Commuter school students often lack a sense of connection or community on campus. But at American River College, some students are taking the initiative to create new relationships through various avenues here on campus grounds. 

The ARC women’s lacrosse team is the college’s first women’s club sports team. Formed by students and staff in 2025, the team is creating a welcoming and inclusive community for student athletes.

“[We want] to make friends and have that connection with people… the community, I think that’s my favorite part,” Ankita Nair, the club’s vice president, said about her time with the team.

Cyan Overholt, the club’s president, added that they’ve cultivated a positive environment.

“I think that’s been so nice for a lot of female athletes to find in our team,” Overholt said.

Overholt is a co-founder of the club. She says that reconnecting with an old friend through ARC and lacrosse was the spark that started it all. 

“Let’s see if we can get people to toss the ball around,”  she said. “And it’s been insane how far it’s gone since then.

Both Overholt and Nair emphasised how proud they are of what they have achieved with this club.

ARC is one of only two community colleges in California, and the only northern California community college with a women’s lacrosse team. What may seem small at its creation is a new pathway for young women to venture down in extremely important years of their lives. For some students, it could be a deciding factor in going to ARC instead of a four-year institution, trying a new sport, gaining lifelong friends or creating memories. 

As a new club starting from the ground up, they needed some assistance along the way. Overholt gave much of the credit to coaches Jordan Stacks and Mike Holmes for their help. The two coaches handled a lot of the bureaucratic matters for creating and expanding the club, and still do. She also said the ARC Rugby club has been a huge help and supporter throughout the process. 

The coaches worked to get them into the Western Women’s Lacrosse League. The WWLL is the primary league for women’s college teams on the West Coast. The league has 31 teams and two divisions. ARC is in the provisional phase this season alongside USC.

“I think getting everybody up to speed and just building a strong foundation that hopefully will last for many years” is the main goal for the season, Overholt said.

Challenges are expected with it still being in its early steps. But the tone around the team remains positive after losing its inaugural game to UC Berkeley.

“I think that makes it just an even better underdog story for the future,” Nair said about the adversity they face.

With nearly 20 high school girls’ lacrosse teams in the Sacramento region, according to the team’s website, ARC is allowing student athletes to continue their athletic journey while giving another reason to join the Beavers family.

The team is still taking players as they look to build the club up. They have an interest form on both their website and Instagram.