Story By: Erin Zollars
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Springfield, VA–
When we heard about the debut of the WLL (Women’s Lacrosse League) debuting with the PLL in Virginia, we had to see what all of the excitement was all about. With all of the buzz surrounding women’s sports and lacrosse dominating the NCAA scene for the last 10 years, the addition of a professional league and a championship weekend was exactly what we needed leading up to the Summer Olympics in 2028.
In October of 2023 the IOC announced that lacrosse will return to the Olympics in a new 6-on-6 game format. In “Sixes,” all runners carry short-sticks and move as midfielders, navigating the full length of the 70×36 meter field. Seeing the players get used to the constant movement in and out with subs and the ability to advance the ball immediately off the score makes this fun to watch.
Kylie Ohlmiller scored the league’s first-ever goal on a well-placed shot from a nice feed from Izzy Scane. This pace of play led to an amazing finish in the final minute with the New York Charging taking a 14-13 victory over the Maryland Charm.
Caylee Waters and Madison Doucette traded 11 saves apiece.
Here are a few of the differences in the traditional full field game and the championship 6×6 format that you should keep an eye out while watching. It took us at least 2 or 3 minutes to catch up on all of the differences and follow the game. Once you know the differences, it will be a lot of fun to watch and see that all of these players have a chance to take part in the scoring.
Key Differences:
NO SHOT BACK UP
In traditional field lacrosse, the ball goes to the player closest to where and when it went out of bounds. In Sixes, missed shots out of bounds always go to the defense, regardless of proximity.
30 SECOND SHOT CLOCK
The :30-second shot clock is the fastest in lacrosse – down from a full-field PLL game (:52), NCAA men’s (:80), NCAA women’s (:90), and the international game (no shot clock).
QUICK RESTART
Sixes lacrosse emphasizes tempo by encouraging quick restarts. After a goal is scored, the goalie initiates play. Faceoffs only occur at the beginning of each quarter.
In the second game of the night kicking PLL tonight, the New York Atlas to a commanding 25-13 win vs. Maryland. The big difference in this game was the play of the goaltenders with Liam Entenmann grabbing 15 saves for the Atlas, finishing with over 57% save percentage.
