BACKGROUND: In 2018, Paul Rabil, an 11-year veteran of Main League Lacrosse, introduced he was beginning a competitor to that league. Whereas MLL gamers have been part-time gamers who performed lacrosse just about as a interest, the Premier Lacrosse League promised salaries and the chance to develop into knowledgeable, full-time participant.
The league began with six groups, which traveled round to a dozen websites across the nation for a weekend of video games. The league finally expanded to a seventh group, then, in a 2020 transfer, absorbed the remnants of Main League Lacrosse into the PLL, and is now an eight-team league.
Through the winter, the PLL introduced an indoor sequence of Sixes lacrosse in 2023. That led to the beginning of a girls’s league, the Maybelline Girls’s Lacrosse League, with 4 groups in 2025.
CURRENT STATUS: The Girls’s Lacrosse League completed off its first season yesterday, with the Boston Guard beating the New York Charging for the inaugural title. Rumors of every kind have surrounded what the longer term is, however we received the sturdy impression that there shall be some form of WLL outside league, possibly as early as 2025.
COACHES: Each leagues employed some fairly good coaches, not just for their head positions, however the assistants. U.S. gold medal-winning head coach Ginny Capicchioni is an assistant for the California Palmlms, and Emily Parros assists the Maryland Appeal.
PLAYERS: The groups are a mixture of the very best of subject lacrosse in addition to quite a few members of the gold medal-winning U.S. field lacrosse group from final fall. The New York Charging was a very loaded facet with Emily Hawryschuk, Izzy Scane, Erin Coykendall, and Kylie Ohlmiller.
The WLL additionally has quite a few gamers who didn’t compete final 12 months with Athletes Limitless like Caitlyn Wurzburger and Megan Whittle, and their presence was a credit score to their groups.
AT PREGAME: If you stroll into the St. James advanced, the very first thing you discover is the thumping DJ music and flashing lights. There are many alternatives to enter a merchandise space in addition to a sponsor show space on both finish of the sphere. There’s a host who makes bulletins in addition to doing in-game promotions just like the inevitable T-shirt toss.
TIMING: The WLL makes use of 4 quarters of eight minutes every. The shot clock is a mere 30 seconds, which implies that there’s a premium for goalies who can throw and full outlet passes to place speedy stress on defenses.
GAME PLAY: Plenty of the profitable groups substitute like an indoor field group, utilizing the substitution field to platoon offensive and defensive gamers. You’ll be able to’t take your eyes off the motion and focus on the earlier play with a buddy as a result of the ball is within the different group’s important scoring space in a flash. The groups push ahead to get most time within the assault zone.
STRATEGY: The WLL’s groups are primarily based on velocity and athleticism. Typically, that velocity can result in a rushed move or shot. On this league format, there isn’t any “backup” for a missed shot; if you happen to’re the final group to the touch the ball, the ball goes over to the opposite group. This led to at least one state of affairs that went to video replay, when it wasn’t clear whether or not a shot went out of bounds with out touching the opposite group’s goalkeeper.
Additionally, the quick subject takes the midfield trip out of the sport; you don’t see a whole lot of stress within the midfield, particularly with goalies that may go lengthy to teammates already within the assault zone.
OVERALL AESTHETICS: This recreation takes your consideration due to the 30-second clock. The higher groups are in a position to get the ball into the assault finish anyplace between three and eight seconds after a turnover or an opposing aim, which makes the sport nearly like tennis given the fast adjustments in possession.
OUTLOOK: Whereas it’s laudable for the lords of the Premier Lacrosse League to have began a girls’s sequence, I do surprise what sort of outside league will evolve from this. Will there be sixes or will there be a standard 12-v-12 format? Or maybe one thing in between?
I believe we’re going to see a full-field league, although the roles of defenders have been diminished within the MWLL to a sure extent. I’d wish to see extra shut defenders get their probability to shine even in an period of unprecedented physicality on the assault finish.
We’ll have a thought experiment on the way forward for the MWLL tomorrow.
