By John Newbold

Over the weekend the USU women's lacrosse club team had a hard time scoring in the second half and lost to rival BYU, 11-7.

Despite the loss, first-year coach Greg Bellessa wasn't too disappointed with the play of his team.

"We were great in our transition in defense to offense today," he said. Bellessa was also pleased with the effort of communication on the field by the Aggies.

BYU got off to a quick start scoring in the first 20 seconds of the match and never really looked back. The Aggies were able to tie the score at 4 right before the half, but were never able to take the lead.

The Aggies weren't able to control the ball in the second half and only scored three goals and allowed seven. BYU had its way at midfield and had tremendous defense to hold on to the victory.

The Aggies' season has still been very positive, in Bellessa's opinion. They had earlier victories over Weber State and Boise State. Those victories and the fact that USU is very young, only losing two seniors to graduation at the end of the season, leaves the women's lacrosse team in good shape for next year.

Lacrosse is the oldest sport in North America with its origin dating to the 1400s. The name of lacrosse comes from the 1600s when a missionar, from France, Jean de Brebeuf, saw Huron Indians playing it. When he reported back to his superiors he was intrigued by the stick the Indians used while playing. Brebeuf likened the stick the indians used to the "crosier" carried at religious ceremonies by a bishop. Thus, the name la crosse evolved, and later simply became lacrosse.

There are 10 positions on a team on the field at a time. Players compete with a stick whose end resembles a butterfly net. They use it to catch and throw a 5-ounce hard-rubber ball into a net that is about 6 feet by 6 feet.

Women's lacrosse is not really a contact sport like men's lacrosse. Women's is different because they can't strike the body of their oppenent with their stick, and women's lacrosse sticks don't have as deep of a pocket to catch the ball like men's.

The first NCAA lacrosse championship was held in 1971. Today the sport is played at more than 500 colleges and universities.

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