Athletes all across the country have at least one sport they love, for whatever reason.

Whether it’s the adrenaline rush, the skill challenge or simply the competition, every athlete has something.

For 27 students at Iowa State, that sport is lacrosse.

“It’s a combination of soccer, hockey and football,” said team captain Kyle Meadows, junior in business marketing. “It’s definitely a rush, and we love it.”

The ISU Lacrosse Club team plays in the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association, which is a collection of club teams from universities all across the country. The team is in the Upper Midwest Lacrosse League in the MCLA.

“We play teams from Minnesota and Wisconsin,” said Brendan Gross, club president and a senior in industrial technology. “We’re usually pretty competitive, but Minnesota-Duluth is always the heavy favorite.”

As of now, the Cyclones sit third in the UMLL standings, trailing Minnesota-Duluth and the University of Minnesota.

They’re in the midst of the regular season, all leading up to the UMLL tournament.

The winner of that tournament will then go on to the national tournament for a chance at the MCLA Division I Championship.

While they’ve never reached the national tournament, the team has competed well, considering its budget isn’t close to some of the teams they play.

“The guys in Duluth pay probably $2,000 to play,” Meadows said. “Where we play like $250.”

Meadows and Gross said the Minnesota-Duluth players spend all that money on equipment, matching bags, sticks and other things. They also travel a lot farther to play teams, where the Iowa State team stays closer to home to save money.

“We’re part of the sports club council, so we only get a certain amount from the GSB,” Gross said. “So we have to use it wisely. We try to save what we can.”

As Meadows said, dues per semester are $250, which covers mostly the players’ league dues, which reach $7,000 a year. It also goes into travel expenses as well, and players have to supply their own pads and sticks, like in hockey.

The club meets both in the fall and the spring, but the fall is more like a warm-up for the regular season in the spring.

“Fall ball is for tournaments,” Gross said. “It’s where we get to know each other as a team, and teach new players and more for fun.”

New players need not have experience, Gross said. As long as they join in the fall, the team can teach the new guys, and get them ready to compete in the spring.

“Everyone that’s in the club is on the team,” Meadows said. “Not everyone gets to play, obviously, but everyone on the team gets to go when we travel.”

However, not everyone on the team goes to all the tournaments or games. Finals, assignments or other school things sometimes get in the way.

“One tournament, we only had 10 guys,” Meadows said. “That meant we all had to play the whole game through the tournament.”

Members also have to be full time students — if even one player on the team is found to be under the 12 credit minimum, the whole team could be punished.

“We can risk getting kicked out [of the UMLL],” Gross said. “We have credit checks at the semester drop dates and everything.”

On its way to the end-of-season UMLL tournament, the team has a few home games, most notably the April 23 matchup with rival Iowa on its field by Towers.

“Everyone should come watch that game,” Meadows said. “It’s a good rivalry, and it gets pretty intense.”