History Made As Inaugural Australian Womens Box Lacrosse Team Named To Take On World This September

Australia has taken one step closer to being a part of history with Lacrosse Australia announcing the 23 women who will head to Utica, New York in September to take part in the inaugural World Lacrosse Women’s Box Championship.

 After a gruelling training schedule and an incredible display at the 2024 LA Womens Box Lacrosse Nationals in February, Head Coach Chris de Mello has named a stacked squad with some familiar field names and some specialist box stars. The side has a healthy dose of players from the National Champion Victoria outfit with 14 players selected including two-discipline star Meg Bown who will head to Utica after the U20 Womens World Championship in August. Western Australia has the next highest number of players with 7 players whilst Hannah Mathwin and Charlotte Whinnen from South Australia round out the squad. Zowie Day and Nat Miller will anchor the team in the cage.

“The overall squad performance was of a very high level which made reducing the squad from 55 down to the final team was a tough process” said de Mello, “the squad as a whole showed that they were able to step up under the pressure of a National Championship with some players then showing something extra at camp that maybe they hadn't shown during Nationals or previous camps, it was an incredibly tough process and all of the squad should be incredibly proud of their efforts but I am confident that we have picked a team that I feel will give us the best possible result in September”.

The Australia team will join ten countries for the inaugural event with Australia joining Championship favourites Canada as well as Germany, Ireland and Finland in Pool B. Pool A will consist of the Haudenosaunee, USA, England, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. Australia will open its campaign on Day 2 against Canada in an immediate litmus test for our Women.

De Mello though like his squad chances, “the lacrosse IQ of this squad is pretty high and a major strength of this team with the cohesiveness of the squad also a strength, to be able to switch from squad mates, to state team rivals, then back to squad mates has been fairly amazing to watch, everyone wants to be part of this team”.

With the path now clear and the list now selected, the squad will now get to work with de Mello candid about what the team needs to now work on, “the work for the team really starts now, we will start to really focus now on improving the speed and strength of the squad and really putting the reps into becoming a force on the physical side” added de Mello, “it is also important to continue to work on our box lacrosse IQ across the whole team”.

The team will now head back into state-based training with the squad hoping to get together for another 2 camps before hearing to a pre-championship camp in North America to fine-tune everything with de Mello sending a clear message to the team, “I told the team a massive congratulations but made sure that I emphasised the fact that whilst the 23 selected will be a great team, this is largely due to the fact that we had a squad of 31 pushing each other to new levels, and we owe it to the squad as a whole to really put our heads down and get to work”.

The Inaugural World Lacrosse Women’s Box Championship is scheduled from September 20 to 29 and will be held at the Utica University Nexus Center alongside the Men’s Championship. For more information on the World Lacrosse Women’s Box Championship visit World Lacrosse.