The Round Robin stage at the Championship Series has concluded, and the playoff fields for both the PLL and WLL are set. This year, the team with the worst record is eliminated from playoff contention, a departure from previous years where all four teams qualified and were seeded by record. This year, the top team in the standings earns a very meaningful bye. Utah Archers and Boston Guard secured the byes. The Guard secured by the bye with a better score differential than New York, despite both having a 2-1 record. Utah went undefeated in pool play.
In the third year of the Championship Series, the data sample becomes a bit bigger. We can start taking genuine learnings away from the format to try and figure out the optimal way to play, roster build, substitute, scheme, and more. I still do not consider this event to be the “Olympic format” because of the two point line. A goal worth two points from 12 yards away presents a significant strategic and schematic difference from what will we’ll have in LA (unless something changes in the next few years), so much so that it’s tough to look at the Sixes from this weekend and the Sixes in the Olympics the same way. It is incredibly entertaining nonetheless.
Takeaways from round robin action.
Build the roster around a goalie and your shorties
When Sixes first was announced, I went all Billy Beane with it. Bring me the guys with high offensive percentage in specific categories, and defense doesn’t matter. Turns out, it does. Not always in the way you think though. The Archers are the only PLL team to appear in every Championship Series so far. They also have, for my money, the best SSDM unit in the PLL. That SSDM group is extremely well built for Sixes. Having good defenders isn’t the only part of this though. Connor Maher is one of the best in the PLL going from D to O. Beau Pederson, an elite cover defender with a shorty, was recruited to Princeton and played his first year there as an offensive weapon. I don’t think you could win the tournament with a roster full of these guys, but you can’t go full tilt offense and skip out on them either. The two point shot is game changing in the Championship Series, and the Archers were better than anyone at limiting it thanks to their scheme and roster construction. Second critical piece is having a hot goalie. The PLL Golden Stick goes to the highest scoring player at the event, but there’s no real MVP award outside of that. If there were, you could make a case Matt DeLuca deserved it last year. Through round robin play, you can make a convincing case that Liam Entenmann deserves it this year. You could make an even more convincing case for Taylor Moreno. A hot goalie who can steal a few goals back for you, particularly goalies who are sharp with outlets like those two, have a massive impact. In this format, I consider the worst possible outcome on offense to be a poor shot resulting in an easy save that becomes transition with a numbers advantage the other way. That’s as bad a way as your possession can possibly end. Goalies like Entenmann take some possessions that shouldn’t end that way, and instead make them transition. It’s more than just the saves, it’s turning your high percentage look into the worst possible result.
Sixes is a star making stage
For the casual lacrosse fan, particularly those who don’t follow the women’s game closely, there are a handful of known star names coming into the Championship Series. The obvious Charlotte North, Alex Aust Holman, Izzy Scane, Lizzie Colson, and Ally Mastroianni are probably the most well known. It took about one game for that to change. Sydni Black put her foot in the ground and dodged, and that was it. The explosiveness, change of direction, and agility on offense had fans of the men’s and women’s game alike taking note. Marcus Holman, on hand for the game, was quick to acknowledge with a laugh that Black was definitely quicker than him. Social media lit up. Will Manny said on X that Black “can absolutely cook”, and Deemer Class posted to X calling her the best dodger in the world. Kyle Harrison shared highlights, posting “I told y’all that right to right is crazy.” Clips poured in. The “I apologize, I wasn’t familiar with your game” meme made the rounds as eyes were opened to the electric plays Black made on every possession. She finished the group stage with 17 points, and had the Charm advanced to the playoffs would have been a serious contender for the Golden Stick. That’s one of the best things about the format, and about what happens when you put resources behind the women’s game in an event like this. It isn’t making them stars, they already were stars, they just needed a stage to shine on.
The night game schedule needs to go
In past years, games were played in the late afternoon during the round robin stages. Sort of “happy hour lacrosse” type times. As I see crowds this year that certainly look smaller than they were in years past, I wonder if the 7pm and 9pm game start times are hurting the crowds. TV time slots for these aren’t a consideration since they’re on ESPN+, and possible constraints with the venue force the league to adjust timing. But there has not been nearly as much energy and juice in the building for the night games. For families with young kids, it’s a much harder sell to be up that late, particularly for the week night games. Friday and Saturday games were much better attended. If the people has any say, getting back to starting earlier seems like an easy correction, after experimenting with the later start times. When Saturday arrived, it was a whole different animal. The Saturday games, both for me and women, were standing room only affairs. It was loud, and fans were engaged. It’s not a great mystery that a Saturday game is going to do better than a Wednesday game, but the start time matters too.
The WLL is pushing things forward in unexpected ways
A referee decision in the Maryland Charm game on day two made some waves. Alex Aust Holman cut to the front of the net, received a feed from X, and quick sticked on a shot. The shot hit defender Marge Donovan in the face. Donovan was fine, and walked off almost immediately with a thumbs up and smiling. Donovan was flagged for a thirty second penalty; she was in the crease when the shot contacted her, and it’s illegal for a defender to be in the crease unless the player they are guarding is in close proximity. Holman, because the shot hit Donovan above the knees, was given a three minute expulsion foul, meaning she was ejected from the game. Player safety rules immediately became a talking point, as one of the Charm’s top weapons and most recognized players in the sport had her night cut short on a play that seemed like something unavoidable and could just happen in the course of play. The Sixes format is one that allows for plays like this one to happen frequently, even multiple times a game, with players in those positions. Conversations caught fire after the call. Is it time to put women in helmets? More protective gear? Closer looks at the rules around shooting, given that in Sixes the ball just tends to fly around more? I won’t pretend to have the answer here, but the WLL course of play at a minimum kickstarted the conversation.
WLL games were excellent, PLL games were blowouts
The average margin of victory in the PLL games coming into Friday was NINE goals. Hard to fathom a game with such frequent scoring consistently being that one sided. The closest PLL game played entering the weekend was a three goal contest between Utah and New York, who look like the top two teams in the event. The Whips finished with a score differential approaching -30. The average WLL game margin of victory entering Friday was about two goals. Even games that looked like they might be blowouts didn’t stay that way long. The New York Charging built an early lead against California and looked like they might run away with it, but the Palms battled back with a massive run, sparked by a Taylor Moreno goalie goal. On Saturday, Maryland was playing for their postseason lives against California and it showed. The game was intense and came down to the final moments as the Charm hunted for goals to make up score differential. In some Sixes competitions in prior years, leads around five or six felt insurmountable. In the men’s game it still feels that way a bit. But with WLL games, no lead was safe.
Golden Stick doesn’t cut it
Scoring titles are great, and that’s what the Golden Stick is, but there hae been MVP worthy performances at the Championship Series that have no chance at winning the award. We already mentioned Entenmann and Moreno as goalies, not only stealing goals, but turning them into offense the other way. The Archers defensive midfield unit is a significant advantage. The group of Pederson, Bond, Maher, and Woodward can set up on defense along the arc, win a 1v1 matchup, deny two pointers, and create offense in the other direction. Denying the two, particularly against clubs like New York and Boston who seem built to rely on them, was a key for Utah’s success in the round robin and securing a bye into the final. Awards to recognize defensive effort and goalie play, which are being shown to be much more important than a scoring title, should be created to celebrate game changing players who don’t just score goals.
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