WLL - Women’s Lacrosse Getting the Highlight

On November 13th, 2024, the future of Women’s Lacrosse improved with the advent of the Women’s Lacrosse League. 

The brand new Women’s Lacrosse League, otherwise known as the WWL, will debut in February 2025 in Washington DC at the Lexus Championship Series. Four teams will be competing for the inaugural WLL Championship Series trophy: the California Palms, the New York Charging, the Maryland Charm, and the Boston Guard. Each team will have a captain–many of whom are some of the best women to have ever played the sport– who will lead the team through their training and games.

Ally Mastroianni, the two-time unanimous first-team All-American, 2022 IWLCA National Midfielder of the Year, and ACC Midfielder of the Year for two consecutive years, will lead the California Palms. The New York Charging will be led by Izzy Scane who won the 2023 NCAA championship with Northwestern and twice received the Tewaaraton Award as the best player in the country; Scane has also broken the all-time NCAA Division I goal record in 2024 with 376 goals and 438 points. Alex Aust Holman, a two-time All American, second in all-time in career assists with 132 and ninth all-time in career points with 275, as well as a Tewaaraton Finalist, will return to the state of her alma mater, the University of Maryland, to lead the Maryland Charm. Finally, the Boston Guard will be led by the two-time winner of the Tewaaraton Award, a consensus First-Team All-America pick during her final two seasons, the IWLCA Player of the Year and Attacker of the Year in 2021 and 2022, and a nominee for the 2022 ESPYs Best Collegiate Athlete in Women's Sports and for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year, Charlotte North. 

There have been several other professional opportunities for the best of women’s lacrosse players to exhibit their abilities together on a team as well as individually. In 2021, the Athletes Unlimited Pro Lacrosse League was added to the list of available options for a post-collegiate lacrosse player. Unfortunately, Athletes Unlimited, also known as AU, was a much smaller scale version of play. 

In NCAA lacrosse, all D1, D2, and D3 teams play 12 v. 12 on fields that range from 110-140 yards in length and 60-70 yards in width. In AU lacrosse, the weekly drafted teams play 10 v. 10 on A 90 x 60 yard field. The Athletes Unlimited League provided only 56 athletes with the chance to play post collegiately. When a brand and a franchise as big as the PLL decided to create a female equivalent with the WLL, Athletes Unlimited made the decision to shut down their women’s lacrosse program indefinitely and focus on their other sports: volleyball, softball, and basketball. 

Even with the loss of other smaller professional leagues, the incredible leadership that each WLL team boasts will undoubtedly serve as inspiration for younger generations to pick up a stick and add themselves to the legacy of women’s lacrosse. The inaugural WLL game will be a battle between the Maryland Charm and the New York Charging at 7pm on Tuesday, February 11th in Springfield, VA. 

Thea Salem