Trinity club sports are officially in full swing. The women’s lacrosse team had their first preseason tournament two weekends ago. In the Quick Sticks tournament, hosted by Texas A&M, the women lost their first game to Texas Tech by one goal but won their second game against Southwestern University.
“We’re here to help everybody become better,” said sophomore Lucy Stockdale. “It’s not about wins or losses but how we work as a group.”
During preseason, the women’s lacrosse team practices on Tuesday and Thursday. However, during the regular season, which starts in the spring, practices are from 5-6:30 p.m. every Monday through Thursday.
“You don’t need prior experience. We have a bunch of new people this year, and they’re already doing really well,” said junior captain Elif Yucel.
Competitors include universities all over Texas, such as University of Texas, Louisiana Sate University and Southwestern University. The women play 11 games in the spring, 10 of which are away.
“The league is set up so that each school has the opportunity to play one another. It’s a great a way for teams to play and compete with others across a range of skill levels,” Yucel said. “We know it’s not realistic for us to beat UT, but I think it’s important for us to learn from them and to push ourselves and test our capabilities so we can set a goal for where we want our team to be in a few years.”
In the spring, fees are about $100, plus gas and equipment. The team consists of 25 girls, led by captains Yucel and senior Amanda Hasselle.
“It’s a good experience, whether you’ve played before or not,” Stockdale said. “You can meet a lot of people from different backgrounds and people you wouldn’t expect to come across in everyday life at Trinity.”
Fencing is also getting into the thick of their season. Led by junior president Daniel Johnson, the fencing team practices near the racquetball courts at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
“The main reason why fencing practice goes over is normally just because everyone is talking,” Johnson said. “We’re pretty vocal and everyone shares their opinion, so conversations have ranged from Dungeons and Dragons to politics to classes.”
The team competes with three different blades: foil, epee and sabre. Foil and epee both involve stabbing techniques, so the player must stab their opponent to get a point. Sabres utilize a slashing technique, so if a player hits their opponent above the waist, they score a point. Throughout the year, the team goes to four tournaments held by the Southwestern Intercollegiate Fencing Association. Teams come from all around Texas and include schools such as Texas A&M, University of Texas and Rice University.
“We just had our first tournament two weekends ago, and we were the school hosting it,” Johnson said. “It was crazy, and it was the largest SWIFA tournament I’d been to.”
In that tournament, Trinity’s two foil teams came in 12th and 17th place out of 18 teams. Both the epee team and the saber team came in ninth place.
“Since we get new members throughout the year, we always have new people and we always have experienced people,” Johnson said. “We really have a wide variety of people, and our main goal is for the club to have fun.”
