This week, the rosters for the United States men’s and women’s national teams were released for the 2024 World Lacrosse Box Championships.
Next month’s championships will be held in Utica, N.Y., and is going to be the inaugural world championship for women. The men’s championship will be the sixth in its history.
Canada has had the whip-hand in the history of men’s box lacrosse, not only winning every FIL world title, but never losing a single game in the history of the world championships.
As for the women, there are a lot of unknowns. First off, this is the inaugural world championship. And most of the teams’ better players had their skills honed in the outdoor game. Most participants in this tournament made their name in the 12-a-side discipline with shallow sticks, no helmets, and little to no body contact.
But for Canada, box lacrosse, in both genders, is a major training ground for the sport in the offseason. Some of the better players in the game of field lacrosse, such as former Northwestern star Selena Lasota, grew her game indoors on Vancouver Island because there was no outdoor league for girls and women. This will especially benefit the Haudenosaunee Nationals side. have a number of veteran players who have competed in all forms of lacrosse for years.
Not to be outdone, Canada will be led by former Maryland star Dana Dobbie, UNC defender Brooklyn Walker-Welch, and former Canisius and Maryland player Erica Evans.
As for the United States, the team is comprised of a lot of elite outdoor players such as all-time greats Charlotte North and Taylor Moreno, as well as top stars like Kristen Carr, Emily Hawruschuk, Ally Mastroanni, and Kayla Wood.
I think the two most interesting players on the roster are Sam Swart and Melissa Sconone. Swart, at one time, was a member of the United States U-19 national field hockey team, and even was a two-sport atlhete at Syracuse for one year. Swart has played for the U.S. World Games team in 2022 in SIxes lacrosse, so she knows the quick, vertical game.
Sconone, who has played at North Carolina and Hofstra, is one of the most impressive lacrosse players I have ever seen. She has one of the strongest handles on the team, and will be an absolute nightmare for other teams to try to defend. With every other team fearing what Charlotte North is going to do on the court, Sconone will have acres of room to operate.
But there are a lot of unknowns for the players on the U.S. team — the rules, the pads, the sticks. And the first big collision will be their first, and there are going to have to be a lot of adjustments.
Speaking of adjustments, I would have been interested to see how the padded players in Next Collegiate Lacrosse, a Sixes league with players from historically black colleges and universities, would have done. Next Level’s first women’s season occurred this past spring, and there were good players who were able to show out in the Sixes format even as many players adjusted to playing the men’s game for the first time.
Sure, they may not have had the fitness and skill level of their outdoor counterparts, but I’d expect some of the NCL players to have some kind of impact in the future.
