Saturday- February 5th the Lacrosse Season officially kicks off with a pair of local games that will get your mouth watering for Lax...or so you thought.

Saturday at 1pm see Evergreen take on Puget Sound at Puget Sound

Saturday at 6:30pm see Washington State take on Washington

Neither of these teams will be competing this year, reducing the teams in the PNCLL to 6 teams in the 'A' division and 12 teams in the 'B' division. The PNCLL has exacted a measure of punishment for lack of responsability on the two teams. This is not a suprise to many, as the PNCLL grows more organized and legitimized both by schools and by fans.

PNCLL President Josh Barbour announced in a letter to the league membership late last week that the Evergreen State Lacrosse club has folded. Josh cited the continuing problem the Geoducks were having finding "enough committed players to field a team."

Josh also announced "Since this decision came to us in January, we feel it is impossible to reschedule games to accomodate all teams. Evergreen's games will remain on the schedule, and teams that were to play Evergreen will receive forfeits." Re-structuring the B Divisions will not happen until the next PNCLL Annual Meeting in September. The three-conference B Division structure voted into place at the recent AGM will remain in effect for the 2005 season, with Evergreen to be listed as 0-8 and its B Division opponents recording the appropriate conference victories towards playoffs. The first forfeit win will be recorded by the Central Washington Wildcats on Saturday, February 5th.

PNCLL President Josh Barbour announced late Tuesday night that WSU lacrosse has also folded. Barbour noted that the Club's leaders "failed to meet deadlines imposed by their University's club sports office, and therefore the team is not sanctioned by Washington State University" in 2005. He also noted that the Cougar Lacrosse Club, with only eight eligible players "did not have enough players to field a team and fufill its commitments to the PNCLL"  Josh also stated that because this announcement comes as the season is starting, WSU will "still appear on the master schedule. All teams scheduled to play WSU will receive 1-0 forfeit wins."

Other than that, The Lutes are pumped for their first season in the B Division and are thinking they'll be spending time in Blaine in May. Head Coach Greg "Bubba" Gutherless has a solid defense in front of star Goalie Brett Bartell, and an improving offense featuring Attackmen Chris Jensen and Josu Zubizaretta on Attack and Matt Kennedy at Midfield.

http://www.plulacrosse.com/

Brent Hoskins takes over as Head Coach at SFU, and has young guns Mike Christian, Justin Norbraten and Kelly Gares to lead an always lethal offense, while long-poles Anthio Yuen and Nate Hoskins front Freshman Goalie Arlen Chudley, who becomes just the third opening-day starter for the Clansmen after Ty Willushaw (1997-2000) and Matt Johnson (2001-2004).