Spring sports are quickly approaching, folks, and that means lacrosse season is upon us.  

Penn State men’s lacrosse is set to start its preseason scrimmages on Saturday, January 20, against Bucknell. The Nittany Lions are equipped with a diversity of experience and fresh faces as they march into the 2024 season aiming to right the wrongs of the 2023 NCAA Final Four.  

Penn State women’s lacrosse, meanwhile, is set to start its preseason scrimmages on Saturday, January 20, against James Madison in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The Nittany Lions were ranked No. 14 in the preseason rankings and will attempt to make a run in the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments in 2024.

While Penn State’s personnel changed in the offseason, the NCAA also revised collegiate lacrosse rules, adjusting the scope of the sport for the 2024 season. 

Men’s Lacrosse

What To Know

Game Setup

Men’s lacrosse, on all levels, consists of 10 players from each team on the field at a time, featuring nine outfield players and one goalie. College lacrosse games are 60 minutes, split into four, 15-minute quarters. There is a two-minute break between the first and the second quarter and the third and fourth, while halftime gives the teams a 10-minute break from game action.  

The winner of the game is decided by who has more goals at the end of the 60 minutes. In the result of a tie, there’s a five-minute rest followed by a four-minute sudden-death overtime. Each overtime period is split by a two-minute break, and this will continue until a winner is found.  

Outfield Positions

The nine outfield players that each team deploys are split into pods of three. The attack is the offensive trio that’s typically the most skilled in terms of ball handling and understanding the offense. They remain on the offensive half of the field except on a few special occasions.

Next are the midfielders, who help on offense, defense, and face-offs. Midfielders usually have the most endurance out of the positions as they cover the most ground on every possession.

Finally, the defense is the opposite of the attack. They remain on the defensive side of the field and have two main jobs: protecting the net and clearing the ball to the offense.  

Offside

This is when one team has more than six players on the offensive side of the field or when one team has over seven players, including the goalie, on the defensive side. Offsides on the defensive end result in a technical foul, while offsides on the offensive end result in a turnover.  

Long Stick Midfielder (LSM)

A midfielder must help on defense and offense, but some are better equipped for one side of the field than others. An LSM is a midfielder with a traditional defensive six-foot shaft. This allows them to better mark the other team’s offensive midfielders and improves their ability to pick off passes. Each team is only allowed four extended shafts on the field at one time.  

Shot Clock

The shot clock in college lacrosse has changed once again. Now a team has 20 seconds to clear the ball from its defensive half to the halfway line and 60 seconds following the clearing of the ball to get a shot. Failure to take a shot on goal or cause a defensive infraction will result in a turnover.  

Rule Changes

The NCAA Lacrosse Rules Committee approved several changes to the rules for the 2024 season. The biggest of these changes is video review after the events of last season’s NCAA semifinal match between Penn State and Duke.  

Newly reviewable plays are as follows:  

• To determine if a loose ball crosses the goal line
• To determine if the ball was in the goal before the dislodgment of the goal cage
• To determine if an offensive player was in or landed in the crease prior to the ball entering the goal 
• To determine if an offensive player landed in the goal mouth prior to the ball entering the goal as a result of illegal contact by the defense
• To determine if a goal was scored as a result of the head of the shooter’s crosse coming off during the shot or follow-through

On top of this, coaches will have a challenge they can choose to use in each half of the game. Challenges used in the first half will not carry over to the second half and a failed challenge will take away one of the two allotted timeouts each team has per half. Coaches will have 30 seconds to challenge a non-goal play. Challenges in the final four minutes of play will be at the discretion of the referees only.  

The final rule change is that play will now be stopped anytime a player on the field’s helmet comes off, and they are required to leave the field of play to readjust the helmet.  

After its scrimmage matches, Penn State officially kicks off its season against Colgate at noon on Saturday, February 3, at Panzer Stadium.

Women’s Lacrosse

What To Know

Game Setup

Women’s lacrosse from the middle school level onward consists of 12 players on the field for both teams. Each team employs one goalie and 11 outfield players. College lacrosse games are 60 minutes each, split into four, 15-minute quarters. There is a two-minute break between the first and the second quarter and the third and fourth, and halftime gives the teams 10 minutes of break, identical to the men’s side with the exception of on-field participants.

The winner of the game is decided by who has more goals at the end of the 60 minutes. As the result of a tie, there is a five-minute rest followed by a six-minute, sudden death over time. Each overtime period is split by a three-minute break and will go on until a winner is decided.

Outfield Positions

The 11 outfield players are split between three main positions. The first four players are the attackers. Their job is to score goals for the team and constantly cut toward or away from the goal to generate space.

Next, there are three midfielders in charge of connecting play between the offense and the defense. One of the midfielders is known as the center and is responsible for taking draws when they happen.

Finally, four defenders bring up the rear of the team. They are employed with marking the attackers and transitioning the ball to offense in case of turnover.  

Shot Clock

In women’s lacrosse at the collegiate level, there is a 90-second shot clock that starts immediately after a change of possession. The shot clock will reset to 60 seconds after every shot on goal from the team with possession if the shot clock is under 59 seconds at the time of the shot. If the shot clock runs out, a change of possession will be awarded to the team on defense.  

Draw

A draw is used to start each half and after every goal. A ball is placed in between the sticks of two standing players and drawn up and away.  

Offside

Each team must have at least five players behind their defensive restraining line and four behind their offensive restraining line. In the event this rule is broken, two punishments could result. The first is if the offsides are outside of the critical scoring area, in this case, the opposing team will just be awarded free possession. However, if the offside occurs in the critical scoring area, the team with the ball will be awarded a free position and the shot clock will reset. Offsides can also result in a one-minute releasable penalty. 

Rule Changes

Women’s lacrosse went through many minor changes since the end of the 2023 season.   

The first change is to uniforms and what the athletes can wear. Cleats with aluminum, leather, rubber, nylon, or plastic cleats, studs, or bars can now be worn if the referee deems them safe. Along the same lines, athletes can now wear the ND 200 compression shirts under their uniforms. 

Additionally, timeouts are now two minutes in length with the first media timeout occurring at the first natural break in play under 10 minutes.  

The largest changes, though, have been to the reclassification and creation of fouls: 

• Added a new foul to penalize flopping and embellishment
• Recategorized the foul titled “Dangerous Stick in the Sphere” as a mandatory card foul
• Added a new delay of game foul for a player who does not run off the field, enter, and remain in the penalty area after a cardable foul in a timely manner
• Increase the penalty for an offsides foul by a team in their defensive end to a one-minute releasable penalty
• Increase the non-releasable penalty time for a red card from two minutes to five minutes 
• Eliminate the foul titled “Multiple Fouls” and increase the penalty for the following physical contact fouls between the restraining lines to a one-minute releasable penalty: Blocking/Illegal Pick, Charging, Cross Check, Forcing Through, Holding, Illegal Use of the Stick, Pushing, and Tripping

Missy Doherty’s group will officially begin its season against Bucknell at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, February 3, in Lewisburg.