High Point University Athletic Director Craig Keilitz has announced the addition of women's lacrosse as a Division I athletic program at HPU, increasing the number of varsity sports sponsored by the University to 15.

"We are thrilled to be adding women's lacrosse as a varsity sport at High Point University", said Keilitz. "Lacrosse continues to grow as a sport especially in the southeast region and we are looking forward to being a part of that growth. We believe that lacrosse is a perfect fit for our athletic program at this time and will help to generate interest and awareness about HPU to an even larger audience."

The women's lacrosse program is slated to begin NCAA competition during the 2010-11 season. A national search will begin immediately to identify a head coach, and the 2009-10 season will be utilized for recruiting, scheduling and player development.

HPU Women's Lacrosse will compete as an NCAA Division I independent program initially, but will continue to investigate all options for a conference affiliation. Currently, 85 Division I schools offer varsity women's lacrosse including 17 in the southeast region.

High Point becomes the fourth school in the state of North Carolina with a varsity program joining Davidson, Duke and North Carolina. In the Big South Conference, Liberty recently announced the addition of women's lacrosse and new league member Presbyterian College also sponsors a team.

Women's lacrosse has been offered as a club sport at High Point University for the last two seasons and will continue as a club sport in 2008-09. The team competes on a dedicated lacrosse field, which is one of the three fields, located adjacent to the Vert Track & Soccer Stadium on the HPU campus.

The addition of women's lacrosse at High Point marks the second expansion for the school's athletic department in its decade of NCAA Division I participation. HPU added women's golf as a varsity sport in 2003-04.