NTDP Provides Ladder of Opportunity for USA Hopefuls

The USA Women’s U20 National Team breezed to a World Lacrosse World Championship in Hong Kong, China, in August with a collection of 22 players.

Seventeen of them had come through the USA Lacrosse National Team Development Program.

“You could see how far we’ve come from being in high school to being on the U18 team to being in college,” said Tennessee native Aliya Polisky, who played on the USA Select U18 team before heading to Stanford. “It’s really cool to see the progress and have these milestones to represent it.”

Even before the final U20 cut, the percentage of USA hopefuls with NTDP experience had been even higher with 34 of the final 42 coming up through the program.

“You hope that you had a small piece in their progression in their love, their pride, their want to be a part of it,” said USA Select U18 co-coach Lauren Skellchock, the Mount St. Mary’s head coach in her fourth year coaching NTDP. “We’re at the very beginning of what you hope is a long career for some of these women within the national teams program.”

The NTDP enables players to build valuable relationships from a younger age. Emma LoPinto was in the first NTDP cycle in 2019 ‑ then a U15 team ‑ before going on to excel at Florida and win a national title with Boston College. This summer, she ultimately earned gold with the U20 team.

“It’s kind of a full circle moment of enjoying those relationships that you’re creating just because you truly never know when you’re going see these people again,” LoPinto said. “And I think that’s what’s so special about not only the development, but every US training event.”

The next wave of NTDP players will be on display Oct. 25-27 at the Brogden Cup at USA Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Md. The USA Select U16 and U18 teams will take on Ontario and the Haudenosaunee Nationals, and Japan’s Sekai Youth Lacrosse will compete in friendly exhibitions against Brogden Cup teams.

“It’ll be a great weekend,” said U18 co-coach Amy Altig, the Delaware coach is in her first year coaching NTDP. “I think they’ll showcase really well. They’re competitive girls with great energy, great attitudes and really great presence on the field. So, I know our coaching staff is really looking forward to it and the kids are looking forward to it.”

The NTDP already draws much of the top talent on the girls’ side, and the talent seems to grow deeper each year. This year’s U18 team has three of Inside Lacrosse’s top 10 recruits from 2025, led by Grace Winkler of Ridgefield (Conn.). The U16 team features the top-ranked 2026 player, Cayden Reese, the daughter of Maryland head coach Cathy Reese, who she’ll play for in college.

“It’s probably the hardest tryout I’ve done ever just because it’s literally the top girls from all over the country playing against each other,” U16 defender Kit Laake said.

Laake is no stranger to the U16 team and the NTDP program. Her brother, Peter Laake, played U16 and U18 and is now in the Men’s U20 National Team training pool.

“The reason I did it was because of him, because I watched him do it,” Kit Laake said.

Competition for team spots was tougher than ever. More players tried out nationally. And eventually both teams leaned toward the most experienced players.

This year’s U18 team has just one 2026 member, Kalina (KJ) Johnson of Florida, in a sea of 2025s. This year’s U16 team that featured five 2026 players last year has exclusively 2026 players this year and no current high school sophomores.

“Every year we are tasked with picking the group that yes, you want them to be the most talented, but who’s going to make up that collective group to be the best team,” Skellchock said.

Whitney Froeb was selected for the U18 team for the second straight year. She was on the young side last year, and she’s looking for the same sort of benefits she enjoyed a year ago.

“Being able to work with a bunch of the top players, it kind just pushed me out of my comfort zone a little bit to kind of step up to the challenge and figure out what I needed to work on in my own game,” she said. “Overall, the competition was incredible. You are playing with the best of the best and even the people who didn’t necessarily make the team, they are still some of the top players in the country. … I think coming out of that experience, it did make me a better player.”

Froeb was set to try out two years ago before an injury kept her sidelined. Just watching the tryouts that year inspired her to prove herself.

Froeb is the only player from California on the U18 team for the second year in a row. But now that she’s played with the top players in the country, she feels more confident about her future chances at the next levels.

“I feel like I’ve seen so much coverage of the U20 team being in Hong Kong, that’s definitely something that I do look forward to seeing what this next step is after the U18 Select team because obviously this is my last year being eligible to play for that,” said Froeb, who will head to Yale after her final season at San Francisco University High this spring.

USA Lacrosse is trying to help players like Froeb on their path. The organization continues to assess and modify the NTDP program to create a pipeline to the U20 and senior women’s national teams.

“Our staff takes a lot of pride in really bringing these girls energy and giving them as much knowledge as we can to help them grow and to see the game in a different way,” Altig said. “The collegiate game is very different from the game they’re currently playing. So, how can we help them think next level?”

New for NTDP players this year was a weekend of sixes camp in September that followed their selections after the August combine. Even the coaches had to get up to speed on the latest practices.

They talked with current sixes national team coach Lindsey Munday for pointers before sharing their insights on the newest form of lacrosse.

“I think it was really rewarding for the players, and I think it just generates more excitement about the sport,” Skellchock said. “Hopefully the next thing we do is box and keep putting the girls in unfamiliar territory so that we continue to grow and evolve just as a national teams program collectively.”

The sixes weekend was a new way to challenge the players and try to give them a foothold on the game that will be played at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

That weekend together also had added benefits. The Select teams are feeling even more connected than usual after an additional weekend together and are looking forward to seeing how it helps them in the Brogden Cup.

“I’m looking forward to hopefully winning all of our games and just hanging out with some of the best players in my grade,” Laake said. “I know a lot of people on the team, so I’m also looking forward to playing with them, and playing with new faces that I don’t play with all the time.”

It could be the start of something big for the players that are prospects for the U20 and senior national teams. They can learn how to handle the tryout process and what coaches look for along the way.

It was a big help to Polisky, who came from a non-traditional lacrosse region.

“I see it as a ladder almost,” Polisky said. “You start when you’re super young and consistently climb the ladder and try to be better. You go from U16 to 18 to U20s and then hopefully you continue climbing after that. When you look back off the ladder, you’ll see how far you’ve come from this little girl who started in third grade, and it’s such a cool journey to see.”

The roots in NTDP can’t be underestimated. Those that have been through it point to how it sparked their development.

“Watching the other girls play, I was in awe of how good they were, and it made me want to be better,” Polisky said. “And now on the U20 team, I was in awe of the girls that I was playing with and the coaches I was playing with, and I just want to be better. It lit a fire for me.”