U.S. Women's Box Ready for Final Phase

BALTIMORE — On Friday afternoon, two weeks before their first game in the World Lacrosse Box Championships, the inaugural U.S. Women’s Box National Team began their final training camp. By the time the weekend was over at the Coppermine Du Burns Arena, they mixed in training sessions with two more scrimmages against men’s teams.

It was the culmination of a year and half of building to get ready for the world championship, a process in some ways similar to other U.S. teams, but also completely different.

Women’s box lacrosse is still a novelty in most parts of the United States and most of the players on the final 23-player roster had little to no experience when the process started. But there was no lack of interest from the sport’s best field lacrosse players.

At the USA Lacrosse Foundation Gala in the summer of 2023, U.S. head coach Ginny Capicchioni was frequently in conversation with the stars of the sport. And it wasn’t her recruiting them, they came up to her to express their interest.

Seven of the players on the final roster have previously medaled with U.S. national teams in field disciplines. Twelve of them played in Athletes Unlimited this summer, including five to the top ten players on the final AU leaderboard.

Capicchioni’s job was to not only identify the players best suited for box, but to teach them how to play this new, to them, version of the game.

“I think that the women are fighters,” Capicchioni said at the conclusion of the training camp on Sunday. “I think that they’re able to take a lot. They’ve battled back. We’ve had so many different experiences within the training camps and games. They’ve answered no matter how significant the challenge, they always believed that they could. They should be very proud of themselves.”

The challenges included playing men’s teams – to give them tests against players familiar with the nuances of box lacrosse, along with a dose of physicality.

It’s all set the stage for the next chapter – the actual world championship. This weekend was a key step in that process.

“We have a better understanding of our strengths and weaknesses and we’re making the game plans at this point to work for our team,” said Capicchioni, who played men's professional box lacrosse in 2003 with the NLL's New Jersey Storm and earned a bronze medal with the 2011 U.S. men's box team. “It’s much different than a tryout process.”

The U.S. will open the championship on Sept. 20 in Utica, N.Y., against the Netherlands. Additional pool play games will come against the Haudenosaunee (Sept. 21), Hong Kong (Sept. 22) and England (Sept. 24) before the medal rounds. Coverage will be available on ESPN networks and World Lacrosse TV.