Haven Dora Quietly Making Her Mark on Potent USA Offense

The U.S. Women’s U20 National Team offense has been dominant through six games in the World Lacrosse Women’s U20 World Championship, to the tune of 189 goals en route to the championship game.

In each of the six games, the U.S. has found ways to get their shooters open, and they’ve made opposing teams pay — allowing the tournament leaderboard to feature three American players at the top (Emma LoPinto, Madison Taylor, Madison Alaimo).

Fourth on the U.S. in points, however, is a player that has flown under the radar — a role she’s perfectly accepting. Haven Dora, a 5-foot-3 force at X for both Princeton and the U.S. U20 team, has quietly dished out 23 assists, a number that sits second among all players in Hong Kong.

“I try to find opportunities for myself, but along the way, my teammates are open cutting down the lane,” she said. “I'm going to feed it to them if they’re open.”

Dora stepped onto the field at Mong Kok Stadium on Thursday afternoon hoping to help her team advance to the gold medal game this weekend. In another dominant offensive display against Australia, Dora’s impact was felt throughout the afternoon.

Dora constantly found her teammates. She saw Kate Levy cutting through the middle, then dished a ball out to Ally Reilly on the left side of the cage and finished a span of three assists in three goals with another pass, this time to a cutting Hannah Rudolph — capping a performance that saw her finish with a goal and six assists to six different players.

In the six U.S. victories, Dora has assisted 11 different scorers — a number that speaks to her ability to connect with her teammates.

“She has great connections with the people around her and an innate ability to feed,” said coach Kelly Amonte Hiller. “She’s just going out there and doing her thing, having fun playing with her teammates. We have a great group, so there are a lot of targets out there for the feeders and it opens things up quite a bit.”

Dora possesses a combination of vision and extreme fitness — a testament to her prolific high school career that saw her captain the Trinity Hall (N.J.) basketball team and break two school records in cross country. Those skillsets allowed her to be successful when the spring season came, and Dora finished just two active seasons of high school lacrosse with 266 career points (a school record), 188 draw controls, 188 ground balls and 116 caused turnovers.

The Spring Lake, N.J. major chose to stay close to home and play college lacrosse for Princeton, a program that boasted plenty of athleticism. She started her career as a midfielder, helping push transition and dropping 15 points in her freshman season.

However, Princeton coach Jenn Cook and her staff helped Dora transition to attack entering her sophomore season. She finished with 29 goals and 40 assists, finishing second on the team in points.

“I see the field well from behind the cage, so that’s where I want to be from now on,” Dora said. “I love playing at X.”

Dora had tried out for the U.S. U20 team in the summer before her sophomore, but did not make the training roster. However, Amonte Hiller and her staff saw the production she brought to the Princeton offense, and gave her the chance to compete for a spot on the national team roster this summer.

“We saw how well she played with the people around her at Princeton,” Amonte Hiller said. “That was a lot of the reason why we brought her back in. When she came back in, she just connected with the group so quickly.”

Since then, Dora has stepped in and become a major part of the U.S. U20 offense, playing with a composed style that allows her teammates to get open and finish. Off the field, she’s one of a few members of the U.S. offense that would have rather not have their name called at Player of the Match, as she did on Thursday.

Dora is a player who gets just as excited to see her teammates score as she does putting a ball in the back of the cage herself.

“Those are the best types of players, who quietly are getting six or seven points,” Amonte Hiller said. “She did a great job tonight and it’s awesome to watch her do what she does.”

Up next is a Canada team that features one of her Princeton teammates, Jami MacDonald, who sits fourth in scoring with 32 points — two spots ahead of Dora's 29 points. However, for the next two days, she’ll be more concerned with the teammates with which she’ll be fighting for gold.

“Everyone is super supportive, whether you’re on the field or off of it,” Dora said of the U.S. U20 team. “That’s the most special part about this. When we leave and we go play against each other in college, we’re always going to have each other’s back because we came here and did this together.”