Israel claimed 13th place with a 15-12 win over Chinese Taipei to pick up its third win at the 2024 World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship at Shek Kip Mei Sports Park and close out placement play.
Israel improved four spots from the last edition of the event and posted its best-ever finish in three appearances. Israel came on strong throughout the back half of the tournament with wins over Germany, Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei.
Chinese Taipei took home 14th place with two wins over Korea and New Zealand. It was also a marked improvement as the program improved six spots from its debut in the championship in 2019.
The two teams went back and forth in an exciting opening half as Israel led 4-0 within seven minutes and Chinese Taipei tied the game by the 19th minute.
Israel scored in the last minute of the half to make it 6-6. Then Israel came out of the break with just the run it needed, scoring six goals in just five minutes of action to lead 12-6.
Chinese Taipei scored four of the last five goals in its comeback bid in the fourth quarter, but got only as close as three goals twice.
Racheli Levy-Smith was named the player of the match and had her fingerprints all over the win with seven goals, three ground balls and a 19 of 29 win rate on draw controls.
Corey Kumin and Sara Marcovici both added three goals and one assist and Byerly finished with one goal and two assists. Goalkeeper Tori Bates made six saves.
Chinese Taipei received strong outputs from its two stars Annika Wray and Tabitha Goon with six points for Wray and five from Goon.
Goalkeeper Jen-Ni Hsia made six saves.
For the tournament, Israel had one of the underrated edges on draw controls with Levy-Smith handling a large workload, winning 82 draws in 135 tries. She added 15 goals and three assists as well.
Kumin and Marcovici also were a dynamic duo that fed off each other with 13 goals and 13 assists for Kumin and 13 goals and 10 assists for Marcovici. Byerly finished with 10 goals and five assists.
Tori Bates made 38 saves in six games.
Wray and Goon led Chinese Taipei through the championship with 20 goals and four assists for Wray and 11 goals and six assists for Goon, who also handled the most draw controls with 42 wins. Chloe King added 11 goals.
