AACC has discontinued women’s lacrosse as a sport starting this school year.
The National Junior College Athletic Association has canceled women’s lacrosse for all community colleges, citing the lack of schools offering the sport.
“When several … [women’s lacrosse] programs drop-ped this spring, it was inevitable,” former AACC women’s lacrosse head coach Jim Griffiths said. “Doesn’t mean I like it, but I don’t disagree with it either, because there was very few schools left to play.”
Last season, six community colleges nationally hosted women’s lacrosse, including two from Maryland: AACC and Harford Community College.
Four teams competed in the national Women’s Lacrosse Invitational for a chance at the national title in the 2024 season. Onondaga Community College won the tournament. The Riverhawks, undefeated in their 2023 season, won the national title that year.
Second-year transfer studies student and former midfielder Mia Keen said she saw the end of AACC women’s lacrosse coming.
“I was bummed because I knew, like, a lot of my friends really took the sport seriously and they wanted to go to the next level,” Keen said.
Second-year undecided student and former defender Tadem Augustin said she was a “little devastated” when the program was discontinued.
Rod Lovett, NJCAA’s assistant vice president for sports governance and regional leadership, said the organization made the decision on July 1.
“We are disappointed, as we never want to discontinue a sport,” Lovett said. “Women’s lacrosse has been on alert for several years.”
Lovett added: “Unfortunately, we were not seeing growth to indicate that it could continue.”