Robert Morris will join the Mid-American Conference as an affiliate member for women’s lacrosse in the spring of 2021, the conference announced on Tuesday.
The Colonials will be part of the initial season of MAC women’s lacrosse. They’ll be joined as affiliate members by fellow Horizon League members Detroit Mercy and Youngstown State, along with MAC regulars Akron, Central Michigan and Kent State. Eastern Michigan will begin fielding a team in 2021-22 to make it a seven-team league.
When Robert Morris left the NEC for the Horizon League for most sports this offseason, it left the school’s football and men’s and women’s lacrosse teams without a home, as the NEC had sponsored those sports and the Horizon League does not.
The football team has joined the Big South as an affiliate member. RMU has not made an announcement regarding the men’s lacrosse team. RMU’s men’s and women’s ice hockey teams and women’s rowing team also compete in other conferences, the Atlantic Hockey Conference, College Hockey America and MAAC.
The RMU women went 5-2 in their abortive 2020 campaign, a season that had high hopes after the Colonials went 12-5 and 5-2 in NEC play in 2019 and returned nine seniors. All of those players have been granted an additional season of eligibility by the NCAA and RMU has the option to bring them back, which could create a veteran squad for the Colonials’ first foray into MAC lacrosse.
