NEWTON, Mass. (3/23/17) - This Sunday, the Lasell College men's lacrosse team will take the field against sexual and domestic violence in their second annual White Ribbon Campaign contest vs. non-conference foe Southern Maine University.

Last spring, the Lasers teamed up with REACH Beyond Domestic Violence Program and White Ribbon Campaign. On campus, the training has been led by Professor Karin Raye, J.D, who teaches a Sexual Violence course at Lasell College.

REACH is a non-profit organization providing comprehensive domestic violence agency "serving over 7,000 people a year through a combination of intervention and prevention services." REACH's "Prevention programs engage the community, generate conversations, and create locally-based solutions to end domestic violence" per their website.

Senior captain Anthony Saitta commented on how the partnership with the campaign came to fruition, saying, "Last year our captain Mike Pino took a domestic violence class with Professor Raye, and Mike went to Karin, and asked if they could get involved."

Saitta continued "We started doing the trainings last year, and that cumulated very well for us, it was a very good look for us, and the guys absolutely learned a lot not only how to be good lacrosse players but how to be good men as well."

Throughout the past week, men's lacrosse has been active on social media and around campus promoting the lessons they've learned, and encouraging others to stand up against sexual and domestic abuse. During lunch hours, members of the lacrosse team have been interacting with students at the GLOW Lounge and Valentine Dining Hall, gathering pledges in support of the cause.

"We came back this year with the same mentality, as we wanted to make sure the guys were not only good men on the field, but off the field and in the community as well" said Saitta on continuing the campaign this academic year. "We switched up the training a little bit, and directed it towards how to stop a situations and such, with Karin being unbelievable, and such an amazing help to us, we love her, everyone looks up to her, and she's extremely important to us."

Lastly, Saitta added, "This is all cumulating towards our game Sunday, our White Ribbon game, which is going to be a great opportunity for us to go out and give back to Karin for all the stuff she has done for us."  

The Lasers' White Ribbon game will be against Southern Maine at Grellier Field at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday March 26th. Coming off their second straight win, Lasell looks to reach above .500 for the first time this season. While they've achieved success on the field, the campaign is geared towards making them successful men off the field.

If interested in finding out more, or how to get involved in the campaign visit  http://www.whiteribbon.ca/ and http://reachma.org/. To follow the the men's lacrosse journey throughout the campaign, follow @LCLacrosse and @LasellAthletics on Twitter and online at www.laserpride.lasell.edu.