Intense Blue-White Game Results in Progress, Pride for U.S. Women's National Team

LAKEWOOD RANCH, Fla. — The intensity of Saturday afternoon’s Blue-White scrimmage to close the U.S. Women’s National Team training camp at the IWLCA Presidents Cup was cranked up to 11.

And that’s exactly what head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein wanted. As beads of sweat rolled down the necks of the players and the clacking of stick on stick rang throughout the stadium at Premier Sports Campus, the nearly 2,000 fans in attendance roared. The coaches tried to cut through the cheers with prideful encouragement and necessary pointers.

This training camp, after all, was about improving as a team. And that required the 30 players in attendance, all at their individual peaks as athletes, to open their minds to feedback.

If it was a test, then they passed with high marks.

“That’s why they’re the top, top, top athletes,” Walker-Weinstein said. “Because everywhere they’ve gone, every experience they’ve had, they’ve absorbed coaching, they’ve absorbed adversity, they’ve absorbed teammates with different philosophies. That’s why they are at this level. You don’t get to this level if you’re not willing to learn.”

Team Blue prevailed 15-11, though the coaches were paying closer attention to the process than the score. Friday night, just 16 hours before game time, the players found out their teams and were tasked with scheming up their own gameplans.

It was up to them to enact what they’d learned, like how offensive coordinator Kayla Treanor wants the offense to be initiated, and show the coaches they grasped team concepts.

The staff fluidly hopped between benches, coaching both teams simultaneously while walking away from the two-hour affair pleased with the results.

“We’re so excited about the progress we’re making a team,” Walker-Weinstein said. “I think it’s a very rare group of talent. So, I’m proud of them. I think we’re getting closer to our team.”

Sam Apuzzo, a captain for the weekend alongside Kenzie Kent, has continued to settle into her role as a National Team veteran. She worked hard on the draw and fought for every ball off the dry, grassy field — one that left even the whitest cleats covered in dust by the camp’s conclusion.  

By working as hard as she did, with a game face second to none on the team, Apuzzo set the tone for players coming into their own in the program.

From veterans to first-timers, the communication and coaching was the same. It created a true team atmosphere.

“It's becoming so natural at this point, which makes it so cohesive and fun to be playing with people and just having a second sense of where everyone's going to be,” Apuzzo said.

The scrimmage showcased the progress — and the level playing field.

The sides were tied at the end of both the first and second quarters before Team Blue incrementally increased its lead. Some players swapped sides in the second half and others managed their workloads in the brutally strong sun beating overhead without a cloud in the sky.

“The heat is definitely a factor, but also, we’re asking them to do a lot,” Walker-Weinstein said, alluding to three practices and a scrimmage over the course of about 48 hours. “We put a lot of systems in, so there’s a lot of thinking. There’s a physical element, a mental element.”

The next challenge is seeing how all the systems and progress translate to the next time the training team meets in January. The 2026 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship in Tokyo, Japan, inches closer each day, and Walker-Weinstein has acknowledged the daunting task it will be to trim the roster to 22.

It’s a challenge she’s up to, and a challenge she’s familiar with as an alum of the program herself. It’ll only get more intense from here.