Millsaps to Add Men's and Women's Lacrosse in 2010-11

Millsaps to Add Men's and Women's Lacrosse in 2010-11

JACKSON, Miss. - Millsaps College President Dr. Frances Lucas and the Millsaps College Board of Trustees announced at the April 17 board meeting that the college will add men's and women's lacrosse as varsity sports beginning in the 2010-2011 school year. 

"Millsaps College is widely recognized for our strong tradition of successful scholar-athletes," Lucas said. "The new lacrosse teams will allow us to build on this tradition by offering more varsity opportunities for our students." 

Millsaps will be the first college or university in Mississippi to add lacrosse as a conference-affiliated intercollegiate sport. 

Lacrosse, which has been a women's club sport at Millsaps since 2005, is one of the fastest-growing high school sports. During a 10-year period between 1997 and 2007, the sport showed a 200 percent growth, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. 

"The addition of lacrosse will make Millsaps College more attractive to prospective students who want to play the sport as part of their college experience. We can recruit students more competitively at the national level," said Dr. Brit Katz, vice president for student life and dean of students. 

With the addition of the lacrosse teams, Millsaps' athletic program will now field eight programs for men and eight for women. Women's varsity sport offerings are: basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball. Men's offerings included: baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, football, soccer and tennis. The new teams will begin competing in 2010-2011. 

"A national search for both the men's and women's lacrosse team coaches is currently underway. A college of Millsaps' great academic stature will attract terrific applicants," said Tim Wise, director of athletics at Millsaps College. 

Millsaps College is a member of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. Five other schools have men's lacrosse teams including Birmingham-Southern College, Colorado College, Hendrix College, Southwestern University and the University of the South. Four conference schools have women's lacrosse teams.

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