Women’s Basketball vs North Park University | Wednesday, Nov. 8 | 5:30 p.m.
We are just under one week away from the basketball season opener! To celebrate, join us for Student, Staff, and Faculty Appreciation Night!
Then, stay to cheer on the Men’s team!
Men’s Basketball vs North Park University | Wednesday, Nov. 8 | 7:30 p.m.
Reid Municipal Golf Club | 1100 E Fremont St, Appleton, WI
Saturday, September 23
Come join us for a day of fun to support the proud tradition of the Lawrence Baseball Program! There will be fun, food, games, and golf! We would love to see you there this year at beautiful Reid Municipal Golf Course to support the Vikings.
If you cannot join us for the fun, we would appreciate any donations that you can contribute. Every little bit helps with the furthering of the program that so many of you were a part of helping to build.
Thank you in advance for your support and hope to see you there!
8 a.m. | Registration | Reid Golf Course
9 a.m. | Shotgun Start | Reid Golf Course
4 p.m. | Cookout | Whiting Field
All on-campus athletes must attend on-campus physicals Wednesday, May 31 between 6-8 p.m. in the Wellness Center. More information will come! Contact your athletic trainer if you have any questions!
The Crowdfund for LU Vikings Athletics is back! All 22 of our NCAA Division III sports teams are banding together again this year to raise funds to provide our student-athletes with state-of-the-art training equipment and technology.
Your support of this year’s crowdfund will impact every single current student-athlete and help us recruit the next generation of Vikings.
We have until April 5 to reach the goal of 900 donors, which will unlock extra funds. You can learn more and show your support for our athletics programs by visiting go.lawrence.edu/luvikes4life.
Lawrence University announced the addition of two new athletics programs – women’s and men’s lacrosse. A national search for full-time head coaches is underway with the first season of competitive play scheduled for Spring 2025.
The addition of lacrosse follows the university’s strategic plan to align Lawrence’s athletics program with additional opportunities for student-athletes, according to Jason Imperati, Lawrence’s director of athletics. Lawrence joins a growing list of NCAA Division III institutions to offer lacrosse as an intercollegiate sport. More than 200 Division III schools around the nation sponsor intercollegiate lacrosse, including eight schools in Wisconsin. Men’s lacrosse has 245 programs at the Division III level, and there are 288 women’s teams competing in Division III.
“The ever-growing popularity of lacrosse across the nation, particularly in the Midwest, extends opportunities for student-athletes who are looking to continue their playing careers while pursuing a quality degree at a leading liberal arts university,” Imperati said. “While we have tremendous work ahead, we are excited for the future of both programs and what they will mean for the Lawrence experience and our greater community.”
“Bringing lacrosse to our university and region speaks to our commitment to our current and future student-athletes and we look forward to welcoming our coaches and these students to our campus,” said Lawrence University President Laurie A. Carter. “I am proud of the hard work leading to the addition of these programs to our NCAA lineup of sports.”
The university already has a playing facility for both programs with Ron Roberts Field at the Banta Bowl. Renovations to the Banta Bowl footprint in 2015 made it possible to play lacrosse in the stadium. The iconic and picturesque Banta Bowl has been home to Lawrence football since 1965 and Lawrence men’s and women’s soccer since 2015.
Lawrence becomes the fifth school in the Midwest Conference to sponsor lacrosse, joining Beloit College, Cornell College, Lake Forest College, and Monmouth College.
Lawrence is searching for a conference for the lacrosse programs, according to Imperati. The two most prominent leagues in the upper Midwest are the Midwest Lacrosse Conference (MLC) and its affiliated Midwest Women’s Lacrosse Conference and the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), which sponsors both men’s and women’s lacrosse. Among Midwest Conference schools, Cornell, Lake Forest and Monmouth are in the MLC, and Beloit is a member of the NACC.
The addition of men’s and women’s lacrosse brings Lawrence’s roster of teams to 24. The most recent addition to the intercollegiate sports program at Lawrence was women’s hockey, which started play in the 2020-21 academic year in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association.
Intercollegiate athletics at Lawrence date back to the 1880s with football establishing itself in 1893 and basketball following in 1896. Lawrence is a charter member of the Midwest Conference (1921), and its affiliations also include the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association and the Central Collegiate Fencing Conference.
Author(s)
Joe Vanden Acker is director of athletic media relations at Lawrence University
joseph.m.vandenacker@lawrence.edu
Dear Lawrentians,
It is with continued sadness that I write to share the news that the Midwest Conference Presidents’ Council and the Midwest Conference COVID-19 working group have announced today that it would not sponsor league competition, including championships, for all fall and winter sports during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Sports impacted by this decision include men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, football, men’s and women’s swimming & diving, men’s and women’s indoor track & field, and volleyball. Conference-wide decisions for men’s and women’s hockey and fencing are still pending, but the sense is that these sports will move in a similar direction.
You can read more about the decision on the Lawrence University Athletics website.
There is no question that our disappointment continues. Just as we did in the fall, this decision is a result of a thoughtful and thorough process to evaluate whether or not competition would be feasible in our current climate, with the health and safety of our students, faculty, and staff always at the forefront of our thinking and decision-making process. Unfortunately, the current trends in public health do not support a safe return to play and are actually in a more tenuous place than they were when this decision was made in the fall. The landscape of the recommendations from the NCAA regarding resocialization of sport continue to evolve and the testing protocol for high-risk sports provide many challenges.
While it’s very apparent that sport is an integral part of who our student-athletes are and not just something in which they participate, the next phase of our work for our fall and winter sports will focus on ways in which we can provide a meaningful experience for our fall/winter athletes during the winter term. The good news, you ask? As a department, we had a relatively safe fall athletic experience. It is our intention to find ways to continue to move forward. While we will continue to follow CDC guidelines, Midwest Conference protocol as well as the NCAA resocialization of sport document, we intend to pursue opportunities that allow us to practice in some of the more traditional ways that we are accustomed to. In doing so, if our internal behaviors continue to be positive and the external environment progresses in a positive direction from a health and safety perspective, we may even find opportunities to participate in scrimmages against others, minding the diligence all involved would need to pay to our Pledge and all other parameters.
We intend to remain very hopeful for our spring sports (baseball, softball, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s outdoor track & field). In most cases, the NCAA categorizes our spring sports as more moderately risky than higher risk. The next phase of work for our spring sports will begin to focus on the ways in which we can do sport in the spring safely. This is another space where we can focus on the positive with the hopes of moving forward in a meaningful way.
I know we were all hoping for more opportunities in January of 2021, but with the health and safety of Vikings and all Lawrentians as our top priority, we believe this was the best decision. Even though our teams won’t be competing this winter, we will move forward in safe ways to practice sport in the manner that it was intended. While this time in our history has certainly provided its own set of challenges, much can be learned by facing such adversity.
Be well,
Kim Tatro
Director of Athletics
Come out to support the Lawrence University Men’s Hockey Team at their first annual program golf outing.
Dinner, cocktails, team prizes, hole prizes, raffle, and silent auction to follow golf!
All proceeds directly benefit the Lawrence University Men’s Hockey program.
Saturday, April 13th at the Wellness Center
Check in starts at 11:30 AM, $20 per team due at registration
5-6 people per team (5 maximum allowed on court at once)
Double elimination: 1st and 2nd place will win gift baskets!
LU students, faculty and staff are all welcome to participate
You must email littlevikeslu@gmail.com with team name and roster by April 10th to participate
D3 Week April 1st-7th: We will be celebrating D3 Week next week. Join us in celebrating all things Division 3!
Monday, April 1st D3 Spotlight – Academics and Athletics
· Check out our website and social media for stories
Tuesday, April 2nd D3 Trivia
· Stop by the table in Warch from 11:30-12:30 to answer D3 Trivia
Wednesday, April 3rd LU Vikings Gear Day
· Wear your LU gear!
Thursday, April 4th Lunch & Learn with SAAC
· Eat lunch with members of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in Andrew Commons from 11:15-12:15 and hear about the D3 experience
Friday, April 5th Student-athlete D3 Selfie Scavenger Hunt
· Teams of three will compete to complete the scavenger hunt the fastest
· Rules meeting and team organization begins at 2:15 in the lobby of the Wellness Center
Saturday, April 6th Cheer on our baseball team as they take on St. Norbert College
· Games are at 12:00 & 3:00
Each of our 21 NCAA Athletics programs is looking to fund individual projects that are focused on enhancing the student-athlete experience. In the spirit of March Madness, each team will compete for donor support. The overall goal is to beat the number of donors last year’s crowdfund had and reach at least 650 donors by April 2.
Don’t want to wait until March 27 to support our student-athletes but still want to be counted in the crowdfund? No worries, if you make your gift today we will still count you in our donor totals once the crowdfund officially launches.
