Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse Carries Momentum into Fourth Season

There’s a charm to Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse that’s yet to wane as the league enters its fourth summer season — making it the longest-running professional women’s lacrosse league in the sport’s history.

Perhaps due to the truncated nature of the season, or maybe because spending upward of four weeks together in the same city has become an anticipated part of each player’s summer, the athletes of Athletes Unlimited have brought a palpable energy to USA Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Maryland.

Athletes Unlimited hosted a media day last week in advance of this week’s season opener. With season four starting Thursday — Team Glynn vs. Team Apuzzo (5 p.m. Eastern, ESPNU) and Team Moreno vs. Team Bosco (7:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPNU) — the excitement was evident as they made their rounds and spilled the details on what’s to come.

ROOKIES READY

This is hardly the first rookie class in Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse to make noise. Remember when Charlotte North entered the league?

But there’s a different vibe to this rookie class. From top to bottom, it’s more experienced than any other first-year group AU has ever seen.

That’s in large part due to the COVID-19 pandemic that canceled the 2020 season early, severely altered the 2021 campaign and granted most players a blanket eligibility waiver for another season. That means many of these rookies played NCAA lacrosse for five years (or more) and were captains for multiple seasons.

“You need to be able to use your voice,” said attacker Sam Apuzzo, the league’s runner-up each of the last two seasons. “You need to be able to lead in certain situations. They're going to have a really quick transition from the college game to this game.”

All eyes are on Izzy Scane, the two-time Tewaaraton Award winner at Northwestern who scored more goals (376) than anyone in NCAA Division I history. She adds immediate star power to an already-loaded AU roster.

“They are very mature. They’re super tough, super strong. It’ll be interesting to see how they fare with a little bit of the adjustment in the rules and the format,” said goalie Taylor Moreno, the two-time defending league champion. “Overall, a lot of those guys are really resilient, and I think a lot of them are going to catch on pretty quickly.”

Sydni Black, one of the few rookies who “only” played four years of college lacrosse, agrees that her incoming class is ready to compete. She said the creativity fostered by Jen Adams and Dana Dobbie at Loyola will suit her well when she enters a league that values playmaking in space.

“I'm excited to play with the legends of the game,” Black said. “You’ve got Charlotte North, Tewaaraton winners, All-Americans, and it’s just going to be a higher standard of play. I think that I’m ready for that.”

ON THE PROWL

Moreno and Apuzzo have finished 1-2 atop the individual points leaderboard for the last two seasons. Rules and point values have changed for 2024, not necessarily to knock them down, but instead to balance out the game and allow for other positions to impact the standings.

North didn’t hesitate to call this “the most loaded roster” AU Lacrosse has ever seen, and as such, expect other athletes to enter the chat and state their case for some hardware this summer.

Apuzzo was quick to point to North as someone who could improve upon her 17th-place finish a summer ago. Ally Mastroianni and Marie McCool are a couple midfielders who Apuzzo thinks could fly up the leaderboard, too.

Quick to acknowledge her Loyola bias, Black pointed to Livy Rosenzweig as someone primed for a breakout. Rosenzweig joined the league last summer as an injury replacement, meaning she was thrust right into the action. With a full year to prepare and understand the style of Athletes Unlimited, Loyola’s all-time assists leader could be a coveted asset each Monday during the draft.

FROM SCORER TO REPORTER

Not every major storyline will unfold on the field. Kylie Ohlmiller, a 2022 gold medalist with the U.S. Women’s National Team and a fan favorite since her college days at Stony Brook, won’t play this season after sustaining an injury. Instead, Ohlmiller, the most prolific scorer (498 points) in NCAA Division I history, will add to her off-field resume as a sideline reporter working with Joe Beninati and the rest of the ESPN team.

Ohlmiller, who calls some Stony Brook games and regularly appears on CAA broadcasts as a color analyst, will add to the other part of her lacrosse portfolio by going inside the huddle to provide insights viewers might not otherwise be privy to.

“I’m so excited for her,” Apuzzo said. “She does such a good job. She’s very good at it. She’s very good.”

Abi Jackson, the director of sport for Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse, thinks the ability for Ohlmiller to make the transition is part of what makes AU — and women’s sports in general — special.

“That is another positive outcome around the bigger platform for women’s sports, right? Like, Charlotte [North] was calling ACC games, and Kylie’s a staple on Long Island and Stony Brook for games, so you get used to that,” Jackson said. “We would never have even known that was something that they could do unless we’re seeing them on TV.

“Kylie is a consummate professional in every aspect. AU is a place where she feels comfortable and confident and was comfortable and confident to entertain those conversations, and now she is going to be able to stay involved. That’s so critical.”

HOME IS WHERE LACROSSE IS

Athletes Unlimited is launching a new touring softball league in 2025 that will transition to a city-based league in 2026, a departure from the one-city, multi-week format that has defined AU’s four sports offerings since the organization began. The new league will play 60 games.

Could lacrosse eventually make the jump to a city-based league? The Premier Lacrosse League is in its first season of having teams assigned to geographic areas, but the league is still running a touring format.

“If we can get lacrosse there sooner rather than later, it would be huge for our sport,” Moreno said. “As much as Maryland is a huge hotbed for lacrosse, there are other hotbeds, whether that’s Long Island or Boston or Pennsylvania or New Jersey. I feel like all those areas could create so much more exposure and bring in consistently large audiences.”

Apuzzo called it “the ultimate goal” to have home cities, something both of AU Lacrosse’s predecessors — the UWLX and the WPLL — had before they folded.

For now, AU is focused on maximizing its current lacrosse format. It’s beneficial to have the content team around all the athletes in one place, Jackson said, as AU Lacrosse’s social media reach and impact has exploded in recent years. Maintaining that kind of creative control and ensuring that every athlete gets the same exposure has been critical to the league’s success thus far.

The other benefit of remaining in one place for a four-week season is the sense of urgency that is built up by the structure of the league. Opportunities to make significant moves in the standings are few and far between, so every play matters.

CELEBRATING LONGEVITY

There’s a reason excitement can be felt in the halls of USA Lacrosse headquarters when Athletes Unlimited is in town. The athletes genuinely enjoy being part of the league just as much as they enjoy competing.

“Just to see Jon [Patricof] and Jonathan [Soros], our CEOs, do what they're doing for us or what they’re doing for women's sports in general — they’re putting so many resources, so much financial support into making it work. And I think this is something that we’ve been missing all along for women’s lacrosse.”

Perhaps that’s why AU has outlasted the two other iterations of professional women’s lacrosse, as season four will make it the longest-running women’s lacrosse league ever. That’s not something the athletes take lightly.

“People think it happened overnight, but it’s really been this upward trajectory,” Black said. “This past decade, and even beyond that, you look at the history of the U.S. Women's National Team for soccer and the fanbase there, and basketball now in the WNBA. Lacrosse is headed that way still, and it just speaks to AU to be able to be the longest-standing league. Something’s gone right here.”

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE SPARKS

USA Lacrosse headquarters has become a home away from home for Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse players with the league entering its third season at the facility. Players also in the U.S. system have become very familiar with the building and its staff.

“It’s comforting,” said Apuzzo, a 2022 gold medalist. “I feel like I vacation in Sparks, Maryland. But there’s a lot of consistency. It’s great. You know where to be. You know the medical staff is amazing. The facility is incredible. You know the fans always show up. I think having this as our home base as the epicenter of what's going on in lacrosse is huge for our sport.”

Apuzzo and others have been drawn to local eateries like Bagel Works Hunt Valley and The Filling Station, and it’s become routine to go on group outings for food in the area.

Moreno loves the facility because of the aura she feels every time she steps foot in the locker room. A gold medalist with the U.S. at Super Sixes last year, Moreno is hoping to spend more time in the national team system in the future.

“Every time you step into those locker rooms downstairs, you’re taken aback by like, ‘Wow, this is for USA Lacrosse.’ And any time you get the opportunity to rep that name across your chest, it’s the biggest honor you can have and hold.”