The moment the United States women’s box lacrosse team became world champions, the air felt thick and time stood still. The clock moved in slow motion as the euphoria of history lit up the U.S. bench. Cheers grew louder.
The final horn sounded and pandemonium began.
The United States won the first ever World Lacrosse Women’s Box Championship.
“We’re not new anymore,” goalkeeper Ingrid Boyum said. “Nobody can come in and say, ‘oh, man, the U.S. is a bunch of field players.’ We’re 23 box players, and we came and we showed that today.”
On the backs of Livy Rosenzweig and Boyum, the United States hoisted the trophy in front of their family, friends and the rest of the world. No one can say the United States women couldn’t play box lacrosse — they proved their doubters wrong.
“We have been box players since the moment we put the gear on,” Caroline Wakefield said. “We’re athletic, we’re strong, we’re powerful, and we’re extremely, extremely competitive women the moment we put on this gear, I think we became box players, and I think they understood that today.”
This was the game to make a statement. Canada has players with years of box experience, but the U.S. hand-selected standout field and sixes athletes to learn the box discipline. A year and a few months after their first training camp, they were wearing gold around their necks.
Rosenzweig scored a hat trick to help push the Americans over the edge, after Canada held a two-goal lead in the fourth quarter. Boyum stopped 41 shots, including 11 in the first quarter and nine in the final quarter.
“I’ll remember this forever,” Boyum said. “I think we all had to dig so much further, but we knew that we were prepared for that moment.”
Rosenzweig had only scored five goals before the championship game. She’d picked up a number of assists, but hadn’t had a standout scoring game. She found the perfect time to do it — the final game of the tournament.
“I knew I had it in me,” Rosenzweig said. “I didn’t know if it would come out or not, but I think this was a good time to let it out.”
The players called themselves “Team One” all tournament. They were the first women’s box team in program history and also had the unshakeable belief they could win the tournament before even stepping foot on the field. The double-meaning nickname was a trademark part of the United States identity throughout their run.
In those final moments, when the United States tried to tie the game in the fourth quarter, the players had to be sure of themselves. Head coach Ginny Capicchioni told her team they couldn’t be anything less than certain.
They believed her. The United States had to find a way to be certain they could come back, that they could win the game.
When Ally Kennedy scored the empty net goal in the final seconds of the game, they knew they’d done it.
“Coach said, ‘if you want to be on this team, that’s what you have to be,’” Wakefield said. “You have to be. We couldn’t have been more certain going into this game.”
The U.S. stood together, backs to the field and eyes toward the American flag as their national anthem played. A proud father couldn’t hold back his tears of joy, watching his daughter sing the lyrics with her teammates.
The women then mobbed each other and sang “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield with the trophy in hand. They had arrived, and their perfect tournament was complete.
