AMCAT Lacrosse player Christine Ijawet is the first Ugandan player to compete in NCAA Women's Lacrosse
PAXTON, MA - Freshman women's lacrosse player Christine "Tina" Ijawet was named AMCAT Spotlight Player of the Week for games played March 11th through the 15th where she has recorded 10 goals and three assists for a total of 13 points in just four games so far this season. Tina carries another accolade as she is the first Ugandan and African female lacrosse player to compete in the NCAA. On Saturday, March 16, she played her first conference home game against the Albertus Magnus Falcons where she recorded a season high of 7 points (5 Goals, 2 Assists).
Tina grew up in Kampala, Uganda and is the oldest of five siblings. She was introduced to lacrosse in 2015, when American coaches shared the sport with students at her high school. From the beginning Tina wanted to be the best female player in Uganda in lacrosse and as she was a good student, she studied the game as well as learned how to train its skills. In 2019, after the two men's teams from Uganda had attended the World Lacrosse World Championships events in 2014 and 2018, Uganda organized a women's u19 team. Tina was selected for the 2019 Ugandan u19 Women's National Lacrosse team but unfortunately the team could not raise the funds necessary to compete in the championship event in Canada. Although lacrosse is relatively new to Africa, today there are more than thirty youth training academies scattered across Uganda and neighboring Kenya and Rwanda developing the sport.
From 2019-2023 Tina helped to create and lead Peace Lacrosse the World Campaign (PLWC), an effort comprised of student leaders and community volunteers. She served as the PLWC president from 2020-2023. There she helped developed outreach to youth academies through lacrosse clinics that served as a means of delivering food to communities, assisting students with education, helping in career development, and providing health resources donated to the PLWC to bring charitable relief.
Tina is dedicated to excelling academically and is motivated through personal experience toward a career in health care. She had hoped to join Anna Maria College in the fall of 2023, but the process to come to America took much longer. She enrolled in January of 2024 as a health science major and aspires to become a radiology nurse.
