UCSB women’s lacrosse gaining in numbers

A record number of new players will swell the ranks of the UCSB women’s lacrosse program this fall. Twenty-three incoming freshmen and transfers have committed to the University.

It’s a mix of recruits and walk-ons across every position played in the game.

Recruits, of course, is not a term in the case of the UCSB program that indicates scholarship money received as it does at NCAA Division I programs.

Prospects considered recruits are those who contacted head coach Paul Ramsey about their interest in UCSB before the application process and were recruited to stay interested. Walk-ons are players who were accepted and decided to attend UCSB before contacting Ramsey about trying out. All are welcome to the program regardless of when they made initial contact. UCSB is a non-scholarship program in the Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association (WCLA) Division One of U.S. Lacrosse, the National Governing Body for the Sport.

UCSB graduated seven starters from the team that traveled to Colorado Springs for the WCLA National Championship Tournament this past May. Welcome indeed is this large class of projected 2016 graduates because of those departures.

More spots on the UCSB ‘A’ Team are up for grabs than ever have been. The program has consistently received a dozen or so freshmen a year over the past five years. The reason this number has almost doubled goes beyond the borders of the state of California. Nine of the new players hail from outside the Golden State.

The seven states represented in the class in addition to California are Colorado, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Utah, Virginia and Washington.

The lacrosse class trend follows the general University of California trend of admitting more out-of-state students. It just so happens there are more lacrosse players in strong lacrosse states than college & university lacrosse roster spots in those states. In one recruiting class UCSB went from having two out-of-state players on their A & B teams, in 2012, to having eleven, soon showing the trend on their women’s lacrosse roster this fall.