The No. 4 Texas A&M women’s lacrosse club will travel to face No. 1 The University of Texas at Austin in the final regular season matchup on March 30.
The Aggies are currently 5-2 for the season in the Texas Women’s Lacrosse League, or TWLL, and are looking to upset top-ranked Longhorn rivals, according to the Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Associates website. The schools’ rivalry dates back to the initial football matchup in 1894, and the Aggies and Longhorns used to play their final regular season football games against each other; the tradition has made its way to the lacrosse field.
The Aggies expect a competitive game anytime they face the Longhorns, but they expect to win any game they play, civil engineering sophomore defender Claire Tate said.
“We definitely consider Texas to be a major rival,” Tate said.
The TWLL is one of the many lacrosse leagues under the Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Associates, or WCLA banner, and a top finish is needed to clinch a postseason berth for the Aggies, according to its website.
“You have to finish the regular season in the top four in your conference, so that’s what we are aiming to do,” electrical engineering sophomore midfielder Griffyn Young said.
Despite facing new challenges this season, the Aggies are poised to make a run at qualifying for the WCLA national championship, team captain Young said.
This is only the second season recovering from setbacks due to the pandemic, club president Meredith Schomburg said.
“We had a lot of new players to the team this year,” university studies senior attacker Schomburg said. “This year has been a lot of rebuilding.”
With their playoff hopes on the line the Aggies have stepped up and dialed in during their final week of practice before the event, sports management freshman defender Ellie Magee said.
“We’ve been working on more of the details and on improving our foundations, and I think the energy has been super high from everyone,” Magee said.
The Aggies will play the Longhorns at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 30, at the UT Caven Lacrosse Center in Austin. Follow A&M Women’s Lacrosse @TamuWLax on Instagram.
Parker Rivers is a recreation, park and tourism sciences senior and contributed this article from the course JOUR 359, Reporting Sports, to The Battalion.