Before Friday night, the last time Tee Ladouceur had stepped on a lacrosse field with an organized team was 2011. But it wasn’t hard to feel right back at home.

Ladouceur made her professional lacrosse debut for the Philadelphia Force playing on an attack line that included two of her former Syracuse teammates, Alyssa Murray and Michelle Tumolo. They had chemistry, but seven years is still seven years.

“I just had my 29^th birthday last week, so it was going to be a bit of a surprise if I still had it or not,” Ladouceur said.

She had it, netting a hat track to help Philadelphia beat Baltimore 14-9. Former North Carolina star Molly Hendrick scored five goals as the United Women’s Lacrosse League opened its third season with a doubleheader at Cedar Lane Regional Park in Bel Air, Md.. The games were held in conjunction with the Live Love Lax tournament, a qualifying event for the US Lacrosse Nationals.

It’s a great time to be a post-college women’s lacrosse player. The UWLX, with the backing of 3d Lacrosse, Nike and STX, is in its third season. The Women’s Professional Lacrosse League, whose sponsors include Under Armour, began its inaugural season earlier this month.

Both leagues are following a similar formula for scheduling, with games held in conjunction with lacrosse tournaments that provide an engaged fan base and allow their players, many of whom coach at the collegiate level, to combine the recruiting aspect of their coaching jobs with a chance to play.

But both leagues are also eying other high-visibility opportunities. The first weekend of WPLL action included a doubleheader with Major League Lacrosse’s Chesapeake Bayhawks.

The WPLL also will hold a game before the MLL All-Star Game in Boston on June 28 and before a New York Lizards game in July. The WPLL championship will be played at US Lacrosse in Sparks, Md., on July 14.

The UWLX will play its semifinals in conjunction with the Lake Placid Summit Classic in late July and then play its championship game following a Boston Cannons MLL game on August 4.

The emergence of the leagues means more opportunities for players like Ladouceur.

“I signed up the first time [for the UWLX] and didn’t get drafted,” Ladouceur said. “I signed up for the new league [WPLL] and didn’t get drafted.”

So when Ladouceur got a shot with the Force in the UWLX this summer, she was ready.

“Why not? Let me give it a go,” she said. “I’m just extremely grateful for this opportunity to get to keep playing until I can’t play anymore. I just love the game so much.”

Michele Scannell wasn’t ready to let go either.

As she was getting ready for her senior season at Adelphi, she thought that would be the end of her career. But late last year she became the only Division II player selected in the UWLX Collegiate Draft, going No. 43 overall to the Boston Storm.

“Getting the opportunity, I was like of course I’ll play, because I don’t want it to end,” Scannell said. “After my last game [at Adelphi] I was so upset, but then I was like, a lot of people don’t get this opportunity to play over the summer. It’s great.”

Playing alongside Team USA star Kayla Treanor (four goals, one assist), Scannell scored a pair of goals to help Boston beat defending league champion Long Island 10-8 on opening night.

Long Island coach Regy Thorpe spent 15 years playing in the National Lacrosse League and six years in Major League Lacrosse as that league first lauched. He knows a thing or two about trying to grow a professional league.

The Syracuse assistant coach likes the grassroots appeal of the UWLX, which includes his daughter, Ella Thorpe, as a player, the people involved with the league and what it represents.

“It was pretty neat walking in the first game and seeing all the fans lined up and everything,” Thorpe said. “A great positive buzz.”

Tumolo spent last summer helping the United States win two world championships, and now she’s back for her second season in the UWLX playing with Philadelphia.

“It’s such an opportunity to play the sport you love,” Tumolo said. “It’s so much fun playing with some of my former teammates and some of my biggest friends from other teams.”

Count former teammate Ladouceur as one of the players happy to be reunited.

“Just to be able to play in this atmosphere was awesome,” Ladouceur said. “It was a lot of fun…I had a lot of fun.”

Upcoming Games

The WPLL has two games this weekend. New York and Baltimore will play on Saturday, June 23 at 2 p.m. at Calvert Regional Sports Park in North East, Md., with the Project 120 Lacrosse Tournament.

New England will play Upstate on Sunday June 24 at 12:30 pm at the University at Albany as part of the Capital City Lacrosse Classic.

The next UWLX games will be held July 7 at the Top Flight Lacrosse Tournament in Basking Ridge, N.J.