In the hours after the NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse final, there were plenty of conversations about how Northwestern used a loud home crowd to win the game 14-11. There was, rightly, a focus on the “game within a game” as to which defense would contain either Chloe Humphrey or Madison Taylor. There were emerging first-year lacrosse stars in Northwestern’s Gabriella McCollester and North Carolina’s Reese King. There were players who enormous goals at key times, such as Northwestern’s Aditi Foster and North Carolina’s Addison Pattillo.
But what has been overshadowing all of the post-game conversation is the performance of the game officials. There are several incidents which coincide with Northwestern’s five-goal comeback in the last term that do not cover the rulesmakers in glory.
I’m not going to go into the minutiae of the application (or, for some partisans, mis-application) of the rules of the game. There are other folks who are doing that today.
Instead, I’m using our little soapbox to reiterate part of what I said earlier this season, in that the current rules package for NCAA women’s lacrosse does not give umpiring crews the necessary tools and interventions needed to control the game and have the players play the game safely.
Here’s what I think needs to happen:
- Enact the international rule that ejects a shooting player who hits a defender with the ball. It’s going to be the rule in the Olympics and is the rule in international Lacrosse Sixes. You may remember that the last World Games gold-medal game was basically decided when Canada’s Jordan Dean was sent off. The onus must be on the attacker to keep the game safe.
- By the same token, there must also be some sort of parallel sanction for a defender who, in the vernacular of the game, “eats the ball,’ or deliberately slides into shooting space once the shot is released.
- Make any and all off-the-ball fouls to be reviewed at any time by an official replay review. This includes rough and dangerous play, goal-circle violations, and use of the stick.
- There needs to be a second kind of yellow card, like in field hockey. In the autumnal stick-and-ball game, players can be suspended for up to 10 minutes for persistent fouling or for dangerous play. It’s time lacrosse got the same kind of upgrade.
- There’s been a lot of stick substitution on the part of draw-control specialists, who receive their replacements from a teammate or an assistant coach. I’d rather do what field hockey used to do: after pregame stick inspection, put all sticks in a 30-gallon container on the sideline at the back of the substitution box. If the draw specialist comes off and needs a new stick, that player must go to the bucket and make the change.
- For defensive fouls leading to free positions, make it a top dead center restart, instead of the 5 o’clock or 7 o’clock hash. I get the concept of having a left-hander from the right side, or a right-hander from the left side on these free-position chances, but let’s make it like Athletes Unlimited.
- Implement a kind of “clock lock” system where the game clock, penalty clock, and possession clock either run at the same time 100 percent of the time or be stopped 100 percent of the time. I think that coaches need certainty as to how many possible possessions are left in a game. For example, if there is a scenario when the possession clock is stopped and the game clock runs, this keeps coaches from figuring out how many possible possessions are left in a contest (three for example, if the game clock shows 3:00 to 4:29). I think players and coaches need that certainty.
What are you thoughts, folks?