Vail Lacrosse Shootout - Women's Elite Division

This year's 16 teams are quite an unpredictable group. You have the known teams like womenslacrosse.com (F/N/A Chesapeake), ready to defend their title, and the teams of Colorado and Texas. Many teams are the same name, but entirely different rosters (like Ripple and Yankee Storm). Team Wild and Crouching Tigers form reunion team while others feature the young upcoming talents (Special Brew and Where's Your Aspen?) and others are veterans (Utah Maxima, QC Lax, and Last Call). One team sports a sisters' act (Team Ohio) and the remaining teams (Vail Daily, Lacrosse International, and Top Gun) combine a mix of current college players and recent grads. It will make for a very competitive tournament with surprising results. There are a couple of changes to this year's tournament. First, it will be four days instead of the traditional five. That means every team will be playing on Sunday morning. Second, the women will be part of the opening day games July 4th on Ford Field. The featured game will have Lacrosse International going against defending champions, womenslacrosse.com at 2:30 PM. Take a look at the reviews the team reps submitted, with special touches by Shauna Farnell and Michelle Secor, and see if you can predict the top four finishers. If you can, you are doing better than those that did the seeding. To all teams, good luck and have fun. May the Vail/Avon Shootout be competitive, Honor the Game, and show the Vail Valley the excitement of women's lacrosse!

There will be a team reps meeting on Wednesday, July 3 at 5:30 PM. It will be held at the Avon Library at 200 Benchmark Road. The officials will meet on the 4th of July at 7:30 AM on the Athletic Field.

Library directions: Take I-70 west. Go 8 miles past West Vail. Take the Avon/Beaver Creek exit. Continue to the third roundabout (the one with the bronze horse in the center) Go west on Beaver Creek Blvd. Go left on Benchmark and the library is at the end of the road on the right. The "Beaver Creek Room" is on the right as you enter the building.

We will be playing by USL Inc. rules. Each game will consist of two 25-minute halves, stop clock during the last 2 minutes, and a 5-minute half time. Please be ready to go at game time. The championship game will be the same except there will be a stop clock on all goals.

The tournament has 16 teams for this year; therefore we will be playing a round robin format of 4 pools with 4 teams per pool. (See Bracket) Each team will play 3 games against the other teams in their pool over the 2 days.

On Saturday there will be cross-pool play (quarterfinals) (4^th place vs. 3^th place, etc.). Winners play winners, losers play losers later that day. The last two games on Saturday will be semifinals ( the four winners of the morning Championship bracket) with the winners of those last Saturday games going to the Championship game. All teams will play in the morning on Sunday. The Championship game will be on Sunday at 12:30 PM on Ford Field. Points will determine places in the round robin. Points are awarded as follows: 3 points per win, 1 point per tie, 0 points per loss.

Ties: For pool play, a tied game after regulation will have one 3-minute overtime, sudden victory. After that, the tie remains.

For determining 1st through 4th place in the pool, ties in standings will be broken using the following rules:
1) head-to-head competition
2) team with the least goals scored against in all games
3) flip a coin (if two teams tied) or draw from a hat (if 3 or more tied)
"Goals for" will have no bearings on standings.

There will be a trainer available at all games and all fields. Tape and supplies will be provided.

Water will be provided. It is recommended that you have a water bottle or container.

Player passes will be distributed and will be required for entrance on Ford Field on July 4-7. Passes are not necessary for the other fields. You must wear the passes to gain entrance to Ford Field. Please tell your players, "DO NOT put the passes on your ankles."

Fireworks have been cancelled due to the EXTREME fire danger in the Colorado mountains this year.

MAIL TO:
Michelle Secor
7745 Delmonico Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80919
HOME 719-528-1090
jmsecor@netzero.net