The United States Women’s U20 National Team has learned the path it will follow on its quest to bring home a second consecutive gold medal. The schedule has been released for the 2024 World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship, set for Aug. 15-24 in Hong Kong, China.
The schedule will have a different look from past years as the favorites are not all placed in the same pool as has been the custom. The U.S. will compete in Group A alongside China, Germany, Israel and Puerto Rico, meaning that any matchups with the two other countries that have won this event besides the United States — Australia and Canada — would not happen until the medal round.
Australia won the inaugural junior championship in 1995, the U.S. has won five championships (1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2019) and Canada won in 2015.
The U.S. pool play schedule begins on Aug. 16 against Germany and will be followed by games on Aug. 17 against Puerto Rico, Aug. 18 against China and Aug. 20 against Israel.
The U.S. has limited history competing against all four nations in its pool at this level – having defeated Germany in its opening game at the 2011 world championship and Israel during the 2015 world championship.
The championship includes 20 teams split into four groups with the top two teams in each of four pools advancing to the quarterfinal round. The teams were snake-seeded based on their finishes at the 2019 championship and balanced by continental federation. The quarterfinals will be held on Aug. 21, followed by the semifinals on Aug. 22 and the championship game on Aug. 24.
The U.S. will be led for the second consecutive time by head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, a former U.S. senior team player who is also the head coach at Northwestern University. Amonte Hiller led the U.S. past host Canada in the 2019 U19 world championship in Peterborough, Ontario. World Lacrosse has since raised the age grouping to U20 for this summer’s championship, meaning that more players with college experience will be in the mix for the final roster.
The U.S. currently has a 42-player training team that will be pared down to the final World Lacrosse-mandated roster size of 22 players in advance of the championship.
The U.S. Women’s U20 National Team trains and plays using game-changing, high-performance equipment from Cascade/Maverik, Gait Lacrosse and STX and best-in-class products from Enovis (sports bracing).
In addition to these partners, Gatorade, MedStar Health and Stryker are official sponsors of the U.S. National Team Program. Team training is also aided by products from Athletic Republic.
Funding for the national teams also comes from generous donors to the USA Lacrosse Foundation. Help support the team.
