On a day of upsets at the Nissin Foods World Lacrosse Women’s Championship, the United States kept rolling with a 23-4 victory over Puerto Rico in the quarterfinal round in Tokyo.
In the first set of quarterfinals, the Haudenosaunee Nationals and Israel each posted upsets to reach the semifinal round for the first time ever. The Haudenosaunee Nationals scored four goals in the fourth quarter to rally past England 10-9 on Avery Doran’s goal with five seconds remaining. Israel held off two-time world champion Australia 12-11 behind four goals from Hanna Hilcoff.
Host Japan also had an upset on its mind, but Aurora Cordingley scored an overtime goal to lift Canada, the silver medalist at the last three world championships, past Japan 5-4.
The United States had no such drama, scoring the first eight goals of the game and led wire-to-wire to move on to the semifinals. For the fourth straight game, the U.S. had at least 12 goal scorers with Emma LoPinto (4g, 3a) and Sam Apuzzo (4g, 1a) leading the way. Also contributing multiple goals were Brigid Duffy (2g), Chloe Humphrey (2g, 3a), Kenzie Kent (2g) Eliza Osburn (2g, 2a) and Madison Taylor (2g, 3a).
U.S. goalies Shea Dolce and Caylee Waters combined to make eight saves while allowing just the four goals.
The U.S. has now won 34 consecutive games in world championship play at the senior team level in women’s lacrosse, dating back to a win over England in the opening game of the 2009 world championship in the Czech Republic.
The U.S. will meet Israel in Friday’s second semifinal. It will be just the second meeting between the two countries in women’s field lacrosse at the senior team level. The U.S. defeated Israel 20-3 in the 2017 world championship.
Wednesday’s Quarterfinals
Canada 5, Japan 4 (OT)
Haudenosaunee Nationals 10, England 9
Israel 12, Australia 11
United States 23, Puerto Rico 4
Friday’s Semifinals
4 pm (local): Canada vs Haudenosaunee Nationals
7 pm (local): United States vs Israel
