Lara Cooper/Daily News Tracy Loeffler, a Western Kentucky University senior from Shepherdsville, dives to make a catch during Western’s women’s flag football game against Vanderbilt University at WKU’s Hattie L. Preston Intramural Complex. The WKU intramural team won 6-2.

&#8220Football is my passion. I love football,” said Emily Lueken, a Western Kentucky University junior from Indiana as she watched her Kappa Delta sorority sisters and members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity head toward their first touchdown against a coed team from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater.

Lueken and the few others on the sidelines at Hattie L. Preston Intramural Sports Complex cheered Saturday as a coed combination ran and passed the ball across the goal line, putting the score at 30-7.

&#8220You get more points if a girl makes a touchdown,” Lueken said.

Games held at the complex Friday, Saturday and today are part of the American Collegiate Intramural Sports regional flag football tournament.

&#8220We have 32 teams this year,” said Steve Byrd, intramural coordinator for Western’s Intramural Recreational Sports department, which hosts the regional tournament.

Teams are made up of college students, as well as a few faculty and staff, he said. Several teams entered from Western, with more from nearby institutions such as Murray State University, Lindsey Wilson College, the University of Kentucky and Middle Tennessee State University. Others came from as far away as Arkansas, Delaware and Wisconsin.

Winners and runners-up in the men’s, women’s and coed divisions – to be determined this afternoon – will get a paid trip to the ACIS National Flag Football Tournament, held Dec. 28 to 31 at the University of West Florida in Pensacola.

Byrd thanked the student and staff volunteers, from Western and elsewhere, who helped put on the regional event.

Lueken’s teammates Katie Williams, a Henderson sophomore, and Sarah Koehler, a senior from Bardstown, joined her on the sidelines. Koehler, an offensive blocker, waited until the SAE team took the ball. She has played on women’s intramural flag football teams for four years, she said.

&#8220We’ve gone to nationals every year,” Koehler said.

Williams, officially a rusher, expected to spend less time on the field.

&#8220I’m a benchwarmer,” she said, though the possible Florida trip kept her rooting for the team.

&#8220We love football, even though it’s cold,” Williams said.