Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. Well, it’s on. Team USA beat Australia in an FIL World Championship semifinal yesterday to draw a rematch with defending world champion Canada in the gold-medal game Saturday morning at Netanya Stadium in Israel.
The 14-5 defeat of the Aussies saw the U.S. continue its tournament-long efficiency in the passing game, as the Americans assisted on 10 goals. The U.S. and Canada will face off at 3 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow live on ESPN2 (a re-broadcast will air at noon ET on ESPNU).
Balanced scoring once again carried Team USA, which got at least one point from 12 players and its first-half goals from seven different players (box score). But Australia proved much tougher a foe than the version of itself that got decimated by the Americans in pool play, 19-1. Christopher Robertson scored with 7:37 left in the second quarter to pull the Australians within 5-4 before Jordan Wolf and Will Haus countered late for a 7-4 Team USA lead at the half. Defense and faceoff dominance took over from there.
2. Canada got to the final by jumping on the Iroquois Nationals, 6-0, en route to a 15-4 win in the other semifinal.
In the decisive first quarter, the reigning world champions got five faceoff wins in seven attempts from Geoff Snider and five saves from goalie Dillon Ward. The latter is making another run at the tournament’s MVP award, which he won in 2014. He finished this game with 13 saves for a total of 37 in two matchups with the Iroquois, and he has stopped an event-leading 68 percent of shots faced.
Ben McIntosh scored two of his team-high three goals in the first quarter and added two assists and his final goal in the second as the Canadians extended to a 10-2 at intermission (box score).
3. Devon Wills, a four-time gold medalist goalie for the U.S. women’s team, hosted an educational session at LaxCon in Baltimore.
Wills, an assistant coach at Southern California and the director of player relations for the Women’s Professional Lacrosse League, demonstrated a number of drills coaches can implement to improve their goalies’ hand movements and hand-eye coordination.
LaxCon moves to Philadelphia Jan. 11-13, 2019. US Lacrosse expects to launch ticket sales shortly after Labor Day.
4. Caitlyn Wurzburger is on her way.
From the July/August issue of US Lacrosse Magazine, Wurzburger may have made some waves in the lacrosse community by giving Syracuse a non-binding verbal commitment as an eighth grader two years ago. Nowadays, she’s just making waves on the field.
5. In a move sure to delight hungry middle-school players, US Lacrosse has named Chipotle Mexican Grill the presenting sponsor of the 10th annual US Lacrosse Nationals.
The tournament will bring several of the nation’s best 14U, 13U and 12U club teams, who secured bids by participating in sanctioned qualifiers, DE Turf Sports Complex in Frederica, Del., Aug. 2-5.
6. The Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association named Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe of NCAA champion James Madison its Division I National Coach of the Year, highlighting its national and regional honorees for all three divisions of play.
Klaes-Bawcombe led the Dukes to their second straight Colonial Athletic Association title before they captured their first national championship, concluding the season with a program-best 22-1 season.
Kathy Taylor of Le Moyne headlined the award-winners in Division II, while Carol Cantele of Gettysburg did so in Division III.