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Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:

1. US Lacrosse announced the 49 players named to the men's training team that will prepare to compete in the 2018 Federation of International Lacrosse World Championship. The decision was made after a three-day tryout at US Lacrosse headquarters from Monday to Wednesday.

The team will come back to US Lacrosse HQ over Labor Day Weekend for training and then have two more competitions — the Team USA Fall Classic on the weekend of Oct. 6-9 and the Team USA Spring Premiere in early January —leading up the world championship in Netanya, Israel from July 12-21, 2018.

Players took to social media to express their excitement and gratitude for being named among the 49 best men's lacrosse players in the country.

The lacrosse community, including a few MLL teams, sounded their support for the 49 players.

Even Twitter newbie and Johns Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala chimed in.

2. The FIL Women's World Cup has officially started. The U.S. women's national team took part in the opening ceremonies on Wednesday morning, walking out along with the rest of the 25-team field and receiving a warm welcome at Surrey Sports Park. Kayla Treanor gave us a firsthand account of the ceremonies in her Mission Blog.

Our Megan Schneider, who will be covering the entire World Cup, checked in from Guildford, England. She detailed what Ricky Fried and his team had done to prepare for today, and the emotions building up to the World Cup debut.

“There are a lot of people who have never been here before, so it will validate all of the hard work," said captain Devon Wills. "This is a big stage. This is as high as you can get. I think they should have a certain amount of pride with how hard they worked and what they put in to get here."

As for the action on the field, England opened the championship with a 12-6 win over Wales on Wednesday night. Maryland's Megan Whittle had three goals to help England pull away from a close first half. Team USA will be in action tomorrow, when it battles Scotland in Group A play.

3. Landon (Md.) finished the season as the No. 1 team in the Nike/US Lacrosse Boys' National Top 25. After closing the undefeated season with a victory over Bullis (Md.) on May 12, the Bears earned the top spot in the national rankings.

Landon's success came partly from star Joey Epstein (Johns Hopkins), who set Landon’s single-season record with 123 points (75 goals, 48 assists). As a result, Epstein was named the Epoch/US Lacrosse Boys' National Player of the Year.

Check out the rest of the Top 25, as well as regional rankings for the end of 2017.

4. Matt Rambo hung out at the ESPY Awards on Wednesday night, fresh off competing in the U.S. national team tryouts on Monday and Tuesday. Rambo was nominated for Best Male College Athlete along with Clemson quarterback DeShaun Watson, Kansas basketball star Frank Mason, Wake Forest soccer's Ian Harkes and Penn State wrestler Zain Retherford.

With so many sports stars in attendance, Rambo was able to sneak a few photos in on the red carpet. He even got to meet a certain Baltimore-native who played lacrosse as a kid.

5. The IWLCA named its Division I, II and III national coaches of the year. In Division I, Boston College coach Acacia Walker took home the honor after leading the Eagles to the NCAA championship game. It was the best season in program history.

Pat McCabe won the Division II Coach of the Year after guiding Adelphi to its third championship in four years, avenging a 2016 title game loss to Florida Southern in this year’s final.

For Division III, Gettysburg’s Carol Cantele won Coach of the Year. Cantele led the Bullets to a 21-3 record en route to the national championship.

WHAT WE’RE READING

  • Wednesday was a busy day for U.S. national team member Paul Rabil. First, he made the U.S. training team. However, he was also published in the Huffington Post, writing a powerful article about his experiences with LGBQT discrimination and what we can do to help combat bullying of any kind.

  • Staff Sgt. Joshua Michael Snowden, a Texas State lacrosse team member, was killed in the marine plane crash Monday in Mississippi. He was 31.

  • From the IWLCA blog "Behind the Whistle", coaches give us tips on what the players (and parents) should do before, during and after a recruiting tournament.

  • Nine-year U.S. Marine Corps veteran Jeremy Hirata and Joe Machado, a Vietnam War veteran, are getting excited for Shootout for Soldiers, which will head to Columbus, Ohio this weekend.

  • Former Lock Haven assistant Whitney Boshart was hired as the head coach of the Lycoming women's lacrosse program.

  • Seven Baltimore area players will make an appearance for the U.S. national team in the FIL World Cup.

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

In case you want highlights from the FIL World Cup, here are some from England's opening night win over Wales. There will be more to come as the tournament continues.

Official Lax Girl is getting in on the World Cup fun, allowing the Haudenosaunee to take over her Instagram story. You should check it out.

Shootout for Soldiers is going strong for another summer, with six out of 12 events down so far. This video sheds a light on the process of hosting events at cities across the country.

WHAT’S ON TAP

  • The U.S. women's national team will kick off its FIL World Cup against Scotland at 3 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET) and you can watch the game on 247.tv ($). Also, Episode 5 of the Chasing Rings series will be out today, so check later for the full video.

  • The final installment of the Nike/US Lacrosse High School Girls' National Top 25 and Epoch/US Lacrosse Player of the Year will be released Thursday. Catch up on our regional rankings here.

  • We'll have more from the FIL World Cup today, including a "Mission Log" from a Team USA player.

  • Subscribe today to our weekly email newsletter and stay connected to each week's top lacrosse stories. The newsletter goes out every Thursday.
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