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

1. The Premier Lacrosse League — the advent and ascension of which were featured Tuesday in a wide-reaching narrative crafted by The Ringer’s Katie Bakes after she spent months with unrestricted access to co-founder Paul Rabil and league operators — kept the innovations coming with the announcement of its playoff format. The postseason will include separate tracks for the championship and the rights to the No. 1 draft pick in 2020.

2. Katie and John Haus are the WPLL-PLL power couple with a deep lacrosse pedigree and love of the game.

3. The WPLL-leading Fight are 3-0, riding high off big-time performances by Kylie Ohlmiller and Taylor Cummings, not to mention a stellar professional debut for Tewaaraton winner Megan Taylor. More from around the league in Justin Feil’s WPLL notebook.

4. Way-early 2020 rankings for NCAA Division III women’s lacrosse are in, with William Smith, TCNJ, St. John Fisher, Wesleyan and Tufts projecting as top-10 teams.

5. The Maryland Lacrosse League, a new masters (30 and older) circuit that has experienced resounding success in its inaugural season, will stage its championship round-robin Saturday at US Lacrosse.

WHAT WE’RE READING

  • Sam Gravitte, a former Princeton lacrosse defenseman/midfielder who graduated in 2017, makes his Broadway debut this week in “Wicked.” He appears in the ensemble and as the understudy for Fiyero, the male lead in the musical.

  • Long-term questions abound for the PLL, writes PressBox’s Glenn Clark, but the Homewood Field sellout Saturday night was a good start.

  • In partnership with US Lacrosse, the National Lacrosse League is expanding its diversity and inclusion programming to strengthen its focus on cultural competency and honoring indigenous people.

  • Fast Company has a story on the NLL’s embrace of the sport’s Native American roots.

  • In an interview with PressBox, Tewaaraton Award-winning attackman and recent Northwestern basketball signee Pat Spencer draws parallels between his hoops game and what he did on the lacrosse field at Loyola in terms of “making guys around me better.”

  • Not to be forgotten in the MLL vs. PLL saga, Major Series Lacrosse in Ontario is also finding new ways to get in front of fans. Lacrosse All Stars had a Q&A with MSL commissioner Doug Luey.

  • The NLL announced teams’ protected player lists ahead of the July 9 expansion draft.

  • Breakdancing is an Olympic sport. The uphill battle for team sports like lacrosse to get into the Games is covered in this Yahoo Sports article.

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WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

US Lacrosse’s National Team Development Program, launched this year to start a U15-U17 pipeline of players who are introduced to Team USA systems, is gaining momentum this week.

WHAT’S ON TAP

  • The wave of way-early 2020 rankings continue with Paul Ohanian’s projected top five for NCAA Division III women’s lacrosse.

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