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Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:

1. Happy Halloween. No college lacrosse team does spooky season quite like Virginia Tech.

Hokies coach Kristen Waagbo loves a good fright. Even if she’s on the receiving end of the prank.

Never to be outdone by its in-state rival, Virginia took Halloween to the field with a combined men’s and women’s lacrosse practice — in costume. The event was dedicated to Morgan’s Message.

2. Gardner-Webb named Maddie Martin as its interim head women’s lacrosse coach Friday, replacing Jessie Aguglia (for the time being) with one of her players who just graduated last spring.

Martin, the Runnin’ Bulldogs’ all-time leader in draw controls (268), will be joined on sideline by assistant coach Lauren Dever, the team’s top scorer last year.

The school’s announcement also came with the twist that recently retired Johns Hopkins coach Janine Tucker will serve as an “executive coach in a consulting role” through her company Tucker Lacrosse.

3. College lacrosse teams’ fall ball season-ending traditions are almost as fun to follow as the scrimmages.

Notre Dame has the Steak and Hot Dog Game. Harvard started the Burrito Bowl last year. Maryland does the Terp Olympics. And North Carolina combines teams and sports to play UNC LaxBall with the baseball and softball teams.

It’s all fun and games.

 

WHAT WE’RE READING

  • A “Behind the Whistle” blog post by James Madison women’s lacrosse player and Morgan’s Message ambassador Nicholle Marshall.

  • An equally heartbreaking and inspiring story about living and dying with cancer, as former Maryland men’s lacrosse player Jon Beard pays tribute to his late wife, Jess.

  • With plenty of historical context, Inside the Games on what lacrosse is up against in the bid for inclusion in the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

USC women’s lacrosse cohosted and participated in the National Congress of American Indians Sovereignty Run on Oct. 23. Here’s Thomas “TJ” Reed, a citizen of the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin and assistant professor at Cal State-Long Beach, telling the story of the first lacrosse game.

 

WHAT’S ON TAP

More college team check-ins in our Fall Ball Focus series.

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