Wales closed its campaign at the 2024 World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship with a 9-8 win over Italy that was decided in the final minutes in the seventh place match at the Hong Kong Football Club Stadium on Friday.
Wales has finished in the top eight in the event in every edition, dating back to 1995, and has accomplished three seventh place finishes a row. Wales finished with a 4-2 record.
Italy took home an eighth place finish in its very first appearance at the women’s U20 championship and impressed in pool play with wins over Mexico, New Zealand and Scotland.
Friday’s game in hot and humid conditions was unbelievably tight – the score was tied or a one-goal margin for over 58 minutes.
Wales’ defense was back to its stout ways, but Italy was opportunistic with picking its spots in attack and benefitting from a heroic performance in net from goalkeeper Hannah Gilland. Wales outshot Italy 22-13 and won the draw control battle 14-7, but Gilland made 10 saves including seven in the second half and was named the player of the match.
The game was tied at 5-5 entering the fourth quarter with both teams measuring their energy, and the action exploded with both team’s final 15 minutes in Hong Kong.
Italy took a 6-5 lead on a free position shot a minute in, but then Wales responded to tie. Wales then took the lead on a goal form Maddie Sturt on a free position but Italy found the response on nice combination between Elise Fawcett and Gabby Chiappetta.
Wales won the ensuing draw and eventually converted a free position shot to lead 8-7. Italy then set up an offensive possession with a chance to tie the game with the clock ticking under four minutes.
But the Wales defense finally got a crucial stop and raced down the length of the field for a cathartic goal for Phoebe Jones to snare the first two-goal lead of the afternoon.
Wales won the next draw control as well, but Italy forced a turnover and cut the deficit to one with a minute to play. This time, Wales won the draw and kept the ball for the final minute to see out the win.
Sturt led Wales with three goals and Gabby Roberts added two. Kaitlin Miller, Florrie Taylor and Phoebe Jones all finished with win rates over 50% on draw controls.
Imogen Lack caused two turnover and Olivia Downs-Haskell made four saves.
Casey Gilbert and Mia van der Steen both scored two for Italy.
Over the course of Wales’ campaign, the team had a balanced attack with only one player scoring over 10 goals in Phoebe Hurt, who had 13. Four other players scored six or more goals, led by Florence Rodgers with nine.
Hurt also led Wales with 10 ground balls and Taylor had three caused turnovers.
Gilbert and Bella Germani keyed Italy’s success in attack throughout the tournament with 11 and 10 goals respectively.
Elise Fawcett added six goals and six assists. Italy saw strong defensive showings from Chiappetta, van der Steen and Michelle Powers, who each had more than four caused turnovers.
Gilland made 34 saves in six games.
