Washington and Lee athletes perform their best in home contests, data suggests

Looking at archival data from 2007 to 2017, women’s soccer and men’s basketball usually have a higher winning percentage in home contests than away contests.

Athletic Director Jan Hathorn said she is not surprised by this data. Over her 31-year tenure at W&L as both a women’s lacrosse coach and athletic director she said she strongly believes athletes feel more comfortable playing at home.

“It creates a sense of confidence,” she said. “They don’t have to imagine in their mind what the trip is going to be like. They can picture where they’re gonna sleep, what they’re gonna eat, when they need to be where. They can even picture the arena in which they compete.”

This year the women’s soccer team won six matches and lost one for a .813 winning percentage while at its home pitch, Watt field. But in away games the team only won three games and lost five games with a winning percentage of .375.

Defender Emily Roche, ’20, said it is tough playing on the road because of the unfamiliar environment. She said knowing Watt field and having friends and family in the stands allow her to be more comfortable at home.

While the team played poorly during away games in 2017, historically it has done well on the road. In a ten-year span, it has only posted a losing road record in the years of 2008 and 2017. In addition, the team even posted an undefeated road record in 2015.

Roche said head coach Neil Cunningham has a unique sleeping policy for away games to ensure maximum performance.

“We’re not allowed to sleep two hours before the game,” she said. “So if we’re going to Virginia Wesleyan it’s a four-hour ride, he’ll let you sleep for the first two but then you have to be awake for the last two. But if it’s Randolph Macon, which is like two to three hours away, you can’t sleep at all.”

Men’s head basketball coach Chris McHugh, ’09, said playing on the road is a hard, but the challenges of playing on the road make a victory even more rewarding.

“When you can go on the road, get on the bus, eat a team meal on the way, warm up in somebody else’s gym, and play in front of an opposing crowd and you get the victory. That’s a special achievement,” he said.

In McHugh’s first year at head coach, his squad had a respectable home winning percentage at .769 but, struggled on the road with only a .556 winning percentage.

McHugh said one of the most difficult part of playing on the road are the hostile crowds. With a gym being small and self-contained, McHugh acknowledged that crowd noise can affect play sometime.

However, McHugh said the team has a direct effect on how involved the crowd is.

“We say the best sound on the road is silence, when you’ve quieted the crowd with good play,” he said.

According to the official Old Dominion Athletic Conference statistics for the 2017-2018 men’s basketball season, both Shenandoah and Randolph- Macon drew around 700 people to each of their home games. Meanwhile W&L struggled with the worst average attendance per home game with only 206 people.

Hathorn said while she understands people are extremely busy with school and extracurricular activities, she still wishes more people attended sporting events.

She said she gets especially disappointed when people will come to the men’s basketball game and then not stay for the women’s game immediately after.

“For whatever reasons people don’t want to watch women’s sports at Washington and Lee in the way that some people follow women’s sports on other campuses,” she said.

The data shows that on average, around 100 more people attend men’s home basketball games than women’s home basketball games.

The largest attendance gap is between the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams. The men average about 200 more fans than the women’s team. `

Hathorn said the athletic department understands the disparity in attendance between men’s and women’s events and will continue to try different promotions to endorse attendance.