A visit from overseas!

It would be the first international Men and Women Lacrosse games on UNSW ground since UNSW Lacrosse was started. Three US (one men, two women teams) visited Sydney as part of a Lacrosse tour through Australia. Some of our UNSW students made the NSW State team to face off against the international guests on Friday the 15th and Saturday the 23rd of June.

After two successful practices on the UNSW Oval, the Americans had dealt with their jetlag’s and were ready to take on the NSW State team. The 15 men squad fielded not less than three UNSW players, our executives Jonathan Horlyck and Jonas Heller, as well as just-recent UNSW alumni Callum Wyllie.

Under perfect floodlight conditions, the NSW state team faced a strong and young American team and came short on a great game of Lacrosse. Head coach Paul Young summarized the game: “I thought the field was fantastic and it is a great venue for lacrosse, especially under lights. It was a good game and it was great to see a couple of new players playing their first game. The opposition was quite a talented squad, but we held our own against them even if we were a little scrappy at times. I would love to see more games at UNSW. Whether it be day or night it is a great venue.”

More pictures here: https://bit.ly/2lNSrhd

The NSW Ladies played twice:

On the following Saturday, the NSW ladies (including UNSW student Christina Fichter) headed to David Phillips to host two games against US students. Coach Bec Putna summarized it as follows: The games on Saturday were an awesome opportunity for the UNSW and NSW women to reunite after Nationals two weeks ago and allowed some of our newer players to experience competitive lacrosse too. The fields were in great condition for the players and attracted a crowd of spectators ready to watch some lacrosse in the sun all afternoon. We came out fighting at the start of both games but unfortunately the USA girls were too strong for us, taking the win in both matches”

Christina Fichter at the obligatory stick-check prior to the games

Indeed, the women showed that they can compete with international Lacrosse teams, taking the lead early in the first game going up by three points. During the first game, the US team came up stronger in the end. In the second game, we could see the fitness of the young US ladies come through, which lead to a loss for the second game of the ladies. President of NSW Lacrosse, Omar Al-Khayat shared his view on the games and the practices with the visiting US team: We appreciate the significant effort that UNSW Lacrosse Club and Arc Sport put into preparing two outstanding venues, at short notice, for the recent college lacrosse touring teams from the USA. The exhibition matches were a great success and all of the participants, local and international, thoroughly enjoyed the games, the quality of the venues and the opportunity to showcase our sport to an external audience. We look forward to continuing working closely with UNSW Lacrosse Club in the future to continue growing the game of Lacrosse in the eastern suburbs of Sydney.”

Despite the losses we are proud of what UNSW players have achieved in the short existence of their club with four of the students already competing at state level. The close bounds with NSW Lacrosse are important for us to offer a pathway into competitive lacrosse beyond a university level.

Finally, UNSW Lacrosse wants to thank Arc Sport for hosting and organising along with UNSW Lacrosse to allow for venues to host international traveling teams at UNSW. Congratulations to the US teams of taking the wins this year, we hope to see them (and others) back next year. Thank you for creating an atmosphere of sportsmanship and friendship in the sport which stretches beyond Australian borders.

Jonas Heller
Club President