Puerto Rico pulled away from England, 16-13, in a high-octane battle for fifth place at the 2024 World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship on Friday at Hong Kong Football Club Stadium.
Puerto Rico improved four spots from its ninth place finish in 2019, setting a program-best placement for Puerto Rico across all World Lacrosse championships. The team finished with a 5-2 record in Hong Kong, China with impressive wins over fellow top-ten finishers England, Wales, and China.
England ended its campaign in sixth place with a 5-2 record and wins over top-ten teams Ireland and Italy.
Friday’s action was a classic game of runs between two talented offenses, with Puerto Rico leading 5-0 through seven minutes and England slowly but surely working its way back into the game.
England clawed back to 7-6 right before halftime and scored four minutes into the third quarter to tie the game.
From there, both teams yo-yoed back and forth with four more goals until the closing minutes of the third quarter.
Hannah Lewis delivered a pair of key strikes on either side of the fourth quarter break to give Puerto Rico a two goal lead, and then Puerto Rico’s energy pushed the margin to five with just over seven minutes to play.
England found one more late response with four astounding goals from Freya Moody in four minutes, and England cut it to 15-13 with two minutes to play.
But Puerto Rico claimed a key draw control and held out the last two minutes before tacking on one goal in the closing stages.
The draw controls and shots were nearly equal for both sides, and England’s goalkeeper Izzy Middleton kept her team in the game with six saves.
Karina Herrera earned the player of the match award with six massive goals for Puerto Rico spread out across all four quarters.
Hannah Lewis added four points and four draw control wins while Lucia Nash chipped in two goals and eight draw control wins. Maya Maldonado also scored a hat trick.
Moody’s heroics were nearly enough for England with six goals on six shots. Carys Johnson added three goals and Habi Littlehales was strong on draw controls with 16 wins in 28 tries.
Puerto Rico saw strong attacking contributions throughout its impressive sophomore campaign at the women’s U20 championship from Maldonado, who finished with 16 goals and 11 assists, and Lewis, who totaled 19 goals and three assists.
Herrera supported with 15 points and Victoria Rankin added 13. Nash led the efforts in the draw circle with 48 wins while Herrera added 32.
Sofia Herrera was strong on defense with 12 ground balls and five caused turnovers, and Rankin recorded 11 ground balls and five caused turnovers.
Moody was one of the attacking standouts across the entire field of teams in Hong Kong with 26 goals for England. Annie Mather added 18 goals and three assists while Rachel Ball and Carys Johnson both totaled 15 points.
Elly Dimbylow and Habi Littlehales led the way on England’s draw controls with 47 wins for Dimbylow and 38 wins for Littlehales.
Ana Green collected nine ground balls and forced six turnovers to lead the team in both categories. Goalkeeper Kennedy Buntrock made 20 saves.
