National Championship Recap: Senior Women's Team

This past week the Lacrosse Victoria Senior Women’s team competed for the Australian National Championship. After a storm delay, the team started off with a 13-8 win over Western Australia. At halftime, WA led 7-5 but Victorian MVP Bonnie Yu score eight of the next nine goals to secure the win.

In Game Two, Jess Morrison led South Australia to an 11-8 come from behind win against Victoria. Victoria’s MVP Sarah Smith and Sarah Mollison were able to hold a one goal lead against SA for the first three quarters, but SA MVP Lucina Silvestri was able to hold the Victorian offense back while Jess Morrison score three final quarter goals.

After a difficult loss to SA, the Victorian team had a shutout win over Chinese Taipei on Day 3. The Victorian team saw 11 different players score and named Lauren Hunter game MVP. The Victorian team then secured back-to-back wins on Day 3 with their 29-1 win over Queensland. The Victorians score five unanswered goals before Queensland’s Jessica Pham was able to put a goal on the board. Meg Bown, the game MVP for the Victorians, aided the Victorian offense in securing their 29-1 win.

In Game 5, the Victorians had a comprehensive game against New South Wales. The team won 31-0 and was led by Steph Kelly, who scored eight goals. With this win, the Victorians secured their spot in the Women’s Final of the 2023 LA Senior Women’s National Championship. Victoria went head-to-head with SA and ultimately lost by one. The SA team scored the first three goals within the first seven minutes of the game before Lauren Hunter was able to spark Victoria with a goal. Miriam Suares-Jury was then able to tie the game with two goals. At halftime, the SA team led 6-4 with the teams trading goals in the third quarter. Just before the end of the third quarter, Steph Kelly was able to give Victoria its first lead of the game; however, the SA team pushed back in the fourth quarter and won 10-9 over the defending champions. Bonnie Yu was named the Victorian MVP and Tayla Mangan was named SA MVP.