U20 Women's Team Hoping to Be Part of the Spectacle in Hong Kong, China

Kelly Amonte Hiller had just called for a quick water break inside Ryan Fieldhouse — Northwestern’s 96,000-square foot indoor facility where U.S. U20 women’s training camp was held last weekend — when members of 22-player roster darted toward the glass windows that make up the facility’s east wall.

Amid the preparation for the team’s trip to Hong Kong, China, next month, players’ gazes were fixed on another spectacle. Below Ryan Fieldhouse, on the banks of Lake Michigan, were rose petals in the sand formed in the shape of a heart, a saxophonist rhythmically playing and a man on one knee proposing to his (we assume) now fiancée.

“All we saw were the flowers and saxophone guy at first,” Brigid Duffy, a midfielder and captain, said. “We’re like, ‘OK, are they going to come in off kayaks? Are they going to come in on a boat?’ They walk up, and all of a sudden, he points out something and when she turns around, he’s on one knee. Everyone was rooting for the kayak entrance.”

For a moment, members of a team trying to defend its 2019 gold medal banged on the glass and clapped to congratulate the couple before getting back to work.

In less than three weeks, the U.S. will travel across the world to compete at the World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship — a chance of a lifetime for a team featuring national champions, All-Americans and a Tewaaraton Award finalist.

As one of the favorites to win again in 2024, the U.S. will take the field at Shek Kip Mei Sports Centre as the spectacle themselves. Instead of players peering through the glass to catch a glimpse of a proposal, it will be the 22 players competing that fans across the world will gather to see.

“Some of the coaches were talking about their previous experience going to the World Championships,” Duffy said. “Sometimes, when you go to other countries, they look at Americans as idols. It’s important for us to be able to go represent USA there and bring this sport across the world and try to grow it as much as we can, because in a couple years, we’ll be at the Olympics.”

At the conclusion of the three-day training camp at Northwestern, Amonte Hiller announced three players who would serve as captains — Shea Baker, Duffy and Madison Taylor.

Each helped lead their respective teams during the 2024 college season, and they’ll have the chance to do the same as the U.S. embarks on its championship run on August 11.

“When I heard my name called with Brigid and Madison, I was ecstatic to be someone to lead this team,” Baker said. “I’m so inspired by all of them. Brigid and Madison — especially those girls — I look up to them. I’m so excited to welcome that challenge and a new opportunity that I’ve never really had before.”

The U.S. coaching staff will navigate a tournament in a region of the world that has yet to witness lacrosse at these stakes. Amonte Hiller won gold as a player with the U.S. senior team and as head coach of the 2019 U19 team in Peterborough. Michelle Tumolo took home gold in the 2017 world championship in England but has never experienced that same pressure as a coach.

“In my first World Cup, I didn’t know what it was like to play seven games in 10 days,” Tumolo said. “I didn’t know what it was like to play different countries in a different country. I now know that, so I can relay those feelings or those experiences to the players. It’s also cool to be alongside Kelly, who’s done it multiple times.”

WHITE HOUSE WELCOME

While most of the team took a flight from Chicago back home to enjoy the remaining weeks, Baker joined Lydia Colasante, Shea Dolce and Emma LoPinto on a plane headed for Washington, D.C.

On Sunday, the quartet of Boston College stars were honored at the White House along with approximately 40 other collegiate programs that won national championships in the 2023-24 school year.

“It was a huge event,” she said. “We got to see a little bit of the White House inside, and then they took us outside. It was a big lawn party.”

For Baker, the middie from Ithaca, N.Y., it was just another moment in the summer of a lifetime. She’s been part of a national championship run that concluded on May 26, made the U.S. U20 final roster in July and will serve as a captain of the team.

She hadn’t entertained the thought that she’d be leading a group of talented women in the most unique lacrosse experience she’s had, but Baker said she’s ready for the challenge.

“It’s a disposition, in order to make this team, you have to have it,” she said. “I was a little bit surprised, a little bit excited. I know being one of the older girls on this team and going through this process, previously with the U18 and U16 Select teams with Maddie and Brigid, it’s just incredible to be named alongside them.”

Baker plays with a toughness. A superfan of Sidney Crosby and a lifelong hockey player, she might have been able to play another sport in college.

However, Baker is less interested in being the next Kenzie Kent. Lacrosse is more than enough for her.

“I did think about [playing hockey],” Baker said. “I don’t know if my hockey skills were quite there, but I like to have all my eggs in one basket. I like to be bought into whatever I’m doing. I figured one sport would be better than two.”

DUFFY GETS HER OTHER TEAM’S BLESSING

Duffy, too, had a unique destination upon leaving Northwestern last week. The Army junior headed right back to West Point to continue taking summer classes — something she does to ease the workload during the spring season — and to shadow physicians at Keller Army Community Hospital.

What makes Duffy’s road to Hong Kong, China, unique is that she’s spent parts of the summer training to play for Army in another sport. Most years, she’s in the thick of preseason for the Black Knights’ women’s soccer team.

She left the Army soccer team last fall to play in the USA Lacrosse Fall Classic, but the journey to Hong Kong next month presents an entirely new challenge. It’s one for which Duffy and her many teams are willing and ready.

“I went to the Fall Classic for one weekend and then the Army-Navy [soccer] game right after, so that was a crazy switch up,” she said. “It’s a lot different this summer because I actually have the time to prepare myself, lacrosse wise. I’m able to focus on soccer when I need to, but take some time off to travel to Northwestern, and I was so grateful for that.”

Duffy will miss four of the Black Knights’ soccer matches in order to chase gold with the U.S. team. Army women’s soccer coach Tracy Chao, a colleague of women’s lacrosse coach and Tumolo, gave her full blessing to Duffy to pursue the dream of playing in Hong Kong, China.

“[Chao] has been so supportive, and she hasn’t hesitated once, encouraging me to go to Hong Kong,” Duffy said. “She wants me to take every opportunity I can with this USA experience. She’s asking me how it’s going and when I’m leaving. I always tell them how sad I’m going to be because I’m missing so many games, and they’re like, ‘No, this is an opportunity of a lifetime. Go have fun, and we’ll be back waiting for you and cheering you on.’”