The U.S. Women’s Sixes National Team could not have drawn up a better debut than what it demonstrated Thursday at The World Games 2025 in Chengdu, China.
The United States averaged a goal per minute in a 32-11 victory over Ireland to open the lacrosse competition, part of a massive multi-sport spectacle orchestrated by the International World Games Association.
Ellie Masera racked up six goals and three assists to lead the onslaught. She’s the lone player on the U.S. team who also played at The World Games 2022 in Birmingham, Alabama, where the Americans settled for a silver medal.
They looked much more the part of a gold medal contender Thursday. In addition to Masera’s exploits, Charlotte North and Marie McCool scored five goals apiece.
North, who also had three assists, scored two goals in the first minute to set the tone. Izzy Scane buried another one 56 seconds later as the United States flexed its offensive muscle early.
The U.S. led 12-2 after the first quarter and 20-6 at halftime, shooting a blistering 80 percent (20-for-25) from the field in the first half.
The team features four players who have combined to win six Tewaaraton Awards, including the last five.
Scane and North, both two-time recipients of the top individual honor in collegiate lacrosse, rank first and second in NCAA Division I history with 376 and 358 career goals, respectively. There’s also Sam Apuzzo and Chloe Humphrey, who took home the honor as a freshman at North Carolina this year.
With that much offensive talent, the Americans were able to score in a variety of ways. Fast breaks, settled 6v6, in close and from distance — no matter the setup, the result was almost always the same. Fifteen goals were assisted, and every field player registered multiple points.
U.S. goalies Shea Dolce and Taylor Moreno also were sharp, combining to make 15 saves (58 percent) as they split halves.
There were familiar names on Ireland’s side, most notably collegiate All-Americans Gabby Rosenzweig (two goals, three assists) and Mairead Durkin (two goals, one assist). The Irish committed 15 turnovers, however, compared to just three for the U.S. Apuzzo contributed defensively with three caused turnovers.
The United States will continue pool play Friday against Australia at 10:30 a.m. local time (Thursday 10:30 p.m. Eastern time in the U.S.). All games are being streamed live at live.theworldgames.org.
The World Games are held every four years and feature sports that are not contested in the Olympic Games. The International World Games Association added lacrosse to the event in 2017 with the traditional women’s field discipline in Poland.
World Lacrosse developed the sixes discipline — a rapid-fire 6v6 version of the sport played on a shortened field with eight-minute quarters — in 2020 and debuted it internationally with men’s and women’s competitions at The World Games 2022 in Birmingham, Alabama.
The International Olympic Committee took notice, granting lacrosse full recognition in 2021 and two years later approving the sport’s inclusion in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Day 1 Scores
United States 32, Ireland 11
Canada 20, Japan 5
Australia 23, Czechia 10
Great Britain 24, China 2
