The best of the best are decided over the next 48 hours. It starts with bronze to see who will be considered the third best women’s box program in the world.
Two teams separated by nearly 10,000 miles, both determined to be the success story in Saturday’s game.
Australia and Haudenosaunee will fight for bronze, where the winner becomes the first team in history to earn a medal in the WL Women’s Box Championship.
They play one more game in the 2024 World Lacrosse Box Championships, with their eyes set on making history.
“It’s a really important day and we definitely want a medal,” Australia’s Mel Brickle said. “So we’ll be going out there just as hard as we did against the U.S. for that bronze medal.”
The bronze medal game on Saturday gives both teams less than 24 hours to regroup from their semifinals games, where Australia played the United States and Haudenosaunee played Canada. Though Australia and Haudenosaunee won’t play in the championship, the two have an opportunity to play one last game.
Australia had to face the United States twice during its tournament run, once during pool play and again during the semifinals. The Haudenosaunee hasn’t had a rematch game throughout the last nine days.
In fact, these two teams haven’t played each other at all in the tournament. Australia played in pool B while Haudenosaunee played in pool A.
But this Saturday’s game is what these two teams have prepared for — a physical, winner-take-all game that could further springboard lacrosse for their countries.
The hardest part is trying not to get too far ahead, and just focus on playing the game.
“Being the inaugural, first women’s box lacrosse championships, everybody wants to go out with a win, and we’ve done the work,” Brickle said. “Everyone’s done the running and the strength and conditioning, we’ve all learned the box game.”
The ultimate goal of a championship wasn’t on the cards, but they can still deal it out on the field. These two teams haven’t seen each other, and have only had a few hours to prepare.
“We’ve got to get back to our game plan, play our game,” Australia head coach Chris De Mello said. “I think if we can do that, we’ve got a good chance against the team that we’ll playing in the bronze finals.”
It’s a game that will come down to the simplest elements: the mental, physical and emotional aspect. Stay focused, play tough and soak in the moment.
