Women's lacrosse
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| First played | 1890, at St Leonards School in Scotland |
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| Characteristics | |
| Contact | Limited contact |
| Team members | 12 at a time, 1 goalie and 11 players |
| Equipment | Lacrosse ball, lacrosse stick, goggles, mouthguard |
Women's lacrosse (or girls' lacrosse), sometimes shortened to wlax or lax, is a sport played with twelve players on each team. Originally played by indigenous peoples of the Americas, the modern women's game was introduced in 1890 at the St Leonard's School in St Andrews, Scotland. The rules of women's lacrosse differ significantly from men's field lacrosse.
The object of the game is to use a long-handled stick (known as a crosse or lacrosse stick) to catch, cradle, and pass a solid yellow rubber lacrosse ball in an effort to score by hurling the ball into an opponent's goal. The head of the lacrosse stick has a mesh or leather net strung into it that allows the player to hold the ball. Defensively the object is to keep the opposing team from scoring and to dispossess them of the ball through the use of stick checking and body positioning. The rules of women's lacrosse are different from the men's lacrosse game. Equipment required to play is also different from the men's. In the United States, women are only required to wear eyewear or lacrosse goggles and a mouth guard. Internationally, women are only required to wear a mouthguard, and have the option to play without protective goggles. The stick has restrictions too, as it must be a certain length and the pocket must be shallow enough to show the ball when held at eye level.
At the collegiate level in the United States, lacrosse is represented by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which conducts an NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship each spring. Internationally, women's lacrosse has a thirty-one-member governing body called the Federation of International Lacrosse, which sponsors the Women's Lacrosse World Cup once every four years.
Known as the "fastest sport on two feet," lacrosse is a traditional Native American game which was first witnessed by Europeans when French Jesuit missionaries in the St. Lawrence Valley witnessed the game in the 1630s. These games were sometimes major events that could last several days. As many as 100 to 1,000 men from opposing villages or tribes would participate. Native American lacrosse describes a broad variety of stick and ball games played by the indigenous people. Geography and tribal customs dictated the extent to which women participated in these early games.
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