Oxy Slated to Add Two Sports in Next Two Years

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (April 26, 2008) –  Occidental College will add women’s golf and women’s lacrosse to its roster of intercollegiate sports over the next two years, increasing the number of women’s NCAA Division III sports it offers to 11.

Golf will begin a women’s program in 2009, while lacrosse – currently played on the club level in the Western Women’s Lacrosse League – is scheduled to go intercollegiate in 2010.

“As these two sports continue to grow on the national level we are excited to provide more opportunities for our female student-athletes to participate competitively,” said Athletic Director Jaime Hoffman.

Occidental will join Redlands and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps to become the third school in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to offer a women’s golf program. It will become the fifth to offer women’s lacrosse, a critical mass that will make lacrosse an official SCIAC sport.

Oxy’s club lacrosse team finished the 2008 season with a 4-1 record to win the WWLL South Division II. The Tigers went on to finish third in the league championships, falling to eventual champion Cal Poly San Luis Obispo but defeating the UC Santa Barbara “B” team in an exciting 10-9 match.

This year Occidental women claimed two conference championships, in basketball and cross country. Earlier this spring, diver Celeste Faber ’09 won the 1-meter competition at the SCIAC swimming and diving championships, and Kera Bartlett ’09 claimed the SCIAC championship in the pole vault. Women’s soccer placed second in conference and produced the SCIAC’s first-ever freshman Player of the Year, Jesi Sasaki.