2024 Women’s ELC Underway; Italia Secures First Win Over Belgium
Italy began its European Lacrosse Championship campaign this morning with a commanding 15-7 victory over Belgium. Stephanie Colson opened the scoring for Italy just two minutes and twenty seconds into the game. Despite Belgium quickly responding and taking a 3-2 lead after 18 minutes of play, Italy dominated the remainder of the match, scoring seven consecutive goals and ultimately securing the win with a final score of 15-7.
Italy outshot Belgium 28-15 and won 66% of the draws.
Key contributors for Italy included Malaena Michielin and Olivia Schmidt, each netting three goals as well as Jordan Peterson going 12/14 at the draw circle and tallying two goals and one assist.
Italy continues pool play on Saturday, July 13th taking on the Netherlands at 4:00 PM CET. As a reminder, all games are broadcasted on the ELC YouTube page HERE.
2024 European Lacrosse Championship
This event includes 10 top-20 teams from the 2022 Women’s Championship: England (3), Israel (6), Czech Republic (7), Wales (9), Scotland (10), Ireland (13), Germany (14), Netherlands (17), Italy (18), and Latvia (20). The 19 teams are among 35 member nations in the ELF.
Teams are divided into four groups for round-robin play. The top seven finishers will automatically qualify for the 2026 Women’s Championship in Japan.
After pool play, the top 12 teams will advance to the playoff bracket. Quarterfinal winners will qualify for 2026, along with the fifth to seventh place finishers in placement games.
This event is the first continental qualifier for the 2026 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship, where the top 16 women’s field lacrosse teams will compete based on these allocations by Continental Federation:
- African Association of Lacrosse: 1
- Asia Pacific Lacrosse Union: 4
- European Lacrosse Federation: 7
- Pan-American Lacrosse Association: 4
The 2026 Women’s Championship will be the first under WL’s new format, with 16 teams earning their spots through qualifying events.
