UA earns home field advantage for playoffs

By Jason A. Vrtis

Arizona Daily Wildcat

After completing its most successful regular season ever, the UA women's club lacrosse team is entering uncharted territory.

This weekend at Wildcat Field (South Plumer Avenue and East 15th Street), Arizona will host the Western Women's Lacrosse League's southern division playoffs for the first time in UA history.

Arizona opens play at 10:30 a.m. against UCLA, and UC-Irvine plays UC-San Diego at 12:30 p.m. The winners will advance to the championship game at 4 p.m.

Two wins Saturday will earn the Wildcats a berth in the WWLL Final Four at UC-Davis May 6-7, which would be another first for Arizona.

"It is a changing of the guard in western women's lacrosse," UA coach Nicole Plotkin said. "Normally UCSD hosts the playoffs, so it is a huge victory for us."

The Wildcats earned the home-field advantage for the playoffs with two tightly contested battles against UCI and UCSD last weekend in California.

With the two wins, the Wildcats finished the regular season with a 17-2 overall record and 8-1 in league which was good for second place just behind perennial league champion UC-Santa Barbara.

Arizona squeaked by UCI 14-12 Saturday and edged UCSD 16-10 Sunday.

"They were hard fought victories because of the added anxiety of hosting the playoffs," Plotkin said.

Arizona was led by senior Terry Repp, who scored five goals against UCI and four versus UCSD. Freshman Jessica Deal added three at UCI and five at UCSD.

"Our team has a lot of depth at every position," Plotkin said. "We play tough defense and have strong scoring. We are playing awesome."

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