Australia punched its ticket to the semifinals at the 2024 World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship with an 11-5 win over Wales in the first playoff game in Hong Kong.
Australia entered the game as the No. 3 seed with a 4-0 record in pool play and remained undefeated with a composed effort against Wales, the No. 6 seed.
Australia will be back in action in the first semifinal on Thursday at 4 p.m. HKT against the United States, the No. 2 seed.
Wales’ strong defense has been the highlight of its run this championship, but Australia was able to set up its speedy attackers with long runways to build up momentum towards goal. Miriam Suares-Jury’s incisive dodges gave Australia an early two goal lead within six minutes, and Ocea Leavy and Dani Cox answered Wales’ opening goal.
Florence Rodgers found a late goal before the end of the quarter to cut it to 4-2 as Wales looked to use the clock to its advantage.
Australia broke the game open in the second quarter with a 5-1 run, with Leavy adding two more goals. Australia dominated possession in the frame thanks to Marley Dawson’s strong performance on draw controls and went into halftime up 9-3.
Wales scored first in the second half, but the 9-4 scoreline was the closest it would come the rest of the way. A torrential downpour struck in the third quarter, and with a comfortable lead, Australia was happy to limit the overall action – Wales’ two shots of the quarter were the only attempts on goal.
The fourth quarter was more of the same, with the three goals on three shots for the two teams through the entire 15 minutes. Wales were up for the challenge of a quarterfinal against the defending bronze medalists, but Australia had early answers on offense and too much coverage on defense to be troubled.
Dawson earned the player of the match award with an 11/12 win rate on draw controls that allowed Australia to dominate the ball. Wales finished with just seven shots.
Leavy finished with three goals for Australia and Holly Plummer and Suares-Jury added two each.
Australia’s ball control was also exemplified in its 13-4 advantage on ground balls. Meg Bown and Ashlyn May added two each.
Natalie Eastwood and Jordy Watts each made two saves for Australia.
Five different players scored for Wales. Olivia Downs-Haskell made five saves.
Wales will be back in action against Puerto Rico on Thursday at 4 p.m.
