Across all levels of women’s lacrosse, the landscape is ever-changing. The NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Rules Committee has implemented rule modifications over the last few seasons to simplify the penalty structure while aiming to improve the pace of play and player safety.
Although the changes are being made in the proper spirit, it has made the lives of coaches, players and referees more difficult. All parties need to adjust to these alterations on the fly, often creating confusion due to the uncertainty surrounding the new rules.
“It’s a challenge for [the coaches] to learn it quickly and then also distribute that information to the players, too,” Marist assistant women’s lacrosse coach Erica Blubaugh said. “Especially for the freshmen coming in and even the sophomores, they are still learning the rules.”
In 2023, Taylor Everson – a sophomore attacker from Yale University – suffered a ruptured kidney on an illegal cross-check that was not deemed a penalty. The injury hospitalized Everson for two weeks due to severe internal bleeding.
This incident triggered a very loud call to action. It even sparked the debate over whether or not women’s lacrosse is a contact sport. In men’s lacrosse, the players wear protective gear, allowing for more physical play. Body and stick checking are allowed; such contact is prohibited on the women’s side. Instead of physicality, the women’s game is focused on speed and precision.
“To make them wear all the extra equipment is going to make them play like the men, and we don’t want that to happen,” Mike Oliver, executive director of the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, told ESPN.
The large outcry for player safety in women’s lacrosse required the NCAA to perform a thorough review of the rules. Prior to the start of the 2024 season, the NCAA instituted green cards, a one-minute releasable penalty that gives the opposition a “man-up” opportunity. At the time, green cards could only be administered between the 30-yard lines for teams committing fouls such as blocking, charging, pushing and tripping.
Now, with the exception of the critical scoring area, green cards can be handed out anywhere on the field. Upon their creation, green cards were meant to clean up clear minor fouls occurring throughout the game. Instead, referees are calling smaller fouls at a very frequent rate, disrupting the flow of the game.
“[In the past], I would check a girl and then just run away and the game would keep going,” said senior midfielder Caitlin McNaboe. “I could have a fast break and then have it stopped because a girl accidentally checked me and I still have the ball in my stick.”
“Green cards have an effect on the Division III level too,” added Julia Daly, a senior attacker and 2025 second-team All-America selection for the Gettysburg College women’s lacrosse team. “The way they are being handed out needs to be limited so games do not get decided on small fouls.”
A challenge coaches and players face is the subjectivity that comes along with assigning green cards. What one referee deems worthy of a green card, another may not, leaving players uncertain about what is allowed from one game to the next. In just the first weekend of games, 494 green cards were shown.
“I think there needs to be a middle ground,” said Blubaugh. “Now that they are applied all across the field, it’s ticky-tacky… so hopefully in the next few years [the referees] can find an even distribution of how to use them.”
The enactment of field-wide green cards not only disrupts specific sequences during a game but also extends the overall duration of contests. Assigning a green card is a much too long and tedious process; the game comes to a halt as the referee has to write down the number of the player who committed the foul and report it to the scorer’s table, who must accurately reflect it on the scoreboard. For every green card that is distributed, this process must be repeated.
While player safety is at the forefront of the decision-makers’ minds, the pace of play is as well. Other women’s sports like basketball, volleyball and softball have seen an uptick in viewership, and the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) is trying to do the same with its sport.
“I think [the coaches association] wants the sport to be faster, get it on TV and have it be more exciting while keeping the integrity of the sport,” Blubaugh said.
Despite green cards and the process of acknowledging them being counterintuitive to improve the pace of play, the NCAA introduced a 30-second timer that starts when a goal is scored; the players must be ready for the ensuing draw when the time expires.
As teams started to immerse themselves in the new rules, it became apparent that adjustments needed to be made in terms of when the 30-second timer should begin. During preseason “play days,” the timer began once the referee initiated a stick check; stick checks occur after every goal, a rule specific to women’s lacrosse. This proved to be ineffective, as players needed to scramble to midfield to prepare for the draw after the inspection.
For the spring season, the timer does not start until the referee places the examined stick on the ground. This small change suggests the NCAA is still searching for a balance within the new rules and that the process remains fluid.
“[The NCAA] is always asking for feedback. There are Zooms, educational sessions and surveys sent out, so they are always trying to get more information and make it work for everybody,” Blubaugh said.
The 30-second clock has posed the biggest challenge for coaches. Blubaugh and the rest of the staff are still adjusting to when to make substitutions and how to execute them efficiently.
“I think over the last few years as a coach, there’s been so many changes where you get to the point and ask yourself, ‘what’s the new challenge this year and how do we adapt to it?’’’ Blubaugh said.
Green cards and the 30-second timer are just two of many rule changes implemented prior to the start of the 2025-26 season. Other rules that were approved include, but are not limited to, the use of an advantage signal for one-minute releasable penalties, setting up eight-meter free positions only at the two adjacent hashes on both sides of the center hash and restrictions on when the video challenge system can be used.
To educate the players on all of the new rules, the Marist coaching staff created an interactive method to get everyone up to speed.
“We had a ‘Jeopardy!’ on [the changes] so we understood everything, and we literally all got all of the questions wrong because we didn’t know,” said McNaboe.
Everyone involved is still working diligently to become familiar with the constantly changing rules in women’s lacrosse. In spite of the frustration that currently looms, altering the rules again may not be in the best interest of the sport.
“We have to let these rules simmer and see where it goes,” Blubaugh said. “My qualm with a lot of the rule changes is that they happen so quickly and the refs, players and coaches don’t necessarily understand. I think we have to let it go and see what happens.”
Edited by Ben Leeds
Photo by Cara Lacey
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