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Part one of a two-part series about the Lady Cavs softball team Softballteamhasnoplaceoncampustocallhome

by Diane Grimaldi assistant photography editor

Imagine playing a home game and having no fans there for support. Imagine having to drive a half hour to go to practice or play a home game. That is the situation the women's softball team is in.

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The NCAA implemented a new rul'e this year that requires the infield of a softball field to be completely made up of dirt. Cabrini has an all-grass field.

The team is currently practicing and playing their home games at Valley Forge Christian College in Phoenixville, PA. That field is up to regulation, but it is a half-hour away.

Softball coach Rosanne Carfagno Corcoran has a lot of concern regarding her team and how not having their own home field is going to affect them.

Corcoran said, "This is some- thing that can kill a team. When you have your own field, you get people stopping between classes to show support. Now that we're 30 minutes away, no one can do that.

"The field should have been fixed years ago. Many people get hurt. I have a broken finger and will always have a broken finger because of that field," Corcoran said.

The field at Valley Forge Christian College is not in very good shape now. There is no drainage on the field.

There are no bathrooms at the field either. Portable bathrooms will be rented for the team, which will cost $30 a month and will be steamed clean once a month.

The team has to practice at the Phoenixville field because, according to Corcoran, if you have to play on a dirt field you have to practice on a dirt field.

Everything is different. "The ball bounces differently. Running on dirt is different then running on grass," Corcoran said.

The team is understandably upset. "I feel for them. They are handling it well. We are going to make that field our own," Corcoran said.

"We need our fans' support," senior Denise Canaris said. "It will be a major disappointment without them."

Not having the field on campus is also affecting the team's practice schedules. Most of the players on the team are education majors.

Those who have field experience are having a hard time making it to practices.

"I don't drive," senior Melissa Hunsberger said. "On Tuesdays and Thursdays I can't practice off campus because I can't get there."

"It's sad," junior Maura McMullen said. "The college voices all the time that they are here for us and they're not."

Valley Forge Christian College has a softball team as well. Cabrini has to practice around their schedule, meaning most of Cabrini's practices will have to be at night.

Also there are three conflicts on the game schedule. Three games held on March 20, March 22 and April 7 for Cabrini are at the same time as games for Valley Forge Christian College. This poses a problem for the team.

Corcoran said the team will have to find another field to play those games on, or reschedule the games.

"[Athletic Director John] Dzik did his best to find a field for us that will meet our needs," Corcoran said. "It's a shame it is 30 minutes away."

"This school is biased towards women. Women get the facilities only when men aren't using them. I don't understand," junior Michelle Savage, a captain of the team, said.

Title IX for the NCAA requires "an institution to offer athletic participation opportunities to males and females that are substantially proportionate to the male-to-female undergraduate student body ratio of that campus, whether an institution demonstrates a history and continuing practice of athletics program expansion for its underrepresented sex and whether an institution effectively accommodates the interests and abilities of its underrepresented sex."

According to Robert Bonfiglio, vice president of student development, the college is up to code. "We wouldn't need any facilities to be up to code," Bonfiglio said.

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