In 2007 men’s lacrosse was discontinued as an NCAA Division I athletic program at Butler.

But in response, a few players from that team created a men’s lacrosse club team at the school shortly after.

Photo by Marcy Thornsberry

Josh Phelps, junior team vice president, said the popularity of lacrosse is on the rise all across the nation.

“The sport is more popular on the East Coast than most places, but that is spreading all over Indiana,” Phelps said.

Butler’s team originally played at the D-I level from 1993 until the program was cut in 2007.

Initially the players on the club team coached themselves, but the school now employs head coach Kyle Mates.

Mates grew up in Indianapolis and played high school lacrosse at Cathedral High School.

Mates played college lacrosse at Bellarmine and Trine. He also played semi-professionally in Ontario, Canada, for two years.

“I got the job at BU when my men’s club team scrimmaged Butler, and they showed interest,” Mates said. “I grew up watching Butler sports, so I felt it was a great fit for me.”

The Bulldogs compete in the Central Division of the Central Collegiate Lacrosse Association. The CCLA is a division of the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association, which is a premiere national club lacrosse program.

This is the team’s second year in the CCLA.

Schools that compete within the CCLA Central Division include Indiana Tech, Oakland, Taylor and Michigan-Dearborn.

Butler is 2-2 in the division and 4-7 overall this season.

The Bulldogs also play teams from the surrounding area that are a part of the MCLA.

Phelps said that the Butler men’s lacrosse program was cut along with the men’s swimming program because of Title IX.

Title IX is a federal law that protects equal opportunities for women to participate in sports and extracurricular activities.

The team lived on as a club to continue to provide a competitive opportunity for Butler students.

Phelps said he never played lacrosse until he came to college but joined the club for the competitive edge.

“I wanted to continue playing competitive sports but not at the D-I level,” Phelps said.

Phelps said he believes the popularity of lacrosse at Butler has increased because it is an fast-paced contact sport, and sporting fans are intrigued by it.

“We’ve had a better turnout this spring than we did in the fall,” freshman attacker Andrew Taschler said.

Taschler has played lacrosse for eight years and said he has seen it go from non-existent to a sport with rising popularity in Indiana.

“Attendance has been better recently because we’re playing in the Butler Bowl,” Phelps said. “There aren’t many diehard Bulldogs fans, but there have been more Butler students at home games than most other teams we’ve played in the MCLA.”

Butler dropped two games over the weekend at home against Oakland and John Carroll.

The game against the Golden Grizzlies of Oakland ended in a 10-9 sudden-death overtime loss for the Bulldogs.

“As a team, we are having a successful season and are currently tied for second in our division,” Mates said.

The top two teams in each division make the playoffs, and Butler’s playoff hopes are on the line this weekend.

The Bulldogs have two more games this weekend to finish up their regular season.

They will head to Michigan to face Calvin and Northwood.

Spring has arrived on campus, but that does not mean the school’s fall athletic teams are resting easy.

The Butler men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball teams are currently participating in spring seasons even though their regular seasons are still months away.

The men’s and women’s soccer teams are both in the middle of month-long exhibition seasons that run from late March to the end of April.

The men’s squad took on Oakland last Saturday and has four games remaining this spring. The women’s team has already faced three teams and will take on Indiana on April 21.

Men’s soccer coach Paul Snape said playing games against other schools in the offseason gives players a chance to face off against different competitors.

“The problem is when you play against each other, you can get stale,” Snape said, “so playing other teams is a great opportunity to stay fresh.”

Junior forward Katie Griswold, a member of the women’s soccer team, said spring games help the team plan strategy for the fall season.

“[Spring games] let our coaches see what we need to work on, what will best suit the team and which formations will fit our team best,” Griswold said.

The volleyball team has matches scheduled on each of the first three Saturdays in April.

Junior outside hitter Rachel Barber said that the younger members of the team take advantage of the spring season.

“(The spring season) benefits the younger players the most,” Barber said. “It’s about getting comfortable with each other and allowing the coaches to develop players.”

The football team may not have games scheduled for the offseason, but coach Jeff Voris has 14 practices planned between March 23 and April 20.

The practices will culminate in the annual Blue-White Spring Game on April 21.

Sophomore running back Trae Heeter said that the squad focuses on re-implementing the team’s formations.

It also gives younger players time to impress the coaching staff.

“In the spring, we re-install either our offensive schemes or our defensive schemes,” Heeter said. “It’s basically a time for the guys that have been here to continue to work on their skills and for the freshmen and sophomores to go out there and show the coaches what they can do.”

The weekend was filled with highs and lows for the Butler women’s soccer team during the squad’s nail-biting double overtime victory against Oakland and close loss at Detroit.

The Bulldogs (5-5-0, 0-1 HL) were able to find the net in the second half of the game against the Titans (7-3-1, 1-0 HL), but it was too little, too late, as Detroit grabbed the 2-1 win on Sunday.

The Titans scored the only goal of the first half and the first goal of the second half.

In the 28th minute, Detroit junior midfielder Sarah Dzuris punched home a free kick from 25 yards out to give her team an early advantage.

The eventual game-winning strike came from Titans junior defenseman Rebekah Dornbos, who put away an unassisted goal in the match’s 46th minute.

Butler finally broke through on a goal from junior forward Katie Griswold in the 78th minute, but Detroit’s defense stayed strong for the remainder of the half.

“We have made a habit of starting slowly and giving up goals early but haven’t been punished for it,” head coach Tari St. John said. “Today we were made to play.”

Butler was able to tally nine shots against Detroit’s eight. Senior goalkeeper Natalie Galovska recorded three saves.

Butler began the weekend by defeating Oakland in a hard-fought match that ended with a double overtime goal by junior defensman Claire Milam.

The Golden Grizzlies (2-6) struck first when sophomore forward Serena San Cartier scored her first goal of the season, putting Oakland ahead 1-0.

The Bulldogs, who had 17 shots in the contest, went scoreless in the first half.

Oakland notched its second goal two and a half minutes into the second half.

Despite being down by a pair, St. John said the team was still confident they could go home with a win.

“These girls are resilient, that’s for sure,” St. John said. “Even at two down, there wasn’t a player that didn’t think we could make a comeback.”

Butler started that comeback with an own goal from the Golden Grizzlies, which occurred after a shot from Butler freshman midfielder Ann Zerfas.

The Bulldogs then seized a game-changing moment on a corner kick in the 77th minute. Freshman forward Stephanie Kaylor connected with sophomore midfielder Jackie Hafele, who knocked the ball off her head and into the net for a game-tying goal.

The match could not be decided in regulation time or after one overtime period. Butler held on until the 105th minute, when Milam sealed the win for the Bulldogs, putting away a rebound on a shot by freshman forward Elise Kotsakis.

The Bulldogs will continue their conference season when they host Wright State Sept. 24 at the Butler Bowl.