At long last, the World Lacrosse Women’s Championship has arrived.
Delayed a year due to the pandemic, the 11th-quaddrennial event starts Wednesday at Towson. USA Lacrosse is the host. After an opening ceremony, the three-time defending world champion U.S. team will take on Canada in an internationally televised game (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2) to open the tournament.
We’ve identified one player to watch from each of the record 30 nations participating in the women’s world championship.
ARGENTINA
GUADALUPE ESCUDERO
A defender and draw specialist, Escudero represented Argentina at the PALA qualifiers in 2019 and was part of the bronze-medal team at PALA Sixes in 2021. She played collegiately in the U.S. at Lindenwood-Belleville and is a team leader for Argentina.
AUSTRALIA
HANNAH NIELSEN
One of the best players in the sport’s history, Nielsen is now the head coach at the University of Michigan. Nielsen will be playing in her fifth world championship after helping Australia upset the United States in the 2005 world championship as a teenager. She has been named to the All-World team three times, including in 2017. She left Australia to play collegiately at Northwestern University, helping the Wildcats win four straight NCAA championships. Nielsen was twice named as the winner of the Tewaaraton Award (2008, 2009). She graduated with Northwestern school records of 398 points and 224 assists.
AUSTRIA
KATHARINA BIERBACHER-VOSS
Austria didn’t play in the 2017 world championship, but returns three players that played in both the 2009 and 2013 world championships, including Bierbacher-Voss. At the 2019 European championship, Bierbacher-Voss, an attacker, led Austria to a 4-3 record and 11th-place finish with a team-high 16 goals.
CANADA
DANA DOBBIE
The veteran leader of Canada’s program, Dobbie is playing in her fourth world championship and has also represented her country in The World Games and the U19 world championship. One of the top draw specialists in the sport’s history, Dobbie has been named to the All-World team three times. Dobbie began her collegiate career at Ohio University before transferring to the University of Maryland where she was a two-time All-American. When she graduated, she held the NCAA’s career draw controls record (334). Currently an assistant coach at Loyola, Dobbie was an All-Star in both the UWLX and the WPLL.
CHINA
QIWEN MO
Mo is one of six players returning from China’s 2017 world championship team. Mo scored five goals during the 2017 world championship, including a pair of goals during an 8-6 victory over Colombia, China’s only win in the event. She also had a team-high 11 draw controls.
COLOMBIA
CAROLINA ROJAS TERRANOVA
One of the most experienced international players on the Colombia roster, Terranova plays in Bogotá with the Nativos Lacrosse Club team. She participated in the U19 world championship in Scotland in 2015, winning MVP in a match against Israel, and then represented Colombia in the 2017 World Cup in England.
CZECH REPUBLIC
BELLE MARTIRE
A four-year starter at William and Mary, Martire earned second team All-Colonial Athletic Association honors three times in her career. Martire had 149 career goals for the Tribe — third all-time in school history — and chipped in 33 assists and 89 draw controls. The summer before her freshman season, Martire competed with the Czech Republic national team and was named the MVP of the European Cup after scoring a team-best 24 goals. She’ll play her final year of college lacrosse in 2023 for Clemson’s first varsity team while attending graduate school.
ENGLAND
LAURA MERRIFIELD
Since making her debut with the English senior team in 2007, Merrifield has played in 79 games, highlighted by helping her team bring home the bronze medal on home soil during the 2017 world championship with an overtime victory against Australia. Merrifield earned All-World honors at that 2017 championship. Merrifield was a first team All-American at the University of Maryland in 2011, finishing her career with 128 goals. The Terps won the national championship her junior year and finished as the runner-up her senior year.
GERMANY
KIM DRESSENDORFER
A midfielder, Dressendorfer was Germany’s leading scorer in the 2017 world championship in Surrey, England, with 20 goals. She also led the squad with 18 draw controls and 11 caused turnovers. Dressendorfer lives in Munich and has won three German championships as a member of the Munich Lacrosse Club. In her day job, she serves as a technical specialist for artificial intelligence, helping to build robots.
HAUDENONSAUNEE
JALYN JIMERSON
Jimerson will represent the Haudenosaunee for the third time in a world championship. She made her debut with the senior team in 2017, scoring 11 goals to go along with seven assists. She was also the team’s leading scorer at the 2019 U19 world championship, registering 26 goals and 13 assists in eight games to rank fourth in the tournament in scoring. She’s played three seasons at Syracuse and her sister, Alie, is playing for Canada.
HONG KONG
VANESSA YU
Yu served as captain for the Yale women’s lacrosse team in 2020 — a season that was cut due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She started nine games in her Bulldogs’ career scoring 16 goals and dishing out 14 assists. Her sister, Michelle, completed her Dartmouth career in 2021 after playing in 30 games and scoring 25 goals.
IRELAND
KATRINA DOWD
Dowd brings a wealth of experience to the Irish National Team. She won a gold medal with the USA in 2013 and earned all-world honors. Her family hails from Ardrahan in County Galway on her grandfather's side, while her grandmother is from County Meath on the east coast of Ireland. In her college career, she led Northwestern to three consecutive national titles before making the move to assistant coach at Army.
ISRAEL
SARAH MEISENBERG
Meisenberg will represent Israel in the world championship for the third consecutive time. The midfielder was a three-time All-American at Franklin & Marshall, finishing her career with 239 points (136g, 103a). She had two goals and five assists at the 2019 European Championship in Netanya, Israel, helping the host country capture a silver medal.
ITALY
STEPHANIE COLSON
The dynamic midfielder who led Gettysburg to a NCAA Division III championships in 2017 and 2018 and is making her international debut with the Italian national team. Colson was the IWLCA Player of the Year in 2018 and finished her career with 147 points, 115 ground balls, 234 draw controls and 55 caused turnovers despite being limited to just 62 games due to injuries. She was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Division III tournament in both 2017 and 2018. She’s the older sister of U.S. national team midfielder Lizzie Colson.
JAMAICA
KAREN HEALY-SILCOTT
A former player at Syracuse who also has 20 years of coaching experience, Healy-Silcott, a player-coach, brings a veteran presence to the team. She is currently the head coach of the Howard University women’s program and was also formerly head coach at Bryant University and an assistant at UMass. Originally from Freeport, N.Y., Healy-Silcott has also been involved in player development with several youth club programs.
JAPAN
KOKORO NAKAZAWA
Nakazawa will make her senior world championship debut this summer. She represented Japan at the U19 world championship in 2019 and was one of 10 players named to the All-World team. Nakazawa recently completed her sophomore season at Louisville, where she played in 16 of 18 games and tallied 12 goals and 10 assists.
KOREA
ANNA KIM
The Korean captain and Clarksville, Md., native starred at Stanford from 2011-14. Her best season came as a junior, when she scored 32 goals and corralled 56 draw controls. Kim was Korea’s top scorer at the 2017 women’s world championship (19 goals, nine assists) and also led the team with 20 draw controls and eight caused turnovers, twice earning game MVP honors. She was drafted into the Women’s Professional Lacrosse League the next summer and won a WPLL championship with the New England Command. An account executive for Amazon Business, Kim is a member of the USA Lacrosse Board of Directors.
LATVIA
JAMIE LASDA
A dual citizen of Latvia and the United States, the midfielder from Ithaca, N.Y. completed her sophomore season at Ohio State in 2022, where she led the Buckeyes with 35 goals and finished second on the squad with 43 total points. She tallied a career-high six goals in the Buckeyes’ 16-9 win over Mount St. Mary’s on March 12. Lasda’s father, Brian, won two national championships as a player at Cornell.
MEXICO
DANIELA EPPLER LOBATO
Eppler Lobato, a Virginia graduate from Baltimore, will be making something of a homecoming during the world championship. Eppler, who started 80 games at Virginia and later played in the Women's Professional Lacrosse League, scored 27 goals in the 2017 world championship, ranking third in the entire event. She's also an assistant coach for this year's Mexico squad.
NETHERLANDS
SARAH SWEERTS DE LANDAS WYBORGH
Netherlands’ most versatile player, Sweerts de Landas Wyborgh ranked second on the team with 14 goals, went 33-for-68 on draws and pulled down a team-high 17 draw controls in the 2017 world championship in Surrey, England — her birthplace. She was the top scorer (29 goals) for the Dutch when they debuted in 2009. Sweerts de Landas played collegiately in the U.S. at Vermont and internationally for England’s U19 team. She currently works and lives in Amsterdam.
NEW ZEALAND
SALLY RUTHERFORD
Rutherford has been playing lacrosse for most of her life, but she doubles as a world-class field hockey goalie. Rutherford represented New Zealand at both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, and now is playing in her fourth lacrosse world championship. She’s doing all of this at the age of 40. “For me, lacrosse is a real getaway from hockey,” she told Newsroom New Zealand. “It’s an incredibly quick sport, so it’s great for my fitness, and for building hand-eye co-ordination. Lacrosse is a very ambidextrous game – you use your left hand as much as your right, so it’s certainly helped me to use my stick a lot more in hockey.”
NORWAY
TALE SOLFJELD
The attacker finished tied for second in the NAIF with fellow Norwegian national teamer Maria Bergum with 47 points (35 goals, 12 assists) in 11 games for unbeaten Oslo, which defeated Christiania 12-10 in the championship game. Solfjeld previously played for GSI Lacrosse in Grimstad but moved to Oslo in 2020. She has been the captain of Norway’s national team since 2019. She led Norway with 18 goals at the 2019 European Championship.
PUERTO RICO
MONICA NEGRON
Monica Negron, a captain for Puerto Rico, was named the Big East Defender of the Year her senior season at Louisville in 2014. A three-year captain for the Cardinals, she helped the team to its first NCAA tournament berth, advancing to the Sweet 16, and was the school’s first four-time all-region honoree. She earned third team All-America honors her senior season.
SCOTLAND
JENNY AITON
An eight-year veteran of the program, Aiton was Scotland’s leading scorer during the 2017 world championship with 17 points on 10 goals and seven assists. Scotland’s captain, Aiton also had a team-high 24 points (18g, 6a) in helping Scotland to a fifth-place finish at the European championship in 2019.
SPAIN
SARAH QUIGLEY
Quigley is the head coach of the Lycoming women’s lacrosse team for which she played from 2011-2014. She joined the Spanish national team and became captain by 2019, leading Spain to a 4-4 record at the European Championships when she had a team-high 11 goals. At Lycoming, she tallied 55 points and had two game-winning goals.
SWEDEN
TECKLA JACKSON
Jackson, Sweden’s oldest and most experience player, began the women’s program in Sweden. After spending one year in high school in the United States (1986-87), Jackson returned home to Sweden with two lacrosse sticks. The rest is history. Jackson, 51, plays on the national team now with her daughter, Kjälla Jackson who played high school lacrosse in Ohio this spring. Teckla Jackson has played in every European Championship and World Cup that Sweden has competed in.
SWITZERLAND
SALOME BAUMBERGER
Baumberger was instrumental in the founding of women’s lacrosse in Switzerland. Baumberger, who started playing the game as a student at Hopkins High School in Minnesota, started the Wettingen Wild women’s team in 2007. The Wild has gone on to win seven Swiss championships. Baumberger is currently the third-leading scorer in the Swiss women’s field league (24 G, 3 A), where she continues to play for the Wild. She suited up for the Swiss in its 2017 world championship debut, posting five goals and one assist.
UGANDA
DOROTHY NAKATO
The oldest player on the team, Nakato is also the face of Uganda Lacrosse. Nakato is director of Uganda’s Silverbacks Club, which brings the game to primary and secondary school students. She initially joined Team Uganda as an assistant coach, but during scrimmages she shined as the best player on the field and was quickly added to the team’s roster as an attacker. Quite literally, she will be a coach on the field for the team.
UNITED STATES
TAYLOR CUMMINGS
The returning All-World player is the only three-time winner of the Tewaaraton Award in the sport’s history. She was the top point-scorer in the inaugural season of Athletes Unlimited last summer and previously played in the WPLL and UWLX. At the University of Maryland, she was a four-time first team All-American and helped the Terps win two NCAA championships. In high school at the McDonogh School (Md.), her teams lost just one game in her four seasons of varsity play, helping to build what eventually became a national-record 198-game winning streak. For the U.S. team, Cummings helped the U.S. sweep the world championship and the inaugural World Games title in 2017.
WALES
SOPHY COOMBES-ROBERTS
Playing in her third world championship, the veteran attacker was the team’s leading scorer in the 2017 championship in Surrey, England with 12 goals in eight games. She also led the team with 26 shots on goal and was third on the squad with nine draw controls. Earlier this year, Coombes-Roberts relocated to Switzerland for her job and made frequent trips back to Wales in recent months to train with the team in preparation for the world championship.