The U.S. Women’s U19 team will hold a training camp at US Lacrosse this weekend, highlighted by a Saturday night exhibition against players from the Women’s Professional Lacrosse League (WPLL).

The exhibition takes place on June 8 at US Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Md., at approximately 8 p.m. and is open to the public free of charge. The WPLL squad is expected to include four members of the gold-medal winning 2017 U.S. senior team — Ally Carey, Taylor Cummings, Megan Douty and Alice Mercer.

“It’s great for our kids,” said U.S. U19 head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller. “I want to provide challenges for them to step up, look within themselves and really battle. We did that through the fall and winter. Why not challenge the kids as much as possible? It doesn’t matter if we win or lose, so let’s put as much pressure on them and see how they respond.”

Amonte Hiller named 23 players to the training team after the Spring Premiere at Stanford University in January and will have the core of that group in town for the training camp. Ally Palermo, a sophomore at Northwestern, was injured late in the Wildcats’ season and will be unable to participate with the U.S. team this summer. She was replaced on the training team by Penn freshman Michaela McMahon. McMahon, who scored 22 goals for the Quakers this spring, has played with the U.S. team since last summer’s initial tryouts.

Kasey Choma, a Notre Dame signee and senior at Eastport-South Manor (N.Y.) High School, has a state semifinal game on Friday afternoon and will miss part of the weekend. There are also a few players dealing with injuries that will limit their availability.

It all adds to the challenge for Amonte Hiller, who will have to trim the roster down to the final 18 players, the maximum number allowed under World Lacrosse regulations, before the championship.

“We’re going to put some stuff in and see how they respond and how they mesh together,” Amonte Hiller said. “We’ve got a good pool of players and we want to see how they do together. For us, the focus is really on us right now. How can we gel in such a short time and play for each other? I’m excited it’s right around the corner.”

Following this weekend’s activities, the U.S. team will hold a training camp from July 8-10 at Northwestern and then a brief camp at Niagara University in late July before heading to Peterborough, Ontario for the world championship, which begins on Aug. 1. The championship game is set for Aug 10.

The United States has won four of the six previous World Lacrosse Women’s U19 championships (1999, 2003, 2007, 2011) while Australia (1995) and Canada (2015) have each won once.

The U.S. women’s national team trains and plays using best-in-class products provided by Nike (apparel and footwear), Brine (equipment), STX (equipment), SISU Guard (mouthguards), The Pearl by Guardian (balls) and DJO (sports braces).

In addition to these partners, Greenfields, Krossover, MedStar Sports Medicine and Sports Performance Tracking are official sponsors of the U.S. national team program. Team training is also aided by products from Motive Pure, NormaTec Recovery and Athletic Republic.

2019 U.S. U19 Women's Training Team

* injured, unable to participate

WPLL Select Team

* WPLL select roster subject to change