BRIDGEPORT — The Mountain East Conference announced today that Dominican University of California has accepted an invitation to associate membership in the MEC for the sport of women’s lacrosse after receiving unanimous support from the MEC Board of Directors.
“We are thrilled to have Dominican University of California join the MEC as an associate member in the sport of women’s lacrosse,” MEC Commissioner Reid Amos said. “This innovative and strategic partnership provides an opportunity for Dominican’s women’s lacrosse team to compete for a conference championship for the first time while also creating a path for the MEC’s tournament champion to earn automatic qualification to the NCAA Championship in the first year of AQ for this growing sport. This alignment will appropriately manage costs as the Penguins will only travel to the MEC’s footprint of full-time members to compete in the MEC Championship each spring, while our full-time members will participate in a round-robin schedule as part of an inventive format. This partnership is unquestionably a win for all involved and underscores our conference’s collective and ongoing commitment to providing opportunities and pursuing excellence.”
Located just a dozen miles north of San Francisco in the Bay Area city of San Rafael, Dominican University of California is a private co-educational liberal arts university offering more than 60 programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Founded in 1890, it is one of the oldest universities in California.
The first and still the only NCAA Division II women’s lacrosse program in California, the Penguins made their varsity debut in the Western Women’s Lacrosse League (WWLL) conference of the Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association (WCLA) in 2023. The program was elevated to NCAA Division II status following that inaugural season and competed as an NCAA Division II independent this past spring. While the school is a full-time member of the NCAA Division II PacWest Conference, the PacWest Conference does not sponsor Women’s Lacrosse.
“We’re excited to be proud associate members of the Mountain East Conference,” Dominican Athletic Director Amy Henkelman said. “We want to thank the Mountain East Conference and Commissioner Amos for this opportunity. Our women’s lacrosse team has been on an island the past year as the only team on the West Coast, bringing challenges to scheduling and postseason access. We believe this partnership will provide a great opportunity for our student-athletes and enhance their experience. We also hope this partnership continues the growth of the game across the country so more young women can participate at all levels.”
NCAA Division II will provide Automatic Qualification (AQ) to all qualifying conferences beginning with the 2025 season with conferences required to have six or more schools participating in a sport to qualify. Adding the Dominican University of California program to the five MEC schools – the University of Charleston, Davis & Elkins College, Frostburg State University, West Virginia Wesleyan College, and Wheeling University – competing in women’s lacrosse enables the MEC to meet the AQ qualifying standard. Point Park University will begin to play Women’s Lacrosse in 2026 but is not scheduled to count toward NCAA AQ status until the 2028 season as it works toward completing its transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II affiliation.
The distances involved in this cross-country collaboration required both parties to work together in devising an innovative scheduling solution. The five full-time MEC members will have a regular-season round-robin scheduling requirement. Dominican will not have a regular season requirement. At the conclusion of the regular season among full-time members, one team will be eliminated with the remaining four full-time members advancing to the MEC Championship. The four full-time members will occupy the Nos. 1, 2, 4, and 5 seeds with the Penguins slotting in as the No. 3 seed. The 4 and 5 seeds will then play an elimination game to set the field for the semifinals and finals.
As the No. 3 seed, Dominican University of California will play at the No. 2 seed in a semifinal match. If Dominican wins, the Penguins would advance to the championship final on Sunday, May 4 at the winner of the other semifinal. If Dominican loses its semifinal, the Penguins would play a consolation match against the loser of the other semifinal the same weekend as the Championship final.
In addition to providing the opportunity to earn automatic qualification for NCAA Tournament play, the MEC plans to shift its All-Conference selection in Women’s Lacrosse to the week following the MEC Championship. This will allow the competition between Penguin student-athletes and the MEC full-time members to be considered as part of the all-conference voting by the league coaches.
The winner of the MEC Championship match will earn the conference’s AQ bid to the NCAA Division II Championships, guaranteeing the MEC a postseason representative in the sport for the first time in league history. The field for the 2025 NCAA Division II Women’s Lacrosse Championships will be announced on Sunday, May 11.
Founded in 2013, the Mountain East Conference has established itself as one of the top all-sports conferences in the country in NCAA Division II. In just 11 years, MEC institutions have produced six NCAA Division II champions and have competed in 13 NCAA Championship games. In addition to the athletic success, the MEC recognizes over 2,500 student-athletes annually for their academic success and ten MEC student-athletes have been recognized as “NCAA Elite 90” winners, which honors the individual with the highest cumulative grade-point average at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s 90 championships.
