For Michigan women's lacrosse, success has not come cheap. As one of several organized sports on campus with club status, the members of the team bear the burden of paying dues for the year that may escalate into the hundreds.

In the past, women's lacrosse has not been competitive enough to worry about travel expenses or salaries for top coaches. But with an unexpected fourth-place national finish coming from an extremely young squad (over three-fourths of last year's team were underclassmen), team president Jane Friend is looking for more recognition from the Athletic Department.

"Whether or not we get varsity status is completely out of our control," says Friend. "But we have applied and appealed a decision that would make us a varsity club team," Friend said.

"Varsity club status would give us a booster in terms of securing facilities, of which there is only one right now shared by several teams, and in supporting more travel."

Women's lacrosse is looking to capitalize on this past spring's success with a return to St. Louis, the site of the national tournament. First, the team must finish atop a field of 37 teams in March at a regional tournament hosted by the Women's Collegiate Lacrosse League. This team had no trouble last year beating other club teams from New England and the Midwest.

Friend said that their own division includes Calvin, Albion, Michigan State, Western Michigan, Oakland and Hope College.

"But with the exception of MSU, those have all been easy wins for us," Friend said.

The team coasted through the WCLL, earning a birth to the national finals and finishing among the semifinalists, despite starting the year ranked 19th. The team's unprecedented success has also drawn the attention of one of the area's top coaches.

"One of the prerequisites of creating a varsity team includes attracting a good coaching staff, which obviously we have," Friend said.

Mary Ann Meltzer joined the team as head coach after guiding the Birmingham Unified club to three Michigan state championships in the past five years. Meltzer herself is no stranger to national competition. She starred at the University of Maryland as an All-American in the late 1980's and competed for the United States Lacrosse team from 1989 to 1992.

Also joining the team from Birmingham Unified is Meltzer's assistant coach, John Sung, himself an accomplished competitive player. Michigan begins its six-week tune up for the spring season on September 23.

According to Friend, "these games will not count against our official record."

Instead, the team will be evaluating new players while hoping to fundraise enough money to support the team's growing needs. Efforts to raise cash have intensified this year with candy bar sales at football games and a "Lax-a-thon" to be held tentatively in the Diag from October 21-25.