Italy gold and New Zealand bronze highlight final day at 2026 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship Division II

Box Scores and Galleries: LAT-POL | NED-SUI | HKG-ESP | NOR-RSA | NZL-KOR | MEX-ITA

Italy’s gold medal and New Zealand’s bronze medal highlighted the final day of action at the 2026 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship Division II as all 12 teams settled into their final placement in the standings.

Italy claimed the gold medal with the performance of the tournament to upend Mexico, 11-4, in a stark reversal of Mexico’s win in pool play, behind an inspired defensive effort.

New Zealand defended its lead from a fierce Korea comeback to earn the bronze medal in an 8-7 win.

Elsewhere, South Africa and Hong Kong, China eked out narrow affairs that came down to the wire.

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Seventh Place
Box Score

Poland closed its host campaign on a high with a strong performance from start to finish to defeat Latvia and take seventh place with its fourth win in Wroclaw.

Klaudia Majorczyk and Roksana Debicka each had a hat trick and Debicka was named the player of the match.

11th Place
Box Score

The Netherlands won its finale in Wroclaw behind a trio of impactful attackers to take 11th place over Switzerland. Desiree Kleberg was at her usual best with three goals and two assists but Saskia Broeders stepped up with three goals and an assist and Kate Sciandra added four goals.

Kleberg was named the player of the match and finished her week in Wroclaw with 25 points, good for the second-highest points total among all athletes.

Fifth Place
Box Score

Hong Kong, China and Spain delivered one of the wildest finishes in the championship on the final day in the fifth place game. Hong Kong had gained the upper hand in a back-and-forth game to lead by two late, but Spain snapped a 12-minute drought to rattle off two goals in two minutes to tie the game with 58 seconds to go.

Spain had a player advantage but even shorthanded, Hong Kong took possession and found the winner with 30 seconds to play from Livia Li on an assist from Sally Tang. The goal was only Li’s third of the tournament.

Karina Harrison led the attack with five goals and Ka Hei Hui was crucial in the circle with eight draw wins to be named the player of the match. Hong Kong finished the week with five wins.

Ninth Place
Box Score

South Africa closed the tournament with its second win in a row, a bright finish to its first ever appearance at a World Lacrosse championship. South Africa led 7-2 at halftime and Norway nearly stormed all the way back with a 5-1 run in the final 20 minutes, cutting the gap to one with a minute to play.

Caleigh Barlow and Emily Steven-Jennings led South Africa with two goals, but Hannah Taggart with a goal was named the player of the match and has been South Africa’s standout throughout the week, leading the team with 15 points.

Bronze Medal
Box Score

New Zealand claimed the bronze medal by fending off Korea for the second time in the tournament in another close contest. After winning by two in pool play, New Zealand had to withstand a fierce Korea comeback on Saturday after leading 7-3 a minute after halftime.

Korea had three goals in the fourth quarter and won possession of the ball with 90 seconds left down one. Phoebe Kim had a free position shot in the final minute, but the New Zealand defense denied her a shot and successfully run out the game with a player down for the final few minutes.

New Zealand picked up its sixth win of the championship while Korea finished with four.

Brooke Bolstad, who has been one of New Zealand’s best all-around contributors, led the way with five goals in the game. Maya Rutherford was crucial to New Zealand’s defense of the potent Korea attack and was named the player of the match.

Bolstad was named to the All-Tournament Team in midfield, as well as Sarah Butler in attack and Maya Rutherford in defense for New Zealand. Butler finished fourth among all players in Wroclaw with 24 points, and Bolstad had 20.

Helen Bae, who led Korea in points with 22, was named to the All-Tournament Team as a midfielder.

Gold Medal
Box Score

Italy shut down Mexico in the gold medal game, 11-4, with a special defensive performance to hold an attack that had averaged 10.8 goals per game previously to just four. Italy also earned revenge for Mexico’s 9-6 win in pool play, and halted Mexico’s six-game unbeaten run.

Even with Italy’s defense, Mexico’s resiliency clawed the game to within one at 5-4 in the closing minutes of the third quarter.

The fourth quarter, however, was Italy’s time to shift into another gear and race away with the win. Italy scored a key free position shot from Anna Rivetti to halt the run and restore a two-goal lead, and then the floodgates opened with five goals in the final seven minutes to put an emphatic stamp on proceedings.

Four different players scored two or more goals for Italy: Mia van der Steen, Marianna Salvatori, Anna Rivetti and Elise Fawcett. Stephanie Colson added a goal and an assist and was instrumental all over the field in thwarting Mexico, earning herself player of the gold medal match.

Fawcett ended as the tournament’s top scorer with 13 goals and 13 assists, and was named the Most Valuable Player of the championship. Colson and Fawcett were both named to the All-Tournament Team, as well as Gabriela Chiappetta in defense.

Mexico landed three players on the All-Tournament Team: Alexa Lang in goal, Sophia Lima in attack and Natalie Yorba in defense. Lang made 11 saves in the championship game and kept Italy at bay until its closing surge.

Lima finished as Mexico’s top attacker with 21 points and turned in an outstanding nine-point performance in Mexico’s semifinal win over Korea.