UTICA, N.Y. — It was a little under 500 days ago when a group of hopefuls came to this city to begin the selection process for the inaugural U.S. Women’s Box National Team.
Sixteen months later, the first chapter closed with the U.S. beating England 28-2 to wrap up the No. 1 seed in Pool A at the 2024 World Lacrosse Box Championships with a 4-0 record.
Melissa Sconone had a team-high nine points on three goals and six assists to pace the potent U.S. offense while Charlotte North (6g) and Emily Hawryschuk (5g, 2a) both had big games as well. A total of 12 different players scored goals for the U.S. in the contest.
Taylor Moreno went the distance in goal for the U.S. and made 10 saves while allowing just two goals to pick up the victory.
“This experience from the beginning is something I’ve never had before,” said Hawryschuk, the team’s captain. “To be part of a team that’s been built from the coaches and going through this entire process has been a really special one. We spoke on the first day about how it was 488 days since Utica, 453 days since Voorhees (N.J.), 397 days since Troy (N.Y.). We had that countdown going the entire time. To finally be here, it’s a lot of excitement.”
Those three Player ID camps orchestrated by head coach Ginny Capicchioni to help open the doors for a variety of players to chase the USA box dream. Months of training followed – tough competition against men’s teams to help them prepare for the physicality of the sport. Alone time spent working on their sticks. Virtual meetings to stay in touch. It all led to wearing the USA jersey on opening night and has resulted in four memorable games to open the tournament.
“Stepping out there for the first time was by far the greatest experience,” said Caroline Wakefield. “The fans are awesome – the USA cheers, the chants that we do in the locker room and spending the time together and being able to be the first people to put on the USA box jersey has just been such an awesome experience.”
Winning its pool gives the U.S. an off day on Wednesday. Up next is a quarterfinal on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. against the winner of Wednesday’s play-in game between Ireland and Hong Kong, China. The game will be aired live on ESPN+.
They are ready for the challenges ahead because of the bonds they’ve formed.
“We prepared the correct way,” Wakefield said. “Our coaches got us playing with the men, got us hitting hard. This is such a fierce group of people.”
“It has been a lot of work, but it’s work everyone bought in for from the beginning,” Hawryschuk said. “We had a group of coaches who literally went on a search for a bunch of players who were interested. Once that training team was made, we knew that we had to train as box players. We had to spend quality time with our box sticks, but every single person in the locker room put in the work to do that. We spent a lot of time virtually together just to be together. It’s a U.S. experience where it’s truly a team and we’ve been a team now for two years. It’s a really special group in that locker room.”
And now the moment to chase their ultimate dream has arrived.
“It's so exciting to now be in the second part of everything and it’s incredibly exciting to be just days away from the goal we’ve been talking about since day one,” Hawryschuk said. “The thought of it gives me goosebumps still, they haven’t gone away, but every single person in that locker room is ready for it.”
