Dominican College Women's Lacrosse

Dominican College joining the Western Women's Lacrosse League and several programs returning after time away were the big news coming out of the annual Fall Meeting for all WWLL teams over the weekend.  The Penguins will play in North Division 1 of the WWLL along with the clubs from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Santa Clara and St. Mary's.  UC San Diego is moved up from D2 to D1 so it boosts the number of D1 programs in the WWLL to 14 teams in three conferences set up by regions. New Dominican head coach Joseph Manna expressed gratitude for the support from peers when he heard the results of the voting.

Growth and potential were evident during the meeting at both the four year school and two year school levels, in the multiple level WWLL. Cal State Northridge and SBCC return  to WWLL Central D2 after some time away from league membership the last few years. UC Davis B makes the news too by coming back to the fold and the Aggies will play in North D2 in addition to their A Team counterparts being in North D1.  UC Davis head coach Ken Lubert said the time was right for his program to expand as they started with 57 players last year and had to cut down to a roster of 32. Lubert doesn't want to have to limit opportunity that way again this year.  Amazingly this will give UC Davis three teams on campus again. Their NCAA Division I team is the other one. 

Two year college news includes SBCC joining Fullerton CC as one of two community colleges in the WWLL. Fullerton supports their program at the varsity level in their Athletic Department while SBCC will be competing as a club.  SBCC women's lacrosse president Taylor Ortiz relishes the idea of getting to play this year after laying the groundwork for participation during the 2021-22 school year.  Community colleges compete in D2 of the WWLL and Glendale, Golden West, Grossmont, Moorpark and Santa Monica are also looking at either club or varsity level supported teams for 2023-24. 

There are twenty-one WWLL D2 teams competing this spring and they are distributed evenly with seven teams in each of North D2, Central D2 and South D2.  The winner of each of these conferences that are set up in regions receives an automatic qualifier spot for the WWLL Championship Tournament April 15 - 16, 2023.  Similarly, the winner of each of North D1, Central D1 and South D1 receive an AQ for their playoff tournament division. The WWLL are members of the Women's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (WCLA).  WWLL champions in each of D1 and D2 receive an AQ to the WCLA National Championship Tournament. 

WWLL divisions and teams are now public here on the WWLL website.  Click over to Teams on the menu or use the Standings page for a nice birds eye view. 

In other business during the meeting officer elections were held to fill some open spots. All officers that make up the executive board can be found on the Contacts page of the WWLL website. By-laws were tightened up as well and the final version of those will be available later this week. 

WWLL Meeting Reference:  WWLL Meeting Agenda Slide Show