The loss of sports: TCNJ women’s lacrosse team reflects on abrupt end to the season

It has been about a week since the abrupt end of the college sports season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

News 12 Staff

Mar 18, 2020, 2:56 AM

Updated 1,660 days ago

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It has been about a week since the abrupt end of the college sports season due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Three seniors on the College Of New Jersey women’s lacrosse team say that they never expected things to end this way.
“It was really hard at first, like nobody could speak it,” says Alex Fitzpatrick. “One week ago, that was our last game and we walked off the field and didn’t even know it.”
The team is nationally ranked. Sharon Pfluger has coached field hockey and lacrosse for 35 years. She says that she has never seen anything like this.
“The end of a season is always so difficult regardless of the end result because you spend so much time together and it's the end of four years of a huge commitment,” Pfluger says.
The NCAA is offering spring athletes an extra year of eligibility. But this may not help everyone.
"We're not going to come back, we just can't afford to do that. A lot of us have already planned our future. We have jobs, we're moving away, whatever the case is,” says senior Olivia Cleale. “It's good in theory that they are giving more eligibility but it's just not an option in Division III for us.”
TCNJ was ranked 11th in the country for Division III before the season ended.