Written by: Sidney Wiles (snw003@marietta.edu)
On February 17th, the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), announced four new schools would be affiliated with the women’s lacrosse conference starting in the spring of 2027. Currently the conference consists of seven teams, Muskingum, Mount Union, Baldwin Wallace, Ohio Northern, Capital, Otterbein, and Marietta.
With the new addition, the OAC will be welcoming Franklin College, Hanover College, Transylvania University, and Spalding University for a total of eleven teams for the next spring season. These teams come from the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) as their women’s conference currently only has four programs. The newest program is Spalding, as they began play during the 2022 season.
Marietta College’s head coach, Lindsay Reho, shared her enthusiasm and excitement for these changes to come.
“This is a great opportunity for us to play new teams that normally we wouldn’t have gotten to play. We are definitely going to travel a bit more than before. It’s an exciting change and it gives us another look at four teams we get to compete with every year and something new to look forward to,” shared Coach Reho.
She went on to share, “Lacrosse is a growing sport, and it is exciting to see that teams in Indiana and teams in Kentucky are getting programs. This will be the first time since 2019 that we will have more than eight teams in our conference.”
Marietta’s new assistant coach for the women’s lacrosse team, Lola Duff shared, “I’m excited because these are teams that I got to play in college, and one was even my school’s rival, so it will be fun to take them on again. It’s exciting to not have to play the same few teams every year. Now we have something new and unexpected to look forward to.”
“It’s crazy how different lacrosse can be state to state, like, even though we are close geographically, refereeing is different from state to state. Physicality is also different sometimes, so I’m interested to see if that will change,” Duff explained.
With an exciting future ahead for women’s lacrosse here at Marietta, the team is staying focused on their current season. With one less scrimmage than expected due to the collapse of the Franciscan University women’s lacrosse program, the Pioneers are preparing their final scrimmage before the start of the season. This Saturday, February 21st at 1:00 p.m., the pioneers will take on Chatham University at home. Make sure to come out and support your fellow Pioneers.
For updates on and information about the Marietta’s women’s lacrosse team visit, pioneers.marietta.edu/sports/womens-lacrosse
Edited by: Zachary Worstell (zdw001@marietta.edu)
