Oct. 20, 2004
FAIRFAX, Va. - The George Mason University Women's Lacrosse Fall Tournament gets bigger and bigger it seems every year. This year's event, which is in its eighth season, will be held Saturday, Oct. 23, on the Mason athletic campus, and will feature 14 of the top collegiate Division I women's lacrosse programs from across the country and two international teams.
2004 REVISED Mason Fall Lacrosse Tournament Schedule in PDF Format
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Held in conjunction with Family Weekend on the Mason campus, the Mason Tournament has steadily seen its membership grow in recent years - from a four-team tournament in its infancy to its current 16-team format. Teams as far west as Oregon and as far north as Syracuse and Cornell, have made the annual pilgrimage to Fairfax to battle in this competitive, action-packed day of women's lacrosse.
Among the participating collegiate teams this season are: American, Cornell, George Mason, George Washington, Georgetown, Hofstra, Johns Hopkins, Longwood, Oregon, Richmond, Rutgers, Syracuse, Towson and William & Mary. New for the first time this year is the addition of two international programs: the Canadian National and Scottish National Teams.
Contests, which begin at 8:00 am and end around 6:05 pm, are spread out across three intramural fields among the Mason athletic complex. Each of the sixteen teams will play four, 45-minute scrimmages against another team with 15-minute breaks between each 45-minute session. No team plays the same team twice.
Two of the three surfaces are grass fields, while the third will be a new turf field that was installed on the athletic complex over the summer. One of the two grass fields will feature the two international programs and games will be played using international rules (when facing an international team).
Prior to Saturday's tournament, George Mason will face the Canadian National Team Friday at 4 p.m. on one of the intramural fields.
"This has been, and continues to be, the premier fall tournament over the past couple of seasons," said assistant women's lacrosse coach Liz Schaffner. "It's the tournament our players, parents, and fans look forward to the most, and I'm sure some of the other teams feel that way too. We get so many quality Division I programs that want to participate; we've had to create a waiting list."
"We're excited to have two international teams participate for the first time in our tournament this year," expressed head coach Amy Umbach. "With the World Cup being played this year, it's really nice to be able to challenge some of our U.S. collegiate programs against some of the top competition in the World."
