Since its founding in 1998, USA Lacrosse has invested nearly $2 million in health and safety-related research funding to improve the well-being of lacrosse participants at all levels of play.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of USA Lacrosse. To celebrate, we’re revisiting some of our favorite magazine stories of the USA Lacrosse era on the 25th of each month. This story ran in the September 2014 issue of the magazine.

YES, CANADA DEFEATED THE U.S. on American soil.

But the enduring legacy of the 2014 world lacrosse championship — USA Lacrosse hosted 38 nations, a record at the time — was that for the first time ever a team from Africa competed on the international stage.

TEEING OFF ON THE 18TH HOLE at the Village Club of Sands Point, Rodney Dumpson had one of those rare moments when the world makes perfect sense.

The private golf course had lush greens and breathtaking views of Hempstead Harbor and the Manhattan skyline. A wealthy Long Island enclave, the Sands Point peninsula inspired the fictional East Egg of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” a century ago.

It’s also just a stone’s throw from the Port Washington public housing project where Dumpson grew up.

Tina Sloan Green is one of the most influential figures in the history of women’s lacrosse. First Black player on a U.S. national team. Three national championships as the head coach at Temple. Induction into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

Given that legacy, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that a promising Black high school lacrosse player wound up at Temple just a few years after Sloan Green’s coaching career ended. But Nicole Ross Burris’ path to Philadelphia came about completely on her own, although Sloan Green ended up having a major influence on her experience.

There was an instant attraction when Melinda Wright first picked up a lacrosse stick in seventh grade. It was almost magnetic.

Growing up in New Haven, Conn., Wright soon established herself as a sought-after prospect. She dreamed of playing for Feffie Barnhill at William & Mary, but she spurned programs that recruited her heavily to walk on at Cornell, where the Africana Studies program was an incomparable draw. Cornell was one of the few universities in the early 1990s to have a reputable program.

As the game clock hit 0:00 at Maryland’s Byrd Stadium, eager children began shuffling across the bleachers toward the home and away tunnels. The goal was to snag a piece of equipment from members of the Princeton men’s lacrosse program — a team on its way to another national title game in the 2000 final four.

Among the hordes of youth lacrosse players were Harry and Thomas Alford, natives of Washington, D.C., looking for gloves from Tigers’ star Damien Davis — one of NCAA lacrosse’s lone Black stars — or anyone that would offer up some of their gear.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of USA Lacrosse. To celebrate, we’re revisiting some of our favorite magazine stories of the USA Lacrosse era on the 25th of each month.

REPORT THE STORY, they say. Don’t become part of it.

But in the case of Connor McKemey, we are inextricably linked.

TOWSON, Md. — The underdog tropes trickled out of each team’s camp as the medal round neared

Australia coach Trish Adams said the team would continue to “punch above its weight.”

“Any given Sunday,” England coach Phil Collier professed.

The stark reality reinforced in the World Lacrosse Women’s Championship semifinals Thursday, however, is that Canada and the United States exist in a class of their own.

TOWSON, Md. — The rain came and the floodgates opened.

The top-seeded United States unleashed a six-goal barrage in a downpour at Unitas Stadium, turning a slim early margin into a comfortable lead in an 18-3 victory over ninth-seeded Japan in the World Lacrosse Women’s Championship quarterfinals Wednesday night.

The U.S. will play Australia in the first of two nationally televised semifinals Thursday at 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPN2. Canada and England follow at 7 p.m.

TOWSON, Md. — Ever since Jenny Levy named the 18-player roster for the U.S. women’s national team in February, she’s been intentional about how she labels Lizzie Colson.

The 2021 national defender of the year at Maryland, Colson certainly does her fair share of work for the U.S. team on that end of the field. But don’t be mistaken. Colson is a midfielder, and she can do everything your typical midfielder does.

That includes scoring.