After the women’s lacrosse team opened its season against Georgetown, Sun columnist Per Ostman faced off with junior Kristen Smith.
1. Why is women’s lacrosse better than men’s?
Well, I think we have to be in better shape. We play the entire game, two 60-minute halves. You have to continuously run the length of the field and everything. And we’re more elegant. Wait! Don’t write that!
Too late.
2. Why don’t you guys just put on pads and play with the men’s rules?
I think it’s to keep our game more refined. Ours is much more of an endurance game, not just sprints. The men, they have line changes and play extremely intensely for like two minutes at a time, like in hockey. We play the whole game; in a really competitive game, there might be like four subs.
3. So, you don’t wear pads, but starting this year, your team is wearing goggles.
They’re annoying at first, but I think it’s a good idea. There’s a lot of eye injuries; we get two or three every year. As an attacker, I feel more confident going to the cage.
You guys look like you’re either about to go skydiving or arc-weld something. It’s scary.
Hahahaha, yeah. But I think they help.
4. What hurts more — getting hit with a ball, or whacked with a stick?
See, I guess it depends where you get hit.
I can imagine.
Sometimes, you’ll get a stick to the head or something, the defender will stick you when you go to goal. We get bruises all down our arms from that; you should see it. I get hit with sticks more than with balls.
5. Is it hard to run in a skirt?
No. Actually, I like it better.
Good heavens, why?
Oh God, this is going to be embarrassing! You can’t put this in!
Exactly. You leave me no choice.
Well, shorts always ride up. We wear spandex under our kilts, and —
They’re kilts, not skirts?
Oh yeah, kilts. The spandex just kind of keeps everything solid and together. It makes you feel fast, you know?
I do, actually.
Yeah! I’ll only go running in spandex now. Once you go spandex, you never go back.
6. Grass or Turf?
Turf, most definitely.
Really?
Yeah, we play on it almost everywhere we go. It’s actually hard to switch to playing on grass. The game is slower and you run slower. We just played Georgetown on grass and we went down there a day early just to get used to it. It’s a huge advantage for a grass team. But I’m not saying that’s why we lost.
I blame the grass.
7. What’s the hottest men’s team at Cornell?
No. I can’t do that one.
What? What do you mean you can’t do this one?
My boyfriend’s on the baseball team; I can’t answer this question!
Everyone uses that as an excuse! Just because your boyfriend is hot doesn’t mean the rest of the team is. Come on, you know the catcher’s got to be ugly.
Well, yeah the catcher is ugly.
See???
No, I know him! I was kidding! Can you write “just kidding?”
No.
8. If you could have the power to fly, the strength of 100 men, or the ability to become invisible, which would you choose?
Invisible — no, fly — actually, invisible. I want to go to places I’m not supposed to go.
Like where? The baseball locker room?
No! Like a high security place. Like the White House or the FBI or something. Just to hang out and see what it’s like.
9. Did you watch the Academy Awards?
Some of it. I haven’t seen Lost in Translation, but I wanted Bill Murray to win. I don’t know why — he looked so sad when he lost.
Yeah, he almost left.
That must have been so awkward.
Did you expect Sophia Coppola to apologize for The Godfather Part III in her acceptance speech, or was that just me?
I’ve actually never seen that.
Don’t. She’s terrible.
Well, I’m glad she found something that she’s good at.
10. Your teammate Danielle Friedman has my copy of Ball Four. Can you get it back for me?
I’ll try. She’s bad about returning things. She has a lot of my stuff, too.
It’s been like a year and a half. I’d really like it back.
I’ll hit her when she doesn’t have her goggles on. Is that good?
Perfect.
Archived article by Per Ostman