Weber State University Women's Lacrosse

Women's Lacrosse Rules

| Glossary of Girls Lacrosse Terms | Officials Signals |

   The game of lacrosse originated from the Native American game of Baggataway.  The game of Women's Lacrosse has retained much of this original game with no marked boundaries and an emphasis on skill, speed and finesse.  The women's game allows for and demands individual and team ingenuity to create and prevent scoring opportunities.

The Game: 
Women's Lacrosse is a non-contact game played by a team of 12 players who may go anywhere on the field and whose objective is to shoot the ball into their opponent's goal.  One point is awarded per goal.  The team scoring the most goals wins.  As in Baggataway, the women's game begins with a draw.  The ball is placed between the two crosses (sticks) at the center of the field and flung into the air.  This is a continuation of the traditional, non contact game.

There are two halves of 25 minutes duration in the high school game and 30 minutes halves at the collegiate level.  High school and college play allows one time out per half after a goal is scored.

The Team & Field: 
The Twelve players on each team consist of attackers, defenders and a goalkeeper.  There are no restrictions on the movement of players during play but when a whistle blows, all players must stand.  The boundaries are determined by the natural restrictions of each field; no lines are marked or drawn.  Unlike other sports, the player closest to the ball when it goes out of bound gets possession of the ball when play is resumed.  However, if a player deliberately runs or throws the ball out of bounds, loss of possession occurs.

Checking: 
A player may gain possession of the ball by dislodging it from an opponent's crosse with a check, a controlled tap with her own crosse and rough checks are not allowed and may be penalized with a yellow or red suspension card.  No player may reach around an opponent's body to check the crosse when she is even with or behind that opponent.  A player may not protect the ball in her crosse by cradling do close to her body or face so as to make a legal, safe check impossible.

All legal checks must be in a direction away from a seven inch sphere around the head of each player.

Body Ball: 
No player is allowed to touch the ball with her hands except the goalkeeper when she is within her goal circle or crease.  If a player gains a distinct advantage by playing the ball of her body, there will be a change of possession.

Fouls: 
Major Fouls:  the offending player is placed 4 meters behind the player taking the free position.

Minor Fouls: the offending player will stand 4 meters off in the direction from which she approached her opponent before committing the foul.

Penalty: free position awarded once whistle is blown to stop play.

Critical Scoring Area: indicates the area at the end of the field where the attacking team is shooting for goal (15 meters to the front & side and 9 meters behind the crease).  Marked within this area:

8-meters arc: area similar to the lane in basketball except that the lacrosse, the burden is on the defender to move out of the area within 3 seconds unless she is tightly marking an opponent within a stick's length.

When a major foul by the defense occurs within  the 8-meter arc while the attack is trying to complete a shot on goal, a slow or held whistle is in effect and signified by a thrown flag.  Once the scoring play has ended or the attack loses possession of the ball without a goal being scored, the whistle is blown and a free position is awarded to the nearest attack player to the spot of the foul.  This player then moves to a hash mark nearest the spot of the foul on the 8-meter arc.

12-meter fan: line used primarily for placement of the offending player in a foul situation.

The person who fouled moves to the fan directly behind the player taking the free position.  Bodies and crosses of all players must be cleared from the 8-meter arc.  When play resume on the whistle, this player may run, pass or shoot on goal immediately.

No defender may, at any time, obstruct free space to goal.  In other words, when an attacker looks to take a shot, no defender who is not marking an opponent tightly, may stand in that path between the attack player with the ball and the goal.  The attack player can also be assessed a major foul with a card for uncontrolled or poorly aimed shots at goal.  When these violation occur, a whistle to stop play is blown immediately.

Minor fouls by the defense within the 12-meter fan are penalized with an indirect free position for the attack on the 12-meter fan.  The person who fouled shall move 4 meters away.  In this instance, when play resumes the attack player may run or pass but may not shoot until another player has played the ball.

Card: 
The onus is placed on all players to conduct themselves in a safe manner and to avoid any type of behavior that, in the umpire's opinion, amounts to misconduct.  In addition t awarding a free position, the umpire can give verbal warnings followed by a yellow card or eject the player from the game with  a red card.

USWLA rules are designed and reviewed annually t insure the safety of the players at all levels and to maintain the "spirit of the game".  Players, coaches and umpires must observe the intent of the rules, always making a sincere effort to abide by the rules as they are written.