Dreams Fulfilled as U.S. U20 Team Wins World Championship

HONG KONG, China — Not a soul was left in the stands at Mong Kok Stadium as Kelly Amonte Hiller began her walk off freshly cut grass and out of the venue, grasping the newly created Margaret Boyd Trophy — a relic given to the winner of the World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship.

The confetti, shot out of cannons as part of the U.S. U20 celebration, had been wiped from the grass, as had the stage where her team once celebrated in unison. The joy as the buzzer sounded was fresh in Amonte Hiller’s mind as she tried to reflect on what her team had just accomplished.

“When the buzzer sounds, it’s joyous but it’s also sad because you know that these are the last moments with this special group,” Amonte Hiller said as she paced toward the team bus. “We’re just enjoying the time that we have together.”

A few feet behind Amonte Hiller was a player who had been whisked away for interview after interview as soon as she accepted the award honoring the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Emma LoPinto, a player who had first worn the red, white and blue as part of the National Team Development Program in 2019, finally had the chance to taste what it was like to be on top of the world.

As poised as ever, LoPinto walked with a smile and a piece of the net hanging off her newly gifted “World Champions 2024” hat. She didn’t speak of her tournament-leading 49 points, or the two goals and three assists that she tallied in the gold media game.

Instead, she wanted to talk about her friends, like her Boston College teammate, Shea Dolce — who grabbed her as the buzzer sounded at Mong Kok Stadium.

“Watching it go down and sprinting down the field, it was an amazing feeling,” she said. “It was cool to celebrate with everyone. To become close with everyone involved in this, those are the things you’ll remember.”

The U.S. finished off a run of seven straight dominant victories with a 23-6 thrashing of Canada in the gold medal game, in front of fans from across the world, on Saturday night in Hong Kong, China. What was anticipated as a battle between world titans that each scored over 125 goals in six games became a one-sided affair early in the first quarter.

The combination of LoPinto and Madison Taylor was enough to keep the U.S. offense humming throughout Saturday’s gold medal game. The U.S. defense, which had not been tested coming into the championship game, suffocated a Canadian offense that averaged over 20 goals per game.

The U.S. Women’s U20 National Team scored 212 goals and allowed just 20 — one of the most dominant displays in world championship history.

As Amonte Hiller approached the bus, she tried to wrap her head around those staggering numbers.

“What made them successful was their commitment to the plan and what we were trying to do,” she said. “They were so unselfish throughout the tournament. No one had any ego. We had players that normally played offense playing defense. We had people sharing the ball all over the field.”

Kori Edmondson, a former No. 1 recruit who has scored 79 goals in two seasons at Maryland, was one of those players asked to take on a defensive and transition role. With a gold medal hanging around her neck, she said she had never played on a team with this much talent.

“Being a world champion is a title you can never take away from yourself,” Edmondson, one of six U.S. players named to the All-World team, said. “I don’t think I've ever seen a team dominate like this before. It shows how strong the U.S. program is. It’s so cool to see a lot of us develop together, and that’s an inspiration.”

The progress of women’s lacrosse over the past few years has been steady, and the U.S. U20 team is not too far removed from being girls' lacrosse players who looked up to names like Kayla Treanor, Taylor Cummings and current U.S. U20 assistant Michelle Tumolo.

LoPinto had a shrine of Tumolo when she was younger. Maddie Epke wore U.S.-inspired clothes and dreamed of being like Cummings. Emma Muchnick was awestruck upon meeting Treanor, her future college coach.

Many of the faces of the U.S. U20 team had seen the rivalry games against Canada, and they knew what lay ahead. The years of watching their idols on the world’s stage helped them when they got their chance.

“I’ve watched a ton of championships with Canada and USA, so to live in that moment and be present, it’s a battle,” LoPinto said. “We went out there and were ourselves and trusted each other, and that’s what led to the win.”

Kate Levy, the youngest player on the U.S. U20 team, grew up traveling to world championships with her mother, Jenny — the head coach of North Carolina and the 2022 U.S. Senior Women’s Coach.

On Saturday, Jenny Levy sat in the stands at Mong Kok Stadium and played the role of mother and fan — a position that allowed her to see the beauty in the way that the U.S. U20 team played.

“I love the style of this group, they are so unselfish,” Jenny Levy said. “They shared the ball. They scored brilliant goals. They made the game exciting to watch and easy to play, which it’s not. Kate and I have been on this mother-daughter journey since 2013, so to see her in a U.S. jersey doing it herself was pretty awesome.”

In Hong Kong, Levy and the members of the U.S. U20 team become the idols of players from across the world. After most of the U.S. games, LoPinto exchanged shirts with fellow players, Taylor posed for photos and Dolce had conversations with up-and-coming goalies.

If members of the U.S. U20 team weren’t aware of their influence, they found out quickly. In the hour between arriving at Mong Kok Stadium for opening ceremonies and the walk out onto the grass field, a series of interactions showed that they were more than just one of 20 teams competing in Hong Kong.

After meeting and taking a photo with former Yale lacrosse player and current Chairperson at Alibaba Group, Joe Tsai, members of the U.S. U20 team spent time getting to know players from across the world.

Aliya Polisky found herself in a rock, paper, scissors contest with players from South Korea. Just a few feet to her right, several U.S. players posed for a photo with the Jamaican U20 team.

“Jamerica on three!” joked one of the Jamaican coaches.

Navigating through the crowd that developed around the U.S. contingent, one could find Taylor taking selfies with Team Korea, Brigid Duffy and Ally Reilly learning the traditional dance to Ireland’s An Dreoilin and Shea Dolce talked about her amazing season with a number of players from different countries.

“It was still pretty early with our team, so we were all just getting to know each other,” Emma Muchnick said about opening ceremonies. “To be able to share that moment with all the other teams was special, particularly, with how much they wanted to meet us.”

“I was a little nervous meeting new teams at opening ceremonies,” Polisky said. “We don’t all speak the same language, but it was crazy that the South Koreans knew who I was. I was in complete shock. They wanted to take pictures with me, but I was just as excited to take pictures with them. We wanted to win, but something we got out of this was relationships with people we would have never been able to meet.”

The opening ceremonies set the tone for the platform that the U.S. team carried throughout the tournament, even as they dominated opponents en route to the gold medal. After a lopsided win over Germany, players posed for photos and signed autographs with their opponents. The same scene ensued after a win over Israel, where Dolce and LoPinto handed out Boston College practice jerseys to Israeli players Shayli Dimri and Yali Tam.

One of the most poignant moments of the entire world championship came after a quarterfinal victory over Puerto Rico, as the teams lined up to share their thanks for taking part in the matchup. Puerto Rico captain Gabriella Henson-Vendrell stepped forward to speak directly to the U.S. U20 team.

“These are games where we can get better,” she said. “We want to emulate what you have in the United States in Puerto Rico, developing the game on the island, having more girls like us playing for the name on our chests. We just want to say thank you.”

The impact of the U.S. team wasn’t just felt within the confines of the competition. At the conclusion of the team’s tour through Sham Shui Po — one of Hong Kong’s 15 districts — they arrived at Shamshuipo Kaifong Welfare Association Primary School for a scene that felt reminiscent of a photo-op with a celebrity. Cameras flashed as players tried on traditional dresses and sat down with children who had just started learning about lacrosse.

“Everyone looks so surprised to see us,” said Kait Davies as she hugged goodbye to the schoolchildren. “It’s like we’re celebrities,” she said. “It’s amazing how much they look up to us. I didn’t expect them to see us as role models. It’s really humbling.”

While the U.S. U20 team spent a good portion of their trip helping inspire a new generation of lacrosse players to dream for gold, they got the chance to live it out on Saturday night.

“All of us have dreamed of this moment since we were little girls,” Edmondson said. “We’ve all aspired to be on this team and wear the red, white and blue. As soon as the buzzer hit, reality was sinking in. We were just trying to soak in every second of what just happened.”

Over an hour after the buzzer, Amonte Hiller had found her way to the U.S. team bus — full and bustling with excitement. She stepped onto the bus, looked at the silver trophy and knew where it had to go next.

“I’ll hand it off to the girls,” Amonte Hiller said. “They deserve it more than I do.”