Lacrosse in Pennsylvania
[1][2][3] Intercollegiate lacrosse in the United States can trace its roots to 1877, when New York University beat Manhattan College two to zero.
[6] In 1881, the first true varsity level intercollegiate lacrosse tournament was held, with Harvard defeating Princeton University in the final, 3–0.
College organizations, including a varsity team at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, soon sought admittance to the ILA.
Lehigh fielded its first varsity squad in 1885, with the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and Lafayette College in Easton, at the club level, following suit in 1890.
The colleges entering into this association were Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Lehigh, Pennsylvania, Stevens, and Swarthmore.
During the first 40 years of organized varsity college lacrosse, known alternately as the ICLA, ILA, USICLL, USILL and USILA, two Pennsylvania schools, Lehigh and Swarthmore, fielded dominant teams.
The United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA), the organization still in existence today, officially was formed in November 1925.
[12][13] Lehigh fielded its first varsity squad in 1885, with the University of Pennsylvania and Lafayette College at the club level following suit in 1890.
Lehigh had beaten Cornell, the Northern division champions, the prior season to capture a share of the USILL national lacrosse title.
[16] Also, in 1940 Penn State attempted a college box lacrosse league playing top universities including Yale.
More recently under the NCAA tournament format in place since 1971, Pennsylvania based universities have participated in many NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship tournaments including Bucknell (2), Cabrini (16), Drexel (1), Franklin & Marshall (5), Gettysburg (25), Lehigh (2), Kutztown (1), Messiah College (2), Penn (12), Penn State (4), Swarthmore (1), Widener (6) and Villanova (2).
In the 1988 NCAA tournament, Penn led by Tony Seaman and Chris Flynn were the first Pennsylvania school to reach the semi-finals, losing by one goal to the Gait Brothers led Syracuse Orange, which is as far as any Pennsylvania based Division I school has advanced in tournament play.
For the first time in 2011, a Pennsylvania university or college won the NCAA Division II National Title when Mercyhurst defeated Adelphi 9 to 8.
Gettysburg has had success in Division III, regularly appearing in the top five national rankings and reaching the NCAA title games in 2001, 2002 and 2009.
In 2007, Drexel upset number one ranked and defending National Champion Virginia, 11 to 10, scoring the game-winning goal with three seconds remaining.
In 2010, Lafayette won their first six games including consecutive upsets over Navy and Bucknell reaching a national ranking of number eight.
Lehigh also won the Patriot League title in 2013, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, where they lost to UNC.
Pennsylvania colleges and universities have won a combined 17 USWLA, AIAW and NCAA women's lacrosse national titles.
[19] Marsha Florio of Penn State and Gail Cummings of Temple are currently the 3rd and 4th all-time highest scoring Division I players with 380 and 378 career points, respectively.
Stephanie Kienle and Katelyn Martin both of West Chester are the 1st and 2nd highest all-time scoring Division II players with 390 and 376 career points, respectively.
The Hill School in Pottstown was named the first Pennsylvania prep statewide champion of what became known as the Avery Blake Memorial Trophy.
[22] In 1973, Sewickley Academy hosted Western Pennsylvania's first high lacrosse championship tournament featuring teams from Philadelphia, Detroit, and Annapolis, Maryland.
In 2009, Emily Garrity of Strath Haven High School broke the career scoring record for women with 695 total points.
The team played its home games at United Sports Training Center in West Bradford Township, Pennsylvania.
The league uses a unique tour-based model, in which all teams (with the exception of those given bye weeks) play at a single venue over a weekend.
Lock Haven University reached the women's Division II finals in 2014 and 2015, losing a close match in 2015, 5–4.
The teams noted below are for universities based in Pennsylvania, who have performed notably in NCAA men's or women's lacrosse.
