The U.S. women’s team exhibition game against the WPLL Select squad tomorrow will be played utilizing trial rules developed by World Lacrosse to best position the sport for potential Olympic inclusion.

What does that mean? Here’s the rundown.

1. Positioning the Sport for the Olympics

World Lacrosse has long held a vision of returning the sport to the Olympics. Last November, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) granted provisional recognition to World Lacrosse, but getting into the actual competition is no guarantee.

The IOC has hard caps on the number of athletes that can participate in the Olympics, so it is extremely unlikely that lacrosse in its current format would ever be considered given the large roster sizes (current World Lacrosse maximums are 18 for women’s championships and 23 for men’s championships) in the sport.

World Lacrosse developed a Blue Skies Working Group to work on a new discipline of the sport that utilizes smaller roster sizes (currently 10) and shorter games to make the sport more appealing for the Olympic platform. Over the last year plus, the rules have been experimented with at a variety of events around the world to develop the best version of this new discipline.

It should be noted, World Lacrosse championships will continue to be played using the traditional international rules. This new discipline has been developed specifically for the Olympics and other multi-sport competitions, including the IWGA World Games. Women’s lacrosse was a championship sport at the 2017 IWGA World Games in Poland, the first time lacrosse had been included in the event.

2. The Rules

The most recent trials with this new discipline were with the Canadian and U.S. national teams at the Fall Classic in October and at the Pan-American Lacrosse Association women’s qualifier last weekend. Based on feedback from players and coaches from those events, the following set of rules will be used for this weekend’s game.

Players: 6v6 with five field players and a goalie.

Field Size: 70 meters (76 yards) long and 36 meters (39 yards) wide.

Timing: Four, 8-minute quarters with running time. Stops on goals and in final two minutes of fourth quarter.

Shot Clock: 45 Seconds.

Starting play: Draws at the beginning of each quarter only. Goalies will restart play after a 5-second stoppage following goals.

Clearing: Teams have 10 seconds to get the ball over the midfield line. Once they clear the midfield line, they may not go back.

Offsides: None, only the goalie must stay on their half of the field.

Possession:  When the ball goes out of bounds, the ball will be awarded to the opponent of the team that last touched the ball.

Minor fouls: Change of possession and reset of shot clock.

Major fouls: Fouls such as stick to head, unsportsmanlike conduct, slashing, tripping, cross check, illegal stick, dangerous propel and dangerous follow through result in a 30-second, non-releasable suspension from the game for the offending player. Any player accumulating four major fouls in a game will “foul out” as in basketball.

Shooting space: There is no traditional shooting space call. The onus is on the offensive player to avoid dangerous shots. Any dangerous shot will be a major foul. If, in the opinion of an official, a defender is repeatedly and deliberately moving into the path of a shot in an attempt to draw a dangerous shot penalty, the defender will be penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct and possible ejection for dangerous and reckless play.

3. How to Watch

The game will be carried live on Lax Sports Network beginning at 3:30 p.m. (Eastern) on Saturday, Nov. 23. Rachael DeCecco, Tom Eschen and Amanda Mastera will be on the broadcast.