Whitney Powel proudly wears a love for her sport.
After a Thursday night practice, the freshman co-captain and midfielder of the club lacrosse team can’t stop the red imprint of tightly worn goggles from making its mark on her face. Of course, it’s a much more comfortable look than a knee brace.
“I tore both my ACLs in high school,” Powel said. “So I feel like I got gypped from the high school experience of sports in general. I feel like I’m not done yet. I’m playing this for as long as I can.”
While Powel plays at the club level now, another option could be on the horizon before she graduates. Elon University athletic director Dave Blank said Feb. 7 the school is considering adding a ninth varsity women’s sport, and that lacrosse would be one of the options.
“I don’t know (if I would try out for varsity),” Powel said, laughing, before thinking things over. “Maybe? Yeah.”
Blank said the new sport would be lacrosse, sand volleyball or swimming.
“We love watching the game, we love playing the game,” said club president and attacker Becca Luz, a junior. “I think any more lacrosse, the better.”
The club shares a region in Division II of the Mid-Atlantic Women’s Lacrosse League with Appalachian State University, the University of North Carolina and Radford University, while also playing against other Division II foes in the area. Last year, the club team went undefeated in the regular season on its way to an appearance in the regionals.
Luz said the club team has been around for a while, but it only came to its present level recently.
“The program just really got as serious as it is in the last probably six years,” Luz said. “We had a president who graduated last year who did total renovations of it and made it a lot more serious of a team. It used to be more of a joke.”
While the upperclassmen on the team take care of the administrative and financial responsibilities, the leadership on the field belongs to the freshmen who instruct their teammates both during games and the nearly six hours of time they spend each week practicing next to the intramural fields.
“(The freshmen) are usually our best players,” Luz said. “Because they just came out of high school with the conditioning of a high school level lacrosse team and we’re, you know, three years in. Your high school league just conditions you more in general.”
Last year’s team went undefeated in the regular season before losing in the regionals. This year’s version has new girls, new opponents and new road trips. But one common theme resonates year after year — these students don’t want their athletic careers to go by the wayside just yet.
“Lacrosse is my main sport,” said freshman co-captain and midfielder Maggie Schmidt, who played three varsity sports in high school. “I definitely want to do it even if it’s on a small level, or just playing pickup outside of college.”