AUSTRALIA 13, ENGLAND 8
In the bronze medal game at the 2019 World Lacrosse U19 Women’s Lacrosse World Championship, Australia jumped out to an early 6-0 lead and held on to defeat England by the score of 13-8 in front of a packed crowd in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
“That last experience in 2015 drove us all to push harder during this training campaign, right up until this game. It really feels great having all of our hard work pay off,” said Rhiannon Panting of Team Australia.
Georgia Latch was impressive throughout the match, displaying a rocket shot and tallying six goals for Australia. Georgina Southern scored four times for England, which missed out on the bronze medal after performing well in the finals round. England had defeated Australia 10 to 9 earlier in the tournament.
After the commanding lead, England began to rally back to make it 8-4 at halftime, but Australia continued to apply offensive pressure throughout the second half, scoring their 13th goal with 38 seconds remaining to cement the victory. Australia had 24 shots on goal to England’s 18. The bronze medal was sweet revenge for the Junior ‘Roos.
“We just wanted to do everyone proud after the first loss,” said Bonnie Yu. “From those who came before us. To continue that legacy (for Australia). I think everyone’s grown so much; mentally, physically, and as a team. We’ve all bonded and have made life-long friends which is really awesome.”
Both nations found themselves in familiar territory in the bronze medal game. The rivalry between the English and Aussies runs deep, and both teams looked to close out this year’s tournament with some hardware.
“We’ve learned so much on and off the field together, and have really grown as a team,” said Panting. “We also met so many players from other teams; like Kenya lacrosse, and even yesterday we were hanging out with team Scotland which was great! To share the love of lacrosse with all these other teams has just been awesome!”
In other games Saturday:
19th Place Game
Ireland 7, Chinese Taipei 5
Ireland took control early with three goals in the opening 5:21 and held on for a 7-5 win over Chinese Taipei. Katharine Forst paced Ireland with two goals and an assist, and Georgia Scott netted the game-winner inside the final 10:00.
Liao, Yi-Chun Liao and Ya-Hsin Huang each had two goals for Chinese Taipei.
17th Place Game
Israel 11, Kenya 10
Israel survived a late charge by Kenya and held on for an 11-10 victory in the placement game for 17th place. Maddie McDonough paced Israel with four goals, including the game-winner inside the final 3:00, and Emily Wesoky added three.
Kenya, which had an outstanding performance in its first-ever appearance in the World Lacrosse Women’s U19 World Championship, was led by Susan Jepleting Kapting’ei, who scored four goals.
