The Howard women’s lacrosse team faced racist and misogynistic comments hurled at players and coaches by spectators before their game Friday at Presbyterian.

Coach Karen Healy-Silcott provided the disturbing details of the episode — which was brought to light on Twitter by her husband, USA Lacrosse board member and PLL head of player experience Brian Silcott — in an interview with Inside Lacrosse publisher Terry Foy.

My wife had her first game as the Head Coach of @HowardU yesterday at Presbyterian @presbycollege They were greeted by a bunch of boys hurling obscene and threatening insults. This is the life of black female athletes. Wish I was there, thankfully my wife can take care of herself

— brian t silcott (@btsilcott) February 12, 2022

“It was vulgar‚ very vulgar — threatening,” Healy-Silcott told Foy, describing the scene as “pickup trucks full of white boys, sitting at the top of the hill beside the stadium” and shouting several threats in obscene language. “It is the worst experience I’ve ever had with this type of thing at any game in my entire career.”

Presbyterian College said it was investigating the incident. “We must hold ourselves accountable and do better as a community to ensure all visitors to our campus are treated with dignity and respect,” the school said in a statement.

USA Lacrosse president and CEO Marc Riccio called it “infuriating” in a statement released Sunday.

“At a time when we’re recognizing the amazing contributions of the Black community, it is saddening to think there is still much work to be done,” Riccio said.

.@MarcRiccio21 addressed the incident involving threatening and obscene comments directed toward @HUBison_WLax on Friday at Presbyterian.⁰⁰The lacrosse community stands behind you. We’ll keep working to make sure this sport is welcoming to all. pic.twitter.com/UbSHhWWlSI

— USA Lacrosse (@USA_Lacrosse) February 13, 2022

The Presbyterian women’s lacrosse team was not involved in the incident and Healy-Silcott told Foy that Blue Hose coach Eric Clakeley alerted authorities of the boorish behavior while it happened.

“We apologize to the Howard University women’s lacrosse coach and her players, and we deeply regret the experience they had on our campus,” Clakeley tweeted Sunday.

We apologize to the Howard University women’s lacrosse coach and her players, and we deeply regret the experience they had on our campus.

We respect and support Coach Healy-Silcott and the Howard Women’s Lacrosse team. We wish them well for the remainder of the season. https://t.co/h4fr0QDsiP

— Eric Clakeley (@CoachClakeley) February 13, 2022

Presbyterian won the game 16-6. Howard also lost Sunday at Gardner-Webb 18-6.

Healy-Silcott is in her first season as Bison coach. She previously was the head coach at Bryant and an assistant at UMass. She was an All-Big East defender at Syracuse and plays for the Jamaican national team.

Howard is a historically Black university and one of just two HBCUs with Division I women’s lacrosse teams. Delaware State is the other.