[DubaiSis]

Don't lie. It will bite you in the arse. As I say over and over again here, you don't have to vomit out your life story on day one, and you can answer an unpleasant question and quickly move on to something better, but asked a direct question, DO NOT LIE. The good news for you is the sorority women don't want to have an uncomfortable conversation any more than you do, so they probably wouldn't bring it up.

But as IndianaSigKap said, if you banged the football team or the Panhellenic president's boyfriend or were the drunk girl who made worldwide news last fall, you probably need to seek out alternative avenues for friendships. If you think whatever you did to merit being "blacklisted" (which I highly doubt but that's a different discussion) may have passed or been forgotten, then by all means rush again.

I would be more likely to believe that you tanked round 1 of rush and felt like you had a neon sign hanging over you telling the world that you suck. If this is closer to the truth, and you have worked on your personal presence (appearance and conversations skills) since then, go ahead and give it another go. And if this IS the case, saying something like you were not prepared for rush and you really needed a year to get yourself together, wouldn't be a lie.