Peyton Beatty – Freelance Photojournalist

“We took the time and effort to really build up and create something much bigger than a team,” senior goalkeeper Bella Bravo said.

California Lutheran University announced it would be discontinuing its women’s lacrosse program effective immediately on Tuesday, April 28, citing “continued and severe challenges in maintaining a robust roster,” according to a university-wide email from the Office of the President.

“I am experiencing two things: sadness with our students, who are grieving the loss of an athletic program that they valued; and confidence that we made the hard but correct decision. Our priority right now is supporting our student-athletes as they process this difficult news,” President John Nunes said in a statement to The Echo. 

Director of Athletics Howard Davis said the decision to discontinue the program was not a financial one, but about putting “brakes on things” that are not most beneficial logistically for the university. 

“We’re just overflowing with student-athletes in almost every other program, so they provide great return on the university’s investment,” Davis said. “That return has not been realized in the seven-year history of lacrosse.”

The team played its inaugural season in 2020, but was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which also ended its entire 2021 campaign. The program finished with a 15-73 record in five and a half seasons played.

Davis said he had been concerned about the women’s lacrosse program since he arrived as interim director of Athletics in August 2023. 

Davis said then Head Coach MacEllen McDonough, also known as “Coach Mac,” came to him in the months leading up to the start of last season expressing concerns that the roster would not be sufficiently filled. McDonough did not respond to The Echo’s email request for comment.

“It’s been a low-rostered sport for a long time,” Davis said. “We’ve had to recruit female student athletes from different teams to fill our roster, and/or recruit general student body females to do it, which we had to do again this year.”

Davis said the lack of roster depth created safety concerns for players. Due to injury, the team played multiple games with no substitutes available, meaning players did not have the opportunity to come off the field. 

Cal Lutheran’s team fielded a roster of 15 in 2026. The other five women’s lacrosse programs in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference — Claremont-Mudd Scripps Colleges, Pomona-Pitzer Colleges, Chapman University, University of Redlands and Occidental College — all had rosters of between 20 and 30, with four carrying at least 26 players. 

Before its discontinuation, Davis said the program was set to bring in nine commits and that interest was considerably higher than in years past with 26 applicants interested compared to 12 prior to the fall 2025 semester and seven prior to the fall 2024 semester. He said he had to decide whether those numbers were merely an anomaly or the beginning of a trend.

“Let’s say it is an anomaly and the next year we’re only able to garner two recruits or three recruits or whatever; then I’m having this discussion with nine freshmen who’ve now come to this school, fully integrated into our student body,” Davis said. “It’s hard enough to tell that to the juniors, sophomores and freshmen that we have now, but to bring a whole big class like that in, it just felt like the wrong thing to do.”

Despite getting approval from the university’s Board of Regents on April 22, Davis said he held off on making the announcement until the conclusion of the team’s season the following weekend. 

“I wanted to uplift and elevate the Senior Day experience for those six seniors who have given so much to this program as much as possible, and I thought announcing it prior to that would absolutely put a complete black cloud on that,” Davis said. 

Davis said he met with McDonough on April 27 to notify her of the decision and planned to meet with the team at noon the next day. 

“The first sentence [from Davis] was, ‘Sorry to inform you, we’re cutting your program,’ and everyone just had instant jaws dropped, tears welling in eyes, it was bad,” said junior attacker and team captain Madison Soforenko.

In addition to the team’s players, McDonough and Assistant Coach Kaitlyn Gill, Davis, Associate Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator Katie Bell and representatives from Counseling and Psychological Services were in attendance at the latter meeting. Gill did not respond to The Echo’s email for comment.

“Both meetings were gut-wrenching. I have tremendous respect for Coach Mac. I have tremendous admiration for what she’s done for this program,” Davis said. “There were lots of tears, lots of anger, lots of emotion, lots of questions — all valid. All emotions were valid. Every tear was valid.”

Immediately after the meeting, an email from Davis went out to those who donated to the program for the university’s recent Cares Day fundraiser, notifying them of the decision. Donors were given the option to either receive a refund or reallocate their donation to a different program.   

In a joint interview with five women’s lacrosse players — Sydney Shin, Sydnee Hill, Bella Bravo, Daphne White and Alexa Miller — Hill said the team felt the sense of community they built had been “ripped” from them.

“Obviously we didn’t win as much as we wanted to, but we all put in the work. We’re all super close and we’re all there for each other throughout everything,” Hill, a senior midfielder, said. 

Bravo, a senior goalkeeper, grew up in the Bay Area about six hours north of Cal Lutheran. She said the team provided a “family” for her and other players not local to the area. 

“We took the time and effort to really build up and create something much bigger than a team. We’re a family, we’re a community, and now that … is just gone with very little transparency or real reasoning,” Bravo said. 

Davis said the university is assisting any student-athlete if they wish to transfer, as well as offering them continued use of athletic training facilities through the end of the academic year — solutions Shin, a senior midfielder and team captain, called half-hearted.

“In a time where women, especially women’s sports, are facing the kind of issues that they are, to just cut a women’s team from the school instead of shaving off budgets in numerous places, I think is incredibly disrespectful. I think the way it was handled has been really poor,” said White, a junior attacker and defender.

Soforenko said following the decision, she had a one-on-one meeting with Davis on April 29. She said Davis offered to help her and other players affected transfer to Whittier College, which Soforenko called “insulting.” Whittier’s women’s lacrosse program was suspended and their 2026 season cancelled due to a lack of roster viability, according to a press release from Whittier’s athletic department. 

“To say, ‘Just pack your things and go to a different school,’ it’s hard to hear. I don’t want to hate Cal Lu. I love Cal Lu,” Soforenko said.

Josslynn Forsyth, a midfielder and attacker, is a senior at West Ranch High School and was committed to play lacrosse at Cal Lutheran. She said she decided to commit after attending the team’s winter prospect clinic in late January after meeting the team and McDonough. 

“[McDonough has] been so supportive of everybody, and it truly breaks my heart to see her getting this position taken away from her, especially after her very, very short career at Cal Lutheran.”

Forsyth said she did not receive any direct email notifying her of the university’s decision, but rather she found out via an email to her father, who donated to the program for Cares Day. 

Upon learning of the program’s discontinuation, Forsyth said she personally emailed Davis, making a plea to reconsider. 

“The nine of us coming in are dedicated, passionate and ready to represent CLU with pride, and it is devastating to feel that opportunity taken away before it even began,” Forsyth said in the email to Davis. 

Davis said in his response to Forsyth that the decision was final and there was no path for reinstatement for the subsequent year. 

Forsyth said Davis told her the announcement’s timing was in part to allow committed students to have ample time to find a new place to go; however, because the deadline to accept an offer from another university is May 1, she did not feel she had ample time to properly reconsider her options. She said she will still be attending Cal Lutheran.

“I’ve declined offers from other schools. I’ve already taken myself off waitlists. I’ve denied admissions. I’ve done all this under the impression that I’m coming to Cal Lutheran to play lacrosse,” Forsyth said. “I had about three days to make a decision.”

The team’s Instagram account posted a statement that has received over 1,100 likes and over 60 comments, while a reel with the caption, “POV: you haven’t found out that they’re cutting your program yet” has received over 131,000 views and over 70 comments, as of May 4.

A petition started by former Cal Lutheran lacrosse player Mia Deck ‘24, which has been promoted by players, staff, family and various community members, has received over 3,700 signatures as of May 4.

“When I joined [lacrosse], I was like, ‘Suddenly college here makes sense. I have this place, I have this community, this little family.’ What’s going on is completely wrong,” White said.