Under 18 National Champions!

Mens Campaign
Our Victorian Men have completed the double at the 2023 U18 Australian National Championship reclaiming the title, its 24th, with a stout 10 – 8 win over Western Australia.

Game 1
Victoria opened their account at the U18 Men's Australian National Championship, overcoming a phsical New Zealand side. Victoria were challenged early but the class of their offence came to the fore as Victoria scored frequently with Gus Ratje and Jake Mannix each scoring hattricks while Keiran Snape and Ben Cowen played fantastic for New Zealand.

Congratulations to Angus Fluker on earning MVP honours!
Goal Scorers: Jake Mannix 3, Gus Ratje 3, Angus Menzie 2, Kobe Cook 2, Toby Templeton 2, Christian McKenzie 2 & Liam Barnes.

Game 2
Victoria set up a Victoria-Western Australia final, after winning a pulsating and entertaining clash on Day 2. South Australia fell victim to another slow start as Victoria raced to a 4 – 1 quarter time lead before South Australia started to find the back of the net, scoring 4 of 6 goals before the half to cut the margin to 6 – 4 at the main break. Toby Templeton extended the lead in the third with a double for Victoria and a fortuitous goal to Tahu Roordink would prove to be pivotal as Victoria established a matchwinning break. South Australia tried to cut the margin but would get no closer then 3 goals with Victoria claiming a big win.

Congratulations to Christian Iuliano on earing MVP honours!
Goal Scorers: Jake Mannix 3, Toby Templeton 2, Liam Barnes, John Cahill, Angus Menzies, Gus Ratje & Tahu Roordink.

Game 3
Our young men put on a classy display in the final of the qualifying rounds against a high calibre Western Australian team. Lead by Toby Templeton, Victoria jumped to a 5-2 lead going in to the half time break. It was much of the same in the second half, as we piled on another six goals to three to claim a 11-5 victory in what was a truly impressive team performance. This set up a thrilling rematch against Western Australia for the title of National Champions.

Congratulations to Toby Templeton on earning MVP honours!
Goal Scorers: John Cahill 2, Josh Gordon 2, Liam Barnes, Kobe Cook, Christian Iuliano, Jake Mannix, Christian McKenzie, Angus Menzies & Toby Templeton

National Championship
On a sunny and warm Perth today, a bumper crowd greeting both sides in the deciding game as Charlie Clarke got the day underway perfectly for the hosts, spotting WA an early 1 – 0 lead. Victoria however responded with 3 of the next 4 goals with Jake Mannix in particular a standout early as Victoria went into the first break leading 3 – 2. The second quarter would prove to be decisive as Victoria put the foot down as Mannix opened the scoring before goals to Toby Templeton and Angus Menzies extended the margin to 4. Western Australia had their chances to try and cut the margin but Teddy Friend, who would finish with 11 saves, was huge turning away a number of Western Australia forays while Christian Iuliano put the exclamation point on a dominant and match defining quarter to see Victoria lead 7 – 2 heading into the sheds.

Victoria was in complete control of this game and that momentum continued into the third with Josh Gordon unleashing a laser from the top to extend the margin to 6. The game then turned into a defensive tussle with the goals drying up for nearly 10 minutes as Friend and Matt Borserini made a number of saves. It wasn’t until Charlie Clarke scored WA’s third goal of the game that the grind was broken. Victoria however answered with a vengeance as Mannix scored his third on a pretty cut and finish before adding his fourth only a minute later with some shake ‘n bake from behind to make it 10 – 3 at the final change. If WA were to stand a chance, they needed to score early and Clarke came up with the goods inside the first 30 seconds. Victoria managed to chew some clock but couldn’t find the back of the net. With 7 minutes left WA then had the margin back at 5 when Lachlan Wills found a cutting Brayden Hogan. Clarke then took over, scoring his 3rd on a nice sweep, his 4th on a back roll and his 5th on a nice bounce shot from outside. Those 3 goals in 3 minutes cut the margin to 3 with 4 minutes left. WA back into offence but couldn’t capitialise and Victoria ate up the clock with some solid offence. Clarke would add his 6th but it would be too little too late for WA, who ran out of time as Victoria would hold on, winning 10 – 8. For Victoria, John Cahill was MVP while Charlie Clarke was an easy choice for WA MVP.

Congratulations to John Cahill on earing MVP honours!
Goal Scorers: Jake Mannix 4, John Cahill 2, Kobe Cook, Angus Menzies, Tahu Roordink & Toby Templeton

Womens Campaign
Our Victoria Women have also claimed their second U18 title in succession, and 22nd overall, using a blistering first half to withstand a feverish South Australian comeback to prevail in a thriller to close the 2023 U18 Australian Women’s National Championship.

Game 1
Both sides traded goals in an entertaining first half, with South Australia leading 7 - 5 at the first change as an even spread of goal scorers from Victoria kept them in touch with the Mia Inge led SA.

The third quarter though proved decisive with SA scoring 6 of the next 7 goals to extend their lead to 7 as Lia Kaesler took over with South Australia unchallenged for the remaineder of the game, winning 17 - 7.

Congratulations to Ruby Pagliaro on earning MVP honours!
Goal Scorers: Ebony Norman 2, Tara Gilmartin, Abbey Burns, Rhyannon Bergin, Lily Harris & Trinity Meachem

Game 2
Victoria bounced back in absolutely dominate fashion, defeating Western Australia 24-4 on Day 2.

Mim Suares-Jury, Ebony Norman and Rhyannon Bergin were electric all day as Western Australia were unable to slow the flow of goals with a 12 - 4 half time score, swelling to a 20 goal margin at the final whistle.

Congratulations to Mim Suares-Jury on earning MVP honours!

Goal Scorers: Rhyannon Bergin 7, Ebony Norman 6, Lily Harris 5, Mim Suares-Jury 4, Abbey Burns & Georgia Flloyd

Game 3
Our ladies continued their strong form with a convincing win over New Zealand’s Waikato team. The Victorians bolted out to a 8-2 lead at half time which proved unassailable for the kiwi girls as Greta Murphy lead the team to a 11-4 victory.

Congratulations to Greta Murphy on earning MVP honours!
Goal Scorers: Ebony Norman 3, Mim Suares-Jury 2, Abbey Burns 2, Rhyannon Bergin 2, Lily Harris & Trinity Meachem.

Game 4
Victoria pulled away from a determined Auckland winning a high scoring shootout 15 – 12 to finish their qualifying campaign.

Auckland opened the scoring with Isabelle Vrenson got on the board but Victoria soon replied with Ebony Norman prominent with 2 first quarter goals as the sides continued to trade blows for a 4 – 4 quarter time score. The arm wrestle them continued in the second with Auckland taking advantage of a Victorian yellow card to tie the game at the half with Areetha Unnrikrishnan getting into the act for Auckland while Lily Harris bought up her hattrick.

The second half continued where the first left off with Auckland momentarily taking the lead before Victoria nosed ahead at the final change. That is where MVP Ebony Norman proved the difference, with 3 goals in 4 minutes spotting Victoria some breathing room as a late goal to Rhyannon Bergin proved the clincher as Victoria wrapped up pool play with 3 wins and 1 loss whilst Auckland move to 0 – 3 ahead of this afternoon’s game against Western Australia.

Congratulations to Ebony Norman on earning MVP honours!

Goal Scorers: Ebony Norman 6, Lily Harris 4, Rhyannon Bergin 3, Abbey Burns & Greta Murphy.

National Championship
In a battle of the heavyweights, two proud Women’s Lacrosse powerhouses, it was Victoria that seized the early ascendency with Rhyannon Bergin opening the scoring before Victoria got their second off the back of an errant South Australian pass which found its way into the SA net. South Australia rebounded briefly with Ashlyn May opening the SA account but the remainder of the first quarter belonged to Victoria who scored 3 unanswered in response to take a 5 – 1 lead into quarter time. The second quarter started well for the Reds when Lily Hayes scored from a free position but Abbey Burns got that back a few minutes later to push the margin to 6 – 2. Mim Suarez-Jury and Bergin then added 2 more in quick succession as the led ballooned to 8 – 2 where it would stay heading into half time.

South Australia came out of the sheds with some renewed vigour and Mia Inge cut the margin to 5. India Kapeller then found herself free on the bottom corner and SA had the opened goal. The SA defence had enjoyed a staller quarter but the resistance was eventually ended when Ebony Norman bought up her hattrick with 2 minutes left to give Victoria some breathing room. Bergin then bought up her hattrick a minute later to make it 10 – 4 but SA had one more left in then and Kelsea Lawson defied the final whistle to make it 10 – 5 at the last change. That set the scene for a thrilling last quarter and it was Lilly Witty who finished off a nice May feed to cut the margin to 4. May was enjoying a great last quarter and she then finished one herself a minute later to make it 10 – 7. SA had all the momentum at this point and some late Victorian yellows were making things nervy. If the crowd weren’t already on the edge of their seat by that stage, they surely were when Kelsea Lawson cut the margin to 2. Inge then had the margin at only 1 goal when Inge scored a beautiful low shot from distance and it was game on. SA continued to press to equalise but it was there that Jess Stone and the Victorian defence stood up, resisting a number of last minute attempts by SA to force sudden victory, with a Jess Stone save with 10 seconds left the match winner as Victoria hung on for the famous win.

Congratulations to Jess Stone on earnining MVP honours!

Congratulations to both our teams on their remarkable campaigns! The future of Victorian Lacrosse is extremely bright.