Report: Athletics director confirms women’s soccer will forfeit preseason game, additional game suspension for players

Athletics Director Terry Wanless:

Athletics Director Terry Wanless:

The staff

Women’s soccer will forfeit a preseason game and players will sit out a second game on a rotation basis, Athletics Director Terry Wanless told The Sacramento Bee in a story published today.

The State Hornet first reported that team would forfeit a game and that players would be suspended an additional game.

Wanless would not comment today.

A player from the team, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The State Hornet in a telephone interview on Monday that the suspensions were related to the events of a December party. The Sacramento Bee reported the party occured on Dec. 8 in Rancho Cordova.

The player who spoke to The State Hornet said next season could be canceled, pending an investigation by Student Affairs.

“We have to wait for the whole investigation to go through until we find out the rest of our punishment,” she said on Monday.

In the six photos that The State Hornet obtained of the party from the social networking website Facebook, it is not clear whether alcohol was involved. Only six out of the 26 players were of legal drinking age at the time of the party.

In one photo, eight new members are dressed in costume, including a freshman defender wearing a cardboard box, with a flap in the front of the crotch area stating “Lift Here.” Two players are wearing sombreros. A penis and testicles are drawn on the throat of a redshirt forward, and a freshman goalkeeper and a freshman midfielder are wearing yellow headbands with “Sarah’s bitch” written on them. All players had ink writing on their faces.

Former midfielder Katie Rorabaugh, who transferred to Azusa Pacific University, said on Feb. 12 that the idea to dress up in costumes and draw on each other were not the freshmen’s.

The player who spoke to The State Hornet on Monday said the Athletics Department doesn’t provide a clear definition of hazing.

“(They) just said, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do anything near it,'” she said. “I think we’ve learned a lesson. We’re never going to do anything close to it again, because we don’t want any of our games taken away or even a season, if it comes down to that.”

The Sacramento Bee also reported that an altercation broke out between two volleyball players and three soccer players.

The State Hornet staff can be reached at [email protected].