The 2024 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship is set for August 15-24 in Hong Kong, China with 20 teams competing split into four pools. The top two teams from each pool advance to the playoffs.
The full schedule for the championship can be found here.
Pool D: England; Hong Kong, China; Ireland; Jamaica; Japan
Pool D has two heavyweight favorites for the playoffs in England and Japan, but the other three teams have been building to this moment to make those paths as choppy as possible.
England has made the semifinals in every edition of the event and claimed bronze medals, and will have its eyes on the podium again.
Japan finished one spot behind in England in 2019, when it matched its best-ever fifth place finish, and will be in search of its first medal in a WL women’s championship.
Hong Kong, China is hosting the tournament and looking to make a splash in front of its home support while improving on its 12th place finish in 2019. Ireland and Jamaica finished 19th and 21st in 2019, but have more experience in their squads this time around.
Jamaica named its team in March, and its roster is mostly made up of players from Kingston or Portmore. Hope Wilson, Arianna West and Makayla Mitchell all represented the senior team at the 2024 Heritage Cup in May, while Jinelle Dixon competed for Jamaica at the PALA Sixes Cup in December of 2023.
Mikey Gibbs and Jada Johnson both represented Jamaica in 2019 in Peterborough and Nia Peralto and Terese Palomino have been named captains. While many of the team’s players are in high school, over half have earned college recruitment offers including goalkeeper Gabriella Henry, who is committed to Arizona State. The team has been training regularly in Jamaica and held a training camp in Orlando, Florida in March.
Hong Kong, China has been rapidly developing its player pool in the past 10 years and has grown into one of the top-15 teams in the world. Head coach Gemini Fan, who has been a three-time head coach of women’s teams at world championships, will look to continue that path in the first-ever World Lacrosse championship held in Hong Kong with a homegrown roster.
Fan said: “This is an amazing opportunity for our Hong Kong athletes to compete on home soil in front of their family and friends. We look forward to seeing how our young players can cope with the pressure and showcase the strength of Hong Kong lacrosse to the world.”
Those players are generally split between club experience in Hong Kong and club experience in the United Kingdom. Hong Kong has also put together teams to compete in the Hong Kong Lacrosse Open in March and Super Sixes – Hong Kong in December of 2023.
Ireland is a dangerous team that has a roster of Irish high school and collegiate talent as well as American high school and collegiate talent. A trio of players in Ava Connaughton, Bridget Valentine and Brigid Welch play for the University of Massachusetts while Kendra Harris is committed to play at the University of Denver and Stella Quilty is committed to play at Rutgers University.
Ireland also returns nine players from the team that competed at the 2023 Women’s U21 European Championship in Prague and finished in fifth place with wins over Israel, Germany, Scotland and Italy. Players from the U20 team also competed at the Heritage Cup in May.
Japan’s team heads into Hong Kong with less international match play than some of its counterparts, but a strong development program spearheaded by Asuka Miyazawa, who was an assistant for the senior women’s team in 2022. Nearly all of the roster is embedded at Japanese university programs.
Megan Kitagawa finished her sophomore season at Yale University and Negai Nakazawa has played at Louisville University and previously starred for Japan in 2019 and at The World Games 2022 in sixes competition.
England is bringing an experienced squad counting on its team unity to reach its goals in Hong Kong, and the team has been carefully built through England’s robust development program.
England won the 2023 Women’s U21 European Championship in Prague and followed that up with the best record at the Home Internationals in 2024 in April. In that stretch, England defeated the Czech Republic, Wales, Italy, Sweden, Scotland and Germany. In between those competitions, England also took a tour of Florida in the United States in January with its squad to gain even more experience.
The standout players in Prague can likely be counted on again for England in Hong Kong – Rachel Ball, Millie Cant and Annie Mather were some of the most prolific attackers while Ana Green was a star in the midfield. Goalkeeper Kennedy Buntrock plays for Loyola University in the United States as well.
Games to Watch
August 15: Hong Kong, China vs. Jamaica, 7 p.m. HKT
The host of the championship will open its campaign at Mong Kong Stadium after the opening ceremonies on the evening of the first day of the tournament in what should be a special atmosphere. Matchups between PALA and APLU teams are always exciting, and Jamaica has repeatedly shown its teams are up for the moment at world championships.
August 18: Ireland vs. Hong Kong, China, 2 p.m. HKT
Hong Kong finished seven spots ahead of Ireland at the last edition of this event in 2019, but Ireland will have a lot to prove and will likely be facing a must-win contest in its second outing for its playoff hopes. These two countries also treated fans to one of the games of the tournament at the 2022 Women’s Championship in Towson: a 12-11 overtime thriller that went the way of the Irish. This game is finely poised for drama.
August 18: England vs. Japan, 8 p.m. HKT
England and Japan have developed a budding rivalry on the men’s side of the game, meeting three times in the past two years in San Diego, Limerick and Birmingham. While both teams might are favorites to make the playoff chances, the playoff format will reward the winner of this game with a better seed in the quarterfinals and leave the loser with work to do in the following two days, setting the stage for one of the blockbuster matchups of pool play in Hong Kong. It should be a classic tug of war between one of the game’s oldest powers and one of its rising stars.
August 20: England vs. Ireland, 11 a.m. HKT
While this pool might has two favorites on paper, there could be room for drama on the final day between the two neighbors across the Irish Sea. Ireland finished 19th in 2019 in its first appearance in the event, but its roster has demonstrated it can pack a punch and fans need to look no further than this summer, when Ireland toppled England in the Men’s U20 European Championship in Wroclaw, for evidence that Ireland has a strong junior player pool. If Ireland picks up two wins in its first three games, it will have a a lot at stake, and England could be in the same boat if it stumbles before this match.
