa Clara to No. 18 in one year. From that point on, the team has improved each year.

Over the years O'Brien and Whyte have coached the team, the players have grown together as a unified force and built up their fundamental skills.

But the team did not get there by chance. They put in endless hours of hard work. The coaches demanded a significant amount of time and effort from team members and the high-intensity practices are only destined to get more demanding as the tournament approaches.

"The players probably haven't liked us most of the time, but I'm sure they're glad about it in the end," Whyte said.

"It's definitely a huge time commitment," said Uhlir, who noted that while the team was practicing on Tuesday, many of her friends were attending the San Francisco Giants game.

As a result of all their hard work, Coach O'Brien anticipated the team had played well enough to earn a bid. This year, they increased their strength of schedule throughout tournament play, beating top-ranked teams such as UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and Air Force. However, he admits that he was still worried they would be overlooked due to their weak conference.

Nevertheless, after waiting three years to get invited to a big tournament, the team proved itself capable of competing on a national level at the Cal Poly Tournament earlier this year by beating top-10 teams. They then returned to conference play and regularly beat their conference rivals by 15 to 20 points.

The team was largely inspired by players like first-team all stars Uhlir and senior goalie Teresa Martini, who is playing lacrosse for only the second year. However, the entire team, from seniors to rookies, played a part in the team's success.

"The rookies are phenomenal," Torabi said. "The players are not just here to learn but are actually contributing to the team."

"It was truly a conglomerate effort," O'Brien said.

Several players emphasized that camaraderie among the team members was strong and undoubtedly contributed to their success.

"Our good team chemistry got us to nationals," sophomore defensive all-star Jenny Lee said. "It was truly more of us all working together than individual skill."

"On and off the field, we all seem to get along," Martini said. "It definitely helps that we're not fighting."

And as for the tournament itself, "The expectation is upsets, we're not just going to enjoy the scenery," O'Brien said.

û Contact Jenna Hudson at (408) 554-4852 or jhudson@scu.edu.