Everything You Need to Know About the World Lacrosse Women's Box Championship

No matter the outcome, history will be made in Utica, N.Y. this month.

The inaugural World Lacrosse Women's Box Championship gets underway Friday. Ten nations are competing to bring home the gold medal in women's box lacrosse. 

The United States has traditionally been the favorite in World Lacrosse women's competition, winning 15 of the 19 world championships in field lacrosse contested since 1982. But box lacrosse is a brand new ballgame. The majority of the U.S. team had never played any meaningful box lacrosse before the player identification and tryout process began last May.

Meanwhile, box lacrosse is the official summer sport of Canada and plenty of its players have experience that was on display when the Canadians edged the U.S. in the championship match of the The World Games 2022, an event using the sixes discipline of the sport which has many similarities to box lacrosse.

The Haudenosaunee also have a strong tradition in box lacrosse and many players from around the globe have been diving into the sport in earnest over the last couple of years.

The takeaway is that no one really knows what to expect and should make for an exciting tournament.

HOW TO WATCH

Pool play games in the women's championship will be streamed on WLTV, a new streaming platform from World Lacrosse. The women's playoff games will be on ESPN+ with the gold medal game on ESPN2.

TOURNAMENT STRUCTURE

The 10 teams in the women's championship have been broken up into two five-team pools.

Pool A: England, Haudenosaunee, Hong Kong, Netherlands, USA

Pool B: Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland

The top three teams from each pool will receive a bye into the quarterfinal round. The remaining teams will have a crossover game to determine the final two playoff spots.

Pool play runs from Sept. 20-24, with the play-in games Sept. 25, quarterfinals Sept. 26, semifinals Sept. 27, bronze medal game Sept. 28 and gold medal game Sept. 29.

The complete schedule is available here.

POOL A 

England: England went 4-1 in the She-Box tournament, with Lauren Lewis leading the team with 14 goals. She finished second overall in the tournament in goals and Lucy Ford was second with seven assists. Defender Annabelle Akintoye will make history as the first Black woman to captain one of England's international teams.

Haudenosaunee: Fawn Porter will represent the Haudenosaunee for the third time in a world championship since 2022 after playing in the field championship in Towson, Md., and in sixes at The World Games 2022 in Birmingham, Ala. An intriguing member of the team is Carey-Leigh Vyse. Like many Haudenosaunee lacrosse players over the years, she played at Syracuse, but her sport was softball. She has previously represented Canada in international softball competition, but now gets to play with her own people.

Hong Kong, China: Team captain Sally Tang was tied as Hong Kong's leading scorer at the She-Box tournament with seven goals and has previous world championship experience from field lacrosse in 2017. A dozen of Hong Kong's players competed in the She-Box tournament. Ka Hei Hui and Kinu Ito will compete at their fourth world championship together. They previously played in the 2013, 2017, and 2022 Women’s World Championships.

Netherlands: Women's box lacrosse dates to 2019 for the the Netherlands. Eighteen players in Utica prepped by playing in the She-Box tournament. Manon Loos scored five goals in the Netherlands' only win at the event, a 16-6 victory over Ireland. Captain Hedwig Lambregts has played box for five years and field lacrosse for 15 years. She previously competed at the 2017 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship,

United States: A trailblazing USA team is led by a trailblazing head coach — Ginny Capicchioni. A goalie, she was the first female to play in the men's National Lacrosse League and then played for the U.S. men at the 2011 world championship. Her team includes four senior team world champions — Kristen Carr (2013 and 2017), Ally Kennedy (2022), Ally Mastroianni (2022) and Charlotte North (2022). Goalie Madison Doucette will be the first player to represent the U.S. in box, field (2019 U19) and sixes (The World Games 2022).

POOL B

Australia: Australia's roster comes from 12 clubs within the country, but 11 come from the Victoria team that won the Australia national field championship in February. Five players have previous international experience, including Mel Brickle and Tegan Brown, who were teammates on Australia's 2003 U19 team that won a silver medal. Brickle will be the captain of the box team and Brown is a versatile athlete who has also represented the country in flag football.

Canada: Is it really a Canadian lacrosse team without Dana Dobbie suiting up? One of the best to ever play the sport, she's been named to the All-World team four times in field lacrosse and will turn 40 the day after the box championship ends. She started playing box lacrosse at age 4. But she's far from the only veteran star. Erica Evans earned all-world honors at the U19 and senior team levels and was on Canada's gold medal team in sixes at The World Games 2022. A young star is North Carolina defender Brooklyn Walker-Welch, who grew up playing men's box lacrosse.

Finland: Veronika Švecová scored 11 goals to lead 15 Finnish players who gained box experience at the She-Box event. No players have world championship experience at the senior level, but Ida Peräkylä, Kata Bitter, Tinda Martin, Iida Ulaska, and Inka Ulaska all represented Finland in U19 championship play.

Germany: Germany went undefeated (4-0) at the She-Box event and has both offensive and defensive power. Captain Toni Garbe recorded 14 goals and six assists to lead Germany in the event and is playing in her fourth world championship. In goal, Kady Glynn has played in Athletes Unlimited the last four years and made nearly 500 saves in her Loyola career. Also in goal, Romina Erhardt was the top performer at the She-Box event, making 56 saves at an 80-percent clip.

Ireland: Julia Ruscio will be the captain for Ireland and has some strong credentials. She had 131 goals and 193 draw controls during her collegiate career at Mercyhurst and also plays with the the Niagara Turtle Islanders, part of Women’s Major Series Lacrosse, Canada’s premiere women’s box lacrosse league. The team has been working together since 2022 and Orla Buggy and Nadine Fadel were on Ireland's field team that competed in the 2022 world championship.