By Spencer Tracy, Staff Writer

The Xavier women’s lacrosse team’s fourth season has officially started after their 15-6 road loss to the University of Akron earlier this month. With a goal of capturing more wins this season in year four, head coach Meg Decker broke down the process of putting a college program together. 

The team was trailing Akron 5-0 in the first period. Midway through the second period, junior attacker Lola Mancuso scored her second goal of the game. Less than 30 seconds later, sophomore midfielder Gabby Bouman followed up with her first goal. A quick 5-point deficit quickly became a 5-4 game as Decker’s team was beginning to buy into her winning philosophy.  

Mancuso would put a third goal by her name, giving herself a hat trick to start the season, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough as the Muskies lost 15-6. 

In sports today, we see many coaching jobs open once a season comes to an end. Coaches retire, opportunities open elsewhere or they’re fired. The challenging part is having an attractive destination for coaches while also finding someone capable of taking the job. 

From giving private lessons on the beaches of San Diego to assistant coaching at Virginia Commonwealth University and University of Hartford, Decker’s calling was always lacrosse. “I love lacrosse, but I’m passionate about people and about organizations,” Decker said. “I enjoy building a program up for success and building an infrastructure for it to sustain.” 

Once Decker was officially a collegiate coach for the Xavier Musketeers, she was faced with building a roster. She faced additional challenges in persuading players to join a program with no history or tradition. Fortunately, Decker had been here before and knew the game plan.  

With the pandemic, a lot of players exercised an extra year of eligibility, keeping rosters full and leaving plenty of unscouted talent. This was a huge opportunity for Decker and the Musketeers. 

“This is not as common, typically new programs need to go through the transfer route, but I did not want to do that purposefully because I wanted to piece the team together,” Decker said. 

Some players just wanted to play college lacrosse, while others were persuaded because of the guaranteed playing time or because they believed in what Decker was building. Either way, every player had a priority. Meeting that priority every year was important to Decker. 

“I think there’s a lot of stigma around transferring that doesn’t need to be there,” she said when asked about the controversy over the transfer portal. “A lot of the negatives are imposed versus real. If the player has priorities and the transfer portal allows people to continue to value their priorities, I see that as a win.” 

Decker has lost plenty of players to the transfer portal. Recruiting players to play for a team is hard, but getting them to stay is another challenge. Just 9% of the first recruiting class for a women’s lacrosse program stays with their originally signed school. It’s common for players to transfer, as 40% of the first four classes transfer in women’s college lacrosse on average.  

At some point, winning climbs its way up the priority list for expectations. Professional teams “tank” all the time to speed this process up, but college sports don’t have a draft, so they have to add the best prospects available. 

“The goal is to win,” Decker said. “We are wicked fast. We are putting the ball in the back of the net before you even know it. Our goal is to make it to the Big East playoffs.” 

Decker and her squad go back to work giving the University of Cincinnati a visit today and then travel to Duke University for a matchup with the Blue Devils this Sunday. 

The full interview with Coach Decker can be found below or by searching “Xavier Newswire” on Spotify.