The United Women’s Lacrosse League is in its second season, but it’s a first in the league for many involved this year.

The UWLX has new looks at every level – in leaders, coaches and players. The turnover is nothing that has alarmed Digit Murphy.

“Everyone’s new,” said the co-founder and CEO. “It’s been a transition year. I get to meet a whole bunch of new people.”

Murphy still sees the basics for why she began the league. She points out that the rules of UWLX games that were so widely embraced have not changed and the level of play remains high even without World Cup players. The U.S. women's national team did not permit its players to participate this year, though there is a small window of opportunity to play after their international tournaments conclude this summer. Without them, Murphy thinks the UWLX still offers plenty of talent to see.

“The only solution to a women’s start-up is getting the fans out to watch,” Murphy said. “Why should they get out to watch? Because they have little girls that now have female role models they can actually interact with. That’s what our mission is all about. Is it about the best players playing the game, yes, but it’s also – I think even more important – to be the character role model leaders of the next generation. That really is what the UWLX is all about.”

UWLX action continues with its second weekend on Saturday at New Canaan High School in Connecticut. The Long Island Sound face the Philadelphia Force at 5:30 p.m. followed by the Boston Storm vs. the Baltimore Ride at 7:30 p.m. It’s the second of seven matches for each of the teams this season. UWLX playoff semifinals will be July 29 and the final is slated for August 2.

“The first game was a huge success,” Murphy said. “Our GMs crushed it. Andrew Fink and Chris Widelo are the co-GMs at Boston. We had 500 people. We had food trucks. I was really happy with the product.”

The UWLX continues to promote the game for women even as it sees so much turnover. Murphy and co-founder and COO Aronda Kirby are still on board, but many others have left. Gone is league commissioner Michele DeJuliis, who just announced Thursday that she has founded another women’s professional league – the Women’s Professional Lacrosse League. The UWLX hired Syracuse legend Gary Gait to be the interim commissioner. He helped them sew up a Nike deal, and was trying to find a full-time commissioner, but no one took it.

“I’m still supporting them,” Gait said. “The idea, the mission, is the right thing. We want to provide opportunities for women to play after college.”

The UWLX divided up some of the commissioner duties to four women with a wealth of experience within the game. Tracy Wiener-Provenz, coach at Farmingdale (N.Y.) High School and director of Long Island Elite Lacrosse, is the director of league personnel.

“Tracy is going out and finding players that want to still play that she connects with,” Murphy said. “Tracy Weiner is a big part of it.”

Amanda Kammes, who coached at UC Davis, serves as assistant director for Blue Star Events’ USJN Tournament, is NXT Lacrosse Girls 2020 head coach and Abington (Pa.) High School coach, is the director of marketing and scheduling.

“She’s been doing a lot of everything and helping everywhere,” Murphy said.

Jazmine Smith, the founder of Eyekonz Sports League, the only field hockey and lacrosse league for African-American girls in the U.S., is director of league diversity.

“Our goal is if you can see it, you can be it,” Murphy said. “That’s one of our core values.”

Tara Clough, who helped bring Division I lacrosse to Notre Dame and now is the head coach at Sacred Heart Greenwich and co-director and head coach of Soundcrosse Lacrosse Club, is the director of sponsorship and fundraising to round out the league staff.

“I thought, why don’t we get a team together?” Murphy said. “We’ll change the model.”

The coaching staffs have changed completely. In Baltimore, McDonogh School head coach Chris Robinson takes over for Loyola’s Jen Adams. In Boston, it’s Assumption women’s coach Abbey Capobianco who takes the reins for former Dartmouth head coach Amy Patton. In Philadelphia, William and Mary assistant Mike Bedford moves in for Penn State’s Missy Doherty. And in Long Island, Syracuse assistant coach Regy Thorpe inherits the defending champions from Hofstra’s Shannon Smith.

“That’s one of our initiatives too is to get more D2 and D3 people involved,” Murphy said. “We listened to the coaching community. When I talked to them last November, I said, 'What do you need?' They said, 'We’d like to see more D2 and D3 people.' We made that one of our core values. After the first year, you want to listen to people. They love the rules so we kept them the same. They didn’t like some of the scheduling. It was too much pressure on DI and recruiting, so we brought in some other people that want to give to the game.”

There are some subtle changes in the scheduling. While this weekend is a doubleheader as were last year’s games, that won’t be the case always. In two weeks, one game will be at UMass, while the other is in Baltimore.

“We found the kids needed to stay closer to home, and you get more fans,” Murphy said. “So we’re going to have to start splitting up the games. What we found is the second game isn’t as well attended. We’re going to take a lesson from the market and listen to it.”

The league also tried to encourage teams to keep their rosters more locally flavored. The first weekend started with a 13-12 overtime win for host Boston over Philadelphia. Long Island won the nightcap, 14-6, over Baltimore to remain in a familiar spot atop the league.

“They did a great job last year,” Thorpe said. “There were some great playoffs. It’s a new team. They’re all gunning for championship weekend. We’re excited to defend for the Long Island Sound.”

A trio of challengers is shaping up for a change. Change, after all, seems to be a theme in the UWLX’s second season.

“It’s a new venture,” Gait said. “It’s going through growth. You throw something out there and you have to grow and adapt. I’m glad to see it’s back for another year. Build on what they started. That’s the plan.”

Baltimore Ride

GM: Krystin Porcella
Assistant GM: Janine Tucker
Head Coach: Chris Robinson
Assistant Coach: Greg Danto
Last Year’s Record: 3-6
Key Returners: Erica Bodt (M), Amanda Johansen (M), Kerry Stoothoff (GK)
Top Newcomers: Nikki Boltja (M), Sam Brookhart (M), Sammi Burgess (A), Sam Maguire (M), Bailey Mathis (D)

Chris Robinson can’t wait to see his Ride team at full strength. Baltimore had only half as many players as Long Island when they suffered a 14-6 loss in the season opener.

“I thought we hung tough first half,” Robinson said. “We were down 6-4 at halftime. We ran out of gas. Long Island threw a lot of good midfielders at us, and we didn’t finish out the game like we needed to. Long Island was riding hard and causing a lot of turnovers. We didn’t have the depth for that weekend.”

With the close of the NCAA season and the arrival of some more talent, Baltimore will be looking to get back on track. They will be riding their defensive firepower while their offense finds the right combinations to click.

“We have excellent goaltending with Ellie DeGarmo and Kerry Stoothoff,” Robinson said. “Both of those are excellent goalies so it’s a great place to start. We also have excellent midfielders. We have to be able to put the ball in the goal. We only scored six goals. You’re not going to win with just six goals.”

The Ride is set to welcome some top-flight talent that is in good shape after deep NCAA tournament runs. They will combine with a group of veterans who are setting the tone.

“We definitely have a lot of maturity,” said GM Krystin Porcella. “We have to learn to use that to our advantage and work together. We have a lot of newcomers. We have a lot of good, high level smart players.”

Like all the teams, Baltimore is concerned about coming together quickly as a team. With their complete team, however, that job will get easier.

“From here on out, we have a full roster,” Robinson said. “It’ll be nothing but better from last week.”

Boston Storm

GM: Andrew Fink
Head Coach: Abbey Capobianco
Assistant Coaches: Alice Lee and Carissa Medeiros
Last Year’s Record: 6-4, UWLX finalist
Key Returners: Danielle Etrasco (A), Allie Flury (M), Liz Hogan (G), Kelsey Sheridan (D)
Top Newcomers: Vicki Gaveline (M), Tanner Guarino (M), Hannah Murphy (M), Mckinley (Curro) Sbordone (A)

Boston got out to a slow start to their season down 7-0 in the first half, but the Storm put together a whirlwind comeback to knock off Philadelphia, 13-12, on Mckinley Sbordone’s game-winner in overtime Saturday. The Storm proved a persistent crew that showed it won’t panic.

“It really paid off,” said head coach Abbey Capobianco. “That’s why we won the game. We made some minor changes on defense and we threw in a motion at halftime on offense. It was mostly one goal at a time and they didn’t look to the end of the game.”

It helped that Liz Hogan arrived from California in time to play the second half. The goalie was huge down the stretch, including a save in the final seconds of regulation.

“That’s a veteran presence,” said Boston GM Andrew Fink. “You could sense it, the moment we switched goalies. Everyone believed Liz would make the save.

“I’m watching it behind the bench. I’m seeing it differently. I could see everything was changing from first to second half. I couldn’t be happier with the commitment from our team.”

The Storm is hoping to see the sort of effort it took in the comeback all the time. Hogan and Kelsey Sheridan anchored the defense while Danielle Etrasco and Bre Hudgins came up big late at the offensive end.

“I think we’re going to be the grittiest team, hardest working team,” Capobianco said. “Team camaraderie and playing as a team top to bottom is going to be a strength too.”

Boston saw its communication improve throughout its first game, and learning to mesh together will be a key to their chances to return to the title game.

“Getting used to playing with each other,” Capobianco said. “That ability to be able to read each other, seeing the next play, that anticipation, we have to get much better at that. For the most part, we’re a new team. Our ability to do that is a weakness so far.”

Shore that up, and the Storm has the sort of experience and work ethic to go far this summer.

“We want to win the whole thing,” Capobianco said. “I think we have the capability to do it. As long as we have consistent roster and consistent effort, there’s no reason we shouldn’t win. Our goal is to get back to that championship game.”

Long Island Sound

GM: Carol Rainson-Rose
Head Coach: Regy Thorpe
Assistant Coaches: Jillian Byers, Caitlin Defliese
Last Year’s Record: 8-2, UWLX Champions
Key Returners: Katrina Dowd (A), Hillary Fratzke (M), Halle Majorana (A), Kelly McPartland (M), Sloane Serpe (D), Taryn VanThof (M)
Top Newcomers: Kaleigh Craig (M), Caroline Fitzgerald (D), Cortney Fortunato (A), Nadine Hadnagy (D), Dorrien Van Dyke (M)

The Sound dominated their opener, and believe they have the make-up to do that all season. After establishing a 6-4 halftime lead on the Ride, Long Island used its depth and wore down Baltimore in a strong second half for a 14-6 win.

“The chemistry was awesome Week 1,” said GM Carol Rainson-Rose. “They played like a team and really looked like they were having fun together. They are an exciting talented group to watch and very well balanced in all positions.”

Long Island has a strong group of returning players, and their leadership is a strength. Long Island also has tremendous speed, athleticism and stickwork.

“We have a lot of upside,” Thorpe said. “The potential is there. We have some great players and they’re committed. That’s important.”

Thorpe inherits a team whose core was part of the first UWLX championship win. The Sound has surrounded them with exciting first-year talent. They are putting their efforts into strengthening their play each week.

“We didn’t really shoot the ball that well,” Thorpe said. “We have a lot of young rookies that were great college players and a couple people in their second year, and we’re trying to get the chemistry of everyone together. We could have shot the ball better. It was everyone feeling out everyone.”

The Sound came on strong through the second half of their opener, picked up more possession and will look to build on that in their second game.

“We have a lot of new talent,” Rainson-Rose said. “We just need time for everyone to play together more and get to know each other more.”

Philadelphia Force

GM: Amanda Kammes
Head Coach: Mike Bedford
Assistant Coach/Player: Julie Gardner (M)
Last Year’s Record: 2-7
Key Returners: Bridget Bianco (G), Margaret Corzel (D), Katie Hertsch (D), Kara Mupo (A)
Top Newcomers: Molly Hendrick (A), Jackie Jahelka (A), Carly O’Connell (A), Jessica Volpe (D)

Mike Bedford is doing a lot to keep the new players on the Force together and on the same page. Philadelphia’s new coach has talked big expectations.

“Our goal as a team is to win the UWLX championship,” Bedford said. “As a group, we talked about that and we talked about that’s what we’re all here for. Things that will be crucial will be ability to come together as a unit in a short period of time.

“We’re utilizing every avenue we can. We have weekly video chats with the offense and defense. We are sharing film so everyone can see what happened in our game. It’s a little different from the NCAA side where you have the daily side. A lot is done on their own.”

The Force will be looking to rebound from a heartbreaking 13-12 overtime loss to Boston in their opener. Philadelphia held an 11-4 lead early in the second half only to see Boston outscore them 8-2 over the last 25 minutes, including the final four goals of regulation.

“The thing that killed us down the stretch was draw controls,” Bedford said. “We could not find a rhythm at any time. Not having possession took its toll.

“We had chances to win, but unfortunately the lack of comfort in playing with one another, there were a few mistakes here and there that hurt us.”

The Force is counting on a group of veterans like Kara Mupo, Emily Garrity, Daniela Eppler, Margaret Corzel and Katie Hertsch to use their experience better than other teams. They also expect to get an infusion of energy with the Stony Brook products Alyssa Guido and Jessica Volpe, and Molly Hendrick should be cleared from a hand injury in two weeks. Jackie Jahelka impressed in her first game playing some attack, and Philadelphia likes its chances if it can finish games better than its opener.

“We’re going to shoot coming right off the bus,” Bedford said. “We want to play a high tempo. Our fitness level needs to be better. We’re looking for an exciting, high tempo brand of lacrosse that people are going to enjoy watching and athletes enjoy playing.”