Mike Faith chuckled not long after Memorial Day weekend, which brought the NCAA women’s lacrosse season to a close. The sixth-year head coach of the Franklin and Marshall women’s team, who played collegiately on national champion Salisbury teams, compared the scores of the Division I and Division III final fours.

Division I semifinals saw Maryland run away from Penn State, 20-10, and Boston College hold off Navy, 16-15. The Terrapins then bested the Eagles, 16-13.

Contrast that in Division III with The College of New Jersey’s 5-4, double-overtime win over Washington and Lee and Gettysburg’s 8-4 win over Trinity, leading to the Bullets’ 6-5 defeat of the Lions in the final.

The difference?

The NCAA’s rule change prior to the 2016-17 academic year requiring teams to put a shot on goal within 90 seconds of gaining possession, effective immediately at the Division I level. The organization delayed by a year implementation in Divisions II and III to allow schools time to budget for and construct, if necessary, visible shot clocks on game venues.

“That right there shows you,” Faith said, referring to the primary cause of the 58-goal spread in weekend scoring between the two divisions. “I’ve been counting down the days to the shot clock. You can’t hide anymore. Gone are the days of stalling for five minutes at time. No one wants to watch that.”

And so begins the shot-clock era in Division III, in which programs range from historic to start-up with roster sizes and geographically realistic recruiting grounds of comparably broad spectrums. The limit on time per possession figures to increase the number of possessions, shots, goals and other stats, and more transitions may challenge the depth of some teams.

“We’re lucky in that we have a large roster, so we’re usually pretty deep,” Brooke O’Brien, head coach at Washington and Lee, said. “But in the fall we had 10 girls either studying abroad or playing field hockey, and it was hard. We had some tired players. Some of these recent start-ups with only 15 or 20 players — I couldn’t imagine being one for a whole spring season.”

Faith long has employed an up-tempo style of play, but he worked with the school’s strength and conditioning coach to modify offseason workouts in preparation for the shot clock.

“Our team is pumped up, too,” Faith said. “We kind-of had to play a perfect game in a lot of games, where if we took a bad shot we might not see the ball again for 10 minutes. Now even if we take a bad shot, we know we’ll get the ball back.”

Carol Cantele begins in 13 days her 26th season as coach of the defending national champion Bullets, ranked third in the Nike/US Lacrosse Preseason Top 20, with a visit to No. 18 Messiah. She has mentored 52 IWLCA All-Americans and represents just one of four coaches to have won 400 career games.

“It’s comical when you think of how much unlearning we’re asking of players,” Cantele said, referring to rule changes that include free movement, limits on players competing for possession of a draw control between the restraining lines, and the positioning of defensive players during an 8-meter free position, among others.

“Unlike Divisions I and II, in the fall we’re limited to one day of competition. My entire junior class was studying abroad, and a couple other players were playing fall sports,” she said. “It’ll take some patience with players and officials. Hopefully three or four games in, everything will fit like a glove.”

For the Bullets’ sake, they would be wise to adjust quickly following their Feb. 1 start of practice. Their fourth game takes them to 2017 NCAA semifinalist and No. 5 Washington and Lee, marking the start of a five-game road gauntlet that includes visits to No. 1 TCNJ, No. 6 York and No. 14 Mary Washington.

Free movement and the increase in self-start opportunities figure to have as significant effects on the pace of play as the shot clock will. That means athletes either will shine or must endure for longer, live-ball stretches of play, likely as foul-induced breaks become less frequent and substitutions become less predictable.

And while several blue-blooded programs appear best-suited to navigate all the changes, a decrease in predictability perhaps best describes Division III play as the season formally begins tomorrow night when LaGrange hosts St. Andrew’s of the NAIA in a west Georgia lakeside town.