Women’s Lacrosse U20 World Championship: China aims for play-offs after loss to Puerto Rico
Women’s Lacrosse U20 World Championship: China aims for play-offs after loss to Puerto Rico
China’s hopes of reaching the quarterfinals of the U20 Women’s Lacrosse World Championship were dashed on Monday after the team lost 11-16 to Puerto Rico in a close game at the Hong Kong Football Club.
China could still make the playoffs if Puerto Rico loses to Germany, which has yet to win a game and has conceded 66 goals in just three matches. Puerto Rico, meanwhile, is in the last eight regardless of Tuesday’s game and will be seeded fifth through eighth for the quarterfinals, which begin the next day.
For China, however, this year’s World Cup represents a step forward. They are almost certain to finish third in Group A, meaning they will play twice more to decide who finishes ninth to 12th. Five years ago in Canada, they finished the tournament in 14th place.
“I thought that’s where we would end up, we’d like to finish ninth or 10th and that’s definitely what we’re going to aim for,” said Ted Sawicki, China’s head coach.
“That would be great. It would be a great start for China Lacrosse and I think World Lacrosse would notice if we could do something like that.”
Puerto Rico took the lead in the first minute and China, ranked 14th in the world, chased the game from then on but remained within reach until the final quarter.
The Puerto Ricans won the first quarter 5-3, but lost the second 4-3. In the second half, the world number 9 pulled away and beat China 8-4.
“I think the mistakes in the first half cost us the win and we ran out of steam in the second half. They are too disciplined a team to try to catch up,” Sawicki said.
“But our girls played great. We didn’t have as many players on the bench and couldn’t react as well as they did, so that was a factor.”
