Puerto Rico bounced back with a convincing win over Wales at the 2024 World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship on Thursday by a 23-2 scoreline in placement play.
Puerto Rico was seeded seventh entering the playoffs and Wales was seeded sixth, but both teams entered the game with a 3-2 record after quarterfinal defeats.
On Thursday at Hong Kong Football Club Stadium, Puerto Rico raced out to a five goal lead halfway through the first quarter and did not look back.
Seven players finished with multiple goals for Puerto Rico and no player had more than five points. Victoria Rankin did total five points with four goals and one assist and was named the player of the match. Maya Maldonado added two points and two assists and Alexa Vega scored a hat trick.
Lucia Nash’s strong work on draw controls was impressive again with 13 wins on 17 draws, and Karina Herrera added nine wins out of 10 restarts.
Ginny Zealley performed well in net for Wales with 12 saves on a high volume of shots from Puerto Rico. Phoebe Hurt and Gabby Roberts got on the scoresheet.
Puerto Rico will take on England in an exciting matchup for fifth place on Friday at 4 p.m. HKT at Hong Kong Football Club stadium.
Wales will also have an intriguing final game against Italy at 1:30 p.m. HKT at HKFC.
