A new game in town

They call it the fastest game on two feet.

It's also the fastest growing collegiate sport in the U.S., and two more Iowa colleges have joined the trend.

Cornell College and Wartburg College will debut NCAA Division III lacrosse programs this spring, following Loras and the Dubuque, both of which added teams in the last two years.

There's excitement on both campuses for the home openers - Tuesday for the Cornell men, Saturday for the Cornell women and March 14 for Wartburg, which will begin with only a women's team.

'(It's a) new spring tradition,” said Cornell men's coach Andrew Bonasera, a four-time Division III All-American at Roanoke from 2000-03.

Lacrosse is played outdoors with a field and objective like soccer, but with a pace and strategy similar to basketball.

There are 10 players (12 for women), including a goalie, on the field with loose mesh attached to sticks designed to catch and throw the small rubber ball.

The men's and women's games differ, particularly with more physical contact in men's lacrosse.

It's still largely played in the eastern part of the country, but more Midwest schools are adding it. US Lacrosse, the sport's national governing body, reported 60 new NCAA varsity programs in 2013.

'So many more young guys coming up are playing all around the country,” said Bonasera, an inaugural head coach for the third time. 'Colleges see the opportunity, if it's right for that college, to give that opportunity to not lose out on some student-athletes who may be looking to play lacrosse in college.”

The newness of it all in Iowa - none of this year's new teams feature recruited freshmen from the state - contributes to a curiosity around Mount Vernon and Waverly.

Sara Morrissey, a West Des Moines Dowling graduate, was in her third year on the Wartburg basketball team when she heard about the college adding a new sport for the first time since women's soccer in 1989.

'Honestly, playing lacrosse started off kind of as a joke,” Morrissey said. 'The more I got to thinking about it, the more basketball just wasn't making me happy anymore. (I thought), ‘actually, I think this would be kind of fun to try.'”

Knights head coach Danielle Fiala, who graduated from North Central (Ill.) College in 2013 as the program's all-time goals leader, recruited about a dozen women already on campus to go along with seven freshmen.

The team draws quite a bit of attention from onlookers, including the school's baseball team, when it scrimmages in the athletic fieldhouse.

'They're watching us because they have no idea what's going on,” Morrissey said. '(A baseball) coach was like, ‘Hey guys, come to hitting practice,' and they're like, ‘No wait, we're watching this.' And he came over and just started watching us for 15 minutes.”

'I think people are just fascinated because they haven't seen it.”

Iowans may have only seen lacrosse on TV, and a limited amount at that, but continued exposure could lead to more opportunities.

Cornell women's coach Lauren Martin, a native of Canada who played at Lees-McRae (N.C.) College, expects Iowa high schools to begin adding the sport in five to 10 years.

'In Mount Vernon, nobody has any idea what it is,” Martin said. 'I would say you need to go to at least two or three games so you can grasp the concept of it. If you go to one and don't like it, give it a couple more chances.”