PETERBOROUGH, Ontario — The world championship is coming back to the United States.
The United States completed a dominant run through the field, culminating with a 13-3 victory over Canada, to win the 2019 World Lacrosse Women’s U19 World Championship.
“I’m just really proud of the team,” said head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller. “I think we worked pretty hard this week, all throughout the week, on our defense. I feel pretty good about the way we played.”
Canada, the defending champion after upsetting the U.S. in the 2015 gold medal game in Scotland, used its zone defense to hold the U.S. at bay for the first eight plus minutes of the game until Leah Holmes scored on a free position shot to give the U.S. a. 1-0 lead.
Izzy Scane scored the next goal for the U.S. and then Ellen Hansen scored with just 35 seconds left in the first quarter to give the U.S. a 3-0 lead after one period.
Canada stormed back with two goals in the opening two minutes of the second quarter, but then the U.S. defense took over.
Canada went more than 38 minutes without goal and when Annabel Child’s second goal of the game came with 5:09 left the fourth quarter the U.S. had blown the game open with nine straight goals.
Scane, the Player of the Match, scored the first two goals after Canada had trimmed the lead to one and Holmes and Hansen each scored goals before the half to give the U.S. a 7-2 halftime lead.
Any hopes for a Canada comeback were squashed when Holmes, Elizabeth Hillman and Belle Smith scored goals for the U.S. in the first five minutes of the third quarter.
Holmes finished with a team-high four goals for the U.S. Scane added three and Hansen scored twice. Kasey Choma, Michaela McMahon and Caitlyn Wurzburger all had two assists for the U.S.
Canada did a solid job of neutralizing the U.S. advantage on the draw, but the U.S. still managed a slight edge winning 11 of 20. Maddie Jenner had eight draw controls and Bri Gross had three.
U.S. goalies Madison Doucette and Rachel Hall combined to make six saves in the victory.
Following the tournament, five U.S. players were named to the all-world team: Bri Gross, Rachel Hall, Maddie Jenner, Izzy Scane and Caitlyn Wurzburger.
Final Placement Games
Championship: United States 13, Canada 3
3rd place: Australia 13, England 8
5th place: Japan 12, New Zealand 7
7th place: Wales 9, Germany 8 (OT)
9th place: Puerto Rico 8, Haudenosaunee 7
11th place: Scotland 11, Hong Kong 10
13th place: Czech Republic 13, China 11
15th place: Mexico 11, Korea 7
17th place: Israel 11, Kenya 10
19th place: Ireland 7, Chinese Taipei 5
21st place: Jamaica 8, Belgium 6
