Men miss out on postseason chance, women finish 7th

After spending most of the season ranked in the nation's top five, the men's lacrosse team found itself shut out of the national championship tournament after a late season slide landed it one spot shy of playoffs.

Unites States Lacrosse Intercollegiate Associates voters choose No. 14 Cal Poly (9-7, 3-3) over the No. 15 Laxcats (9-8, 4-3) for the final spot in the playoffs.

"I think we're better than pretty much 50 percent of the teams there, but I don't know if our record warranted us getting in," said head coach Adam Hopkins.

Arizona was hoping No. 1 UC Santa Barbara would blow out Cal Poly by enough that the Laxcats would get the last bid instead of the Mustangs. The Gauchos won 16-5, a week after UA lost to UCSB 10-5.

UCSB then proceeded to beat then No. 1 Sonoma State, who sat atop the rankings all year long, at Sonoma State by six goals, making the Laxcats the team to post the best result against the Gauchos since UCSB beat No. 5 BYU in Provo 9-7.

"It's tough, once the semifinals of the conference tournaments get going the voters tend to focus on them," Hopkins said.

Arizona lost in the quarterfinals of the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League tournament, though No. 10 Chico State, which lost in the quarterfinals to Cal Poly 9-8, made it in.

Arizona essentially needed six teams to win last weekend, including then No. 7 Florida in the South Eastern Lacrosse Conference. Had the Gators lost to an unranked team or then No. 16 Georgia Tech or then No. 18 Auburn, Florida would have taken the last at-large bid.

Since the Laxcats played more NCAA teams than most schools, Arizona was forced to have a minimum amount of USLIA teams on their schedules, like the Mustangs, No. 7 Texas A & M or No. 8 Florida. UA was unable to set a date with the Aggies, champions of the Lone Star Alliance, for a game and scrimmaged NCAA D-I No. 9 Cornell instead of Cal Poly to make the team better, Hopkins said.

"I originally didn't think it would hurt us," Hopkins said.

Injury-plagued Women's squad takes 7th in WWLL

After not having a coach for the bulk of the season, the women's lacrosse team was again unlucky, missing at least four starters for the Western Women's Lacrosse League tournament, including its starting goalie.

The No. 18 Wildcats (6-8) opened the tournament with an 11-10 loss to No. 16 Santa Clara. The Broncos (8-2) were the champions of the Northern Division of the WWLL and only lost only to No. 1 Cal Poly during the regular season.

"We didn't play to the best of our ability, but we were missing those starters," said junior point Mary Arbuthnot.

Arizona played the tournament without its first-string goalie ÷ Kim McDonough ÷ who broke her arm the day before the Wildcats left for the tournament at UC Davis.

After losing to the Broncos, UA went into the losers bracket and lost to Cal Poly's B team, causing the Wildcats to finish seventh.

The tournament featured the top conference, which has No. 1 Cal Poly. No. 2 UCLA, No. 13 UCSB, No. 14 ASU, and No. 16 Santa Clara as well as No. 18 Arizona.

The weekend closes Arizona's up-and-down season, which saw the UA rise to No. 12 in the country without a coach.

"I think it (the season) went well considering we didn't have a coach and our injuries," Arbuthnot said.

The future is bright for UA women's lacrosse, as the program has 14 freshmen returning next season, Arbuthnot said.

Additionally, junior Kim Flatley and McDonough were named first-team WWLL All-Stars, while junior Liz Palmer was named to the second team.