Last season, the CSUSM women’s lacrosse club ranked first in the Division II Club in California and second on the West Coast.

The women’s lacrosse club and their 23 members are now gearing up to begin the season.

On Saturday, Oct. 29, at University of California, Irvine (UCI), women’s lacrosse won two of three games at the UCI tournament.

Their first game of the day started at 9 a.m. against Concordia. The Cougars finished with a 7-5 win. With momentum from their first win of the day, the Cougars defeated Cal State Northridge 7-4 in their 1 p.m. game.

“The first game against Concordia, we were back-to-back … As for the last game, we were pumped up and used all the energy we had left over to fight against UCLA,” said junior goalie Kristin Sanchez.

The last game of the day proved to be the toughest and the Cougars lost to UCLA 8-4.

Despite the loss, they celebrated their 2-1 finish in the tournament. “As a team, I was very excited [with] how we played, considering it was the first time we played together … I look forward to growing as a team,”  said midfielder Vanessa Deleonardis.  

The women’s lacrosse coach, Chelsea Hargett, said she is also looking forward to this upcoming season and all that is in store for the Cougars.

“As a team, they did good … my goal for them this season is to have more plays that are run correctly, add another [defense] formation, come first in playoffs and go to nationals and move up rankings while at nationals,” Hargett said.

“The strengths [in this tournament] were that they stayed very positive throughout the whole day,” Hargett said. “They ran the plays and they worked hard in every game, even the last one of the day.”

The first game of the women’s club lacrosse season is against UCSD at 7 p.m. on Feb. 3 at CSUSM.