The best rivalry in lacrosse. No pro rivalry is even close. No college matchup approaches it. USA vs Canada in lacrosse of any discipline is as good as it gets for me. The WBLC delivered us a few more blocks with which to build that rivalry. The women had their own special chapter in the gold medal game (more on that in a second). The men met both in the pool stage and in the gold medal game. Everything else gets put aside for these games. In the group stage, a hit from Blaze Riorden on Wes Berg after a goal may have had some questionable timing. Josh Byrne stepped right into Riorden’s face to let him know about it. Byrne and Riorden have been teammates outdoors for the Carolina Chaos since 2019. There were fights brewing late in the game during pool play. Many of these players are teammates in the NLL and/or PLL, some are good friends of the floor, it all gets put aside for this matchup. Regardless of stakes. Canada was able to win both matchups in the tournament, pulling away late in the group stage and then rattling off a massive six goal run in the second half to take control of the gold medal game. The Canada offense is as stacked as it gets, their defense stole the show to seal the gold. Christian Del Bianco, who has an NLL MVP to his name, make 51 saves in the gold medal game, going 88% in goal. Adam Levi pointed out that he stopped 35 of 40 shots that came from Joe Resetarits, Jack Hannah, CJ Kirst, and Joey Spallina alone. The stars and stripes were able to hang with Canada for stretches, but the king of the indoor game is still very clearly wearing a maple leaf. The gap may not be as wide as it once was, which brings me to my next favorite thing.
The kids laying the foundation. And this isn’t just for the US and Canada. It’s never been a better time to start following the box game. That’s because of just how many rising stars in the indoor game are still so young. This tournament was evidence of it. The leading scorer in the tournament, Lucas Dudemaine who played for Italy, will be a junior at Georgetown this spring. He had 60 points. In the semifinals, the USA needed a game tying goal, and game winning goal, and a play to kill the clock and secure the win. Those were gotten by Joey Spallina, Connor Kirst, and CJ Kirst respectively. Spallina is entering his junior season at Syracuse. Connor Kirst finished at Rutgers in 2021. CJ Kirst is about to start his final season at Cornell. Jack Hannah was named to the All World team, he’s 25 and graduated from Denver two years ago. Josh Dawick, who had 53 points for Austria and plays for Toronto Rock, was Hannah’s teammate at Denver. Jeff Teat’s prime is just getting started. Dante Poli had 32 goals for USVI, he graduated from Stockton a year ago. Team USA got an outstanding effort from Zack Belter on defense, he’s just a year removed from St Bonaventure. There were high school players taking the floor during this tournament. The box game is ready to explode with a new wave of stars.
The broadcast delivered. Sports broadcasts have been under a microscope in recent years. Who is calling the game, the quality of their call, whether or not they appear biased, it all has it’s own subculture at this point. Entire podcasts and news outlets are dedicated to evaluating and covering just this part of the world of sports. Lacrosse is no different; the evaluation is probably taken up a notch. That’s a good thing for a sport trying to elbow it’s way into the mainstream. To be taken seriously, it should have serious broadcasts. The people behind the microphone should know the game, with play by play able to call the action accurately and a color commentator who knows the game enough to offer reasonable analysis and opinion. That doesn’t mean you won’t argue with them or have a different opinion. Lacrosse being a niche sport means a whole lot of broadcasts live behind a paywall. While some in the lacrosse world will tell you this is never the right thing to do, I try to live in reality. I also will never complain about paying for a stream that’s worth paying for. And if you get quality HD feeds, a good broadcast team, and the game’s basic info (score, clock, shot clock) in the score bug, that’s worth paying for. The WBLC stream was worth paying for. Some of the broadcasters I had heard before and were up to their usual excellent standard, like Mitch Belisle who always delivered great color for Riptide and other NLL games on ESPN. I hadn’t heard Daniella Ponticelli before this event, and thought she was excellent on play by play. One of the best stories though, was the Jenner/Jenner booth. Teddy Jenner, an excellent broadcaster and NLL on TSN regular who every box fan has heard before, was joined in the booth for some of the games by his niece Maki Jenner. Halifax Thunderbirds fans no doubt know Maki from her work on those broadcasts, and have seen her on TSN before. The family booth was incredibly fun. Maki is a rising star in the lacrosse broadcasting world; she called nearly two dozen games, some solo, over the course of the event.
The games that didn’t involve the big three were still great, especially Greece/Switzerland. It wasn’t just the heavyweights playing some high level ball. Maybe the best game out there actually was played by Greece in the 23rd place game. Why would you watch that, you ask? Why wouldn’t you! To set the scene a bit for this. In group play, the Swiss scored on a last second diving buzzer beat to win the game and break the heart of the Greeks. The rematch happened in the 23rd place game. Greece started the game down to just 11 runners on the roster. Two goalies, 11 runners. The Swiss had 19 runners. Playing with so few runners makes a box lacrosse game basically an impossible task. An unwinnable war of attrition. And yet, Greece overcame the odds and won the game 11-5. The path to victory? Lean on Evan Constantopoulos, who just signed a deal with the Buffalo Bandits, in net. Constantopolous delivered a 92% save percentage, making 56 stops. Greece played with four defenders on the floor, then left their fifth player up the floor to try and steal transition goals. It preserved their legs as well as they could, and allowed them to try and create some high percentage opportunities. Winning the 23rd place game with just 11 runners is the type of thing that will get minimal press, but is easily one of my favorite stories of the tournament.
Saving the best for last, the women’s box game rules and I want to watch a whole lot more of it. Disclosure here, I do not watch a ton of women’s field lacrosse. I catch major events like the final four and world’s, some of the bigger games during the regular season, and try to consume highlights whenever possible, but I just don’t have enough hours in my days to follow the women’s game as closely as I do the men’s game. I enjoy it when I watch, I just don’t get to watch as much as I’d like. If the women’s box game is made available more often, that could change. I loved it. Consider some of the common criticisms of the women’s field game from those who say it isn't as fun as the men’s game. There’s no contact. The field is too big. The play stops and starts too often. The women’s box game eliminates all of that. I had the same feeling watching the women’s box game as I did watching the Unleashed All Stars play sixes last February. It was as if I was rediscovering all the things I loved about lacrosse. Breakneck pace, crunching hits and physical plays at the point of attack, up and down action that made you glance at the clock and be stunned by how much time had passed in the game and in real time. Dana Dobbie was scoring on crease dives from behind the goal. Charlotte North let a few lasers go. Canada got through pool play without surrendering a goal. The USA dominated pool play, their closest game was an 11-4 win over the Haudenosaunee. The collision course was obvious. The gold medal game was an instant classic. USA went up 2-0 in the first, and that was the only two goal lead for either team until Canada went up 7-5 in the fourth quarter. The US would score the game’s last five goals, including four goals in a three minute stretch to put them up 9-7. The 8-7 lead was the US’s first since 2-0. The last game of the tournament capped what was a massive success for women’s lacrosse. Not bad for the first women’s box world championship ever.
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