If there was one thing Fresno State women’s lacrosse head coach Kara Concheck knew about her team heading into the season, it was that the Bulldogs were pretty well known for their hustle and having no quit in them.

A glimpse of the “never say die” attitude was shown in their final weekend of the season. After losing ten-straight games, the Bulldogs rallied to defeat San Diego State in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation semifinal 14-11.

The Bulldogs (2-12, 0-2) were now in the MPSF championship game against the No. 1 seeded team UC Davis (12-4, 2-0), who they lost to on three different occasions this season. 

But heading into halftime of Saturday afternoon’s championship game, the Bulldogs were just down 10-9.

But UC Davis came out in the second half strong, scoring six unanswered goals and didn’t look back as the Aggies won 23-13, clinching the MPSF championship. 

This was UC Davis’ third-straight tournament championship appearance. The Aggies lost the previous two times in the championship against San Diego State.

This was the last game for the Fresno State women’s lacrosse team. Earlier in the school year, the university announced that there would be three teams cut — women’s lacrosse, men’s tennis and wrestling.

Following the announcement, the Bulldogs’ roster size was nearly cut in half, going from 34 to 18, as many players opted to sit the season or transfer to another program.

“We’re playing against Pac-12 schools who have 50 players in their roster that are subbing the midfielders every five minutes,” Concheck said at the beginning of the season.

Fresno State beat Kent State on Feb. 19, 20-11. But proceeded to lose ten straight games. Seven of those games were against Pac-12 teams — USC who ranked No. 20 and No. 16 Stanford.

Yet, the Bulldogs were able to keep up with Pac-12 opponents. Fresno State was within three goals of beating Cal on two different occasions, and fell just short against Oregon, 13-12.

Multiple individual single-season records were broken this year. Lauren Kiszely set the assist record with 25 and Abbigayle Roberts had the most ground balls with 26. But Sydney Skalstad did a lot of record shifting this season.

The senior had the most draws in control in a single season with 65 and is the career leader in with 147.

But in the last two days, the Bulldogs left a mark in the lacrosse program’s history.

Friday’s victory against San Diego State was the first postseason win in program history. Fresno State proceeded to play in their first ever MPSF championship the next day. 

Concheck, a Columbus, Ohio, native, played for Fresno State from 2010-2014 when the program was first getting started.

“I chose Fresno State because I wanted to be part of starting something new,” Concheck said to The Collegian in 2014.  “I wanted to help build the foundation of the new lacrosse program. I thought that was really exciting.”

After serving as an assistant coach, she was named interim head coach in late 2020, giving her the opportunity to be at the helm in the lacrosse program’s final season.

“To end Bulldog lacrosse in the way we did this weekend, was a tremendous display of what we stand for and who we are,” Concheck said. “We represented our alumni, friends and family, and team as a whole with pride. We have dealt with a great deal of adversity and have kept our heads high, and competitive spirit. This team battled and stopped at nothing all year. Go Bulldogs, forever and always.”

The Bulldogs drew first blood, as Hennessey Evans got the Bulldogs on the board early, but UC Davis quickly answered back with three-straight goals by Anna Hofgard, Alex Agnew and Kendall Seifert to make it 3-1.

But that was short lived. Skalstad and Hannah Krats got on the board and tied up the game for the Bulldogs at 3. 

Fresno State and UC Davis had a back-and-forth game before the Aggies went on a four-goal run ”” featuring two goals from Sorana Larson ”” to make it 8-4 with 11:28 left in the first half.

The Bulldogs fired back, Evans and Krats, along with Logann Eldredge and Megan Walaitis scored to tie the 8-8. 

Fresno State gave up a free position shot to Seifert, where she executed to give Davis back the lead. But Eldredge connected with Walaitis to tie the game.

With 49 seconds left, UC Davis was awarded another free position shot. This time, Maddie Myers took the shot and scored to give the Aggies the 10-9 lead heading into halftime.

UC Davis came out in the second half with six straight goals. Agnew got on the board to open up the half, and Larson scored her third goal of the game. Agnew then followed it up with her second goal of the half.

Hofgard scored back-to-back goals before Seifert scored the final goal of UC Davis’ run. The Aggies led 16-9 within the first 10 minutes of the second half.

Even when Fresno State finally answered back, UC Davis offense kept scoring.

After Evans broke the scoring drought for the Bulldogs, Larson and Seifert responded with a goal to make it 18-10 with 16:08 left in the game. 

Krats scored with a free position shot, but Myers had two straight goals to increase the Aggies lead 20-12 with 8:57 left.

Similarly again, Krats scored another free position shot. This time, UC Davis responded with three goals, two of which came from Hofgard. 

Devon Ortman scored the last goal of the game, but by then it was way out of reach. UC Davis won 23-13 and snagged the MPSF championship.

Evans, Krats, Skalstad and Roberts were all awarded MPSF all-tournament team selections.

Goalkeeper Courtney Walburger recorded 13 saves for the Bulldogs on Saturday.

The lacrosse program was added in 2008, and played its first season in 2009. During that span, the Bulldogs were only able to produce one winning season. 

Jessica Giglio was the head coach of the program for eight seasons, but stepped down in January 2020 right before the season started. During her tenure, an independent review of Fresno State’s women’s lacrosse program was conducted. An audit was initiated in September of 2016 after former players and parents complained about Giglio, with allegations of student athletes being treated unfairly and instances of mental abuse.

The audit revealed there was no evidence of NCAA rules violations, athletics department procedural violations or institutional policy violations were found.

When the athletic department announced the program was getting cut, several players retained an attorney who threatened litigation in December. Then in February, five players from the team filed a class-action sex discrimination lawsuit against the university, claiming Fresno State violated Title IX by cutting the team. Most recently, the players lost their injunction to halt Fresno State from removing the team. 

The case remains ongoing and according to the players’ lawyer, Arthur Bryant of Bailey and Glasser LLP, this trial could last for well over a year, meaning the fate of the program remains unknown.