Munday's First Pitch: Innovation, Nuances of Sixes a Draw for U.S. Head Coach

SPARKS, Md. — It didn’t take much to pitch Lindsey Munday on sixes.

When she was announced as the coach of the U.S. Women’s Sixes National Team in April 2024, Munday was excited to immerse herself in the innovation of the small-sided discipline.

It didn’t take much to pitch Munday on something else on Tuesday night — an actual first pitch.

Invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Camden Yards during the Baltimore Orioles’ “Lacrosse Night,” Munday didn’t go into it without preparation. She bought a baseball to practice throwing it from her stick.

“I just wanted to make sure that you don’t hit the dirt,” Munday said after Thursday morning’s sixes training session at USA Lacrosse headquarters. “I had to get a couple practice reps. We ask our players to practice, so I’m going to practice.”

The practice and learnings of how the ball would leave her stick paid off, as she fired a strike alongside Maryland Whipsnakes attackman Matt Rambo (who threw with his arm). Much like she did with that first pitch, Munday is taking an open-minded, hands-on approach to learning the nuances of sixes.

Munday and her coaching staff will soon have to make final decisions for the 12-player roster that will travel to Chengdu, China, for The World Games from Aug. 7-11. Twenty-six players were invited to participate in camp this week.

“I think every time you step out on the field with sixes, you just continue to learn and grow,” she said. “There are so many nuances to it. It’s a really fast pace, but you also have to have balance. It’s not about rushing. I say you have to be fast, but not frantic.”

The substitution game is one such nuance, and Munday said she and her staff are still working on the “rules” of when and how to sub. She’s observed and studied how all sports go about it, even looking to the men’s field game for how players come out of the box. The difference in sixes, of course, is the smaller field and urgency with a shorter shot clock.

The U.S. team will certainly have the athleticism and speed to make teams pay after substitution snafus. August is typically one of the hottest months in China, so substitutions will be plentiful for each of the eight teams in the field.

If the goalies make saves like they made in camp, it will be far easier to push the pace in transition or make teams pay if they slip up.

“I think one of the Team USA superpowers is our athleticism and our speed, our quickness” Munday said. “So, we have to find those advantages and really work to push the ball because I think that's something that we do extremely well from the top down with our depth. But you don't want turnovers. And so, you have to be mindful of when to do it.”

Among the conversations Munday expects to have with her staff at the conclusion of camp is what to prioritize on the roster. A backup goalie is basically essential, she said, given the importance of how a stop or two can completely swing the momentum in sixes. And in a truncated tournament in what’s expected to be sweltering heat, it’s nice to have a backup plan in the cage.

Then it’s a matter of assembling the 10-player field group. Sixes is positionless in nature, with players needing to run shifts on both the offensive and defensive ends. The sub game can add a small layer of specialty to roster building, but Munday is simply looking for players with the capability and the drive to defend.

It’s not just going to be a roster of traditional midfielders.

“I think a lot of attackers can play defense,” Munday said. “We saw it today. You have to be able to score, you have to be able to be smart offensively and really work against a zone … if they can be ready to play both, they’re going to have a good chance to make this roster.”

With a trip to Chengdu now less than two months away, Munday is beginning to feal the heat.

“As you get closer to an event and when you have to make cuts and name a final roster, it gets real pretty fast,” Munday said. “And I think this is probably one of the, if not the, hardest rosters to make ever.”

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

Caylee Waters was the team-appointed (possibly self-appointed?) practice DJ for Thursday morning’s practice session. She received loud praise from teammates when certain songs came on in the playlist. … Waters rode the vibes to a nice scrimmage and made a highlight play by making a stop and flicking a full-field pass in stride to Emily Hawryschuk, who easily buried a goal. Munday said she wants her goalies to take calculated risks in sixes. … Speaking of calculated risks, players were skipping bounce passes and bounce shots off the turf to keep defenders and goalies honest in practice. Izzy Scane corralled one bounce pass at her hip in stride and finished in one motion. … Temperatures reached a high of 88 degrees in Sparks on Thursday, with temperatures on the turf far exceeding that. Shea Dolce was insistent on wearing sweatpants, though, as she does for every game at Boston College. … The training roster huddled with the officials after the brief scrimmage to iron out some of the nuances of how the sixes game is officiated.