Women’s lacrosse just got its own professional league, and it’s backed by the biggest name in the sport. The WLL — Women’s Lacrosse League — dropped on November 13, 2024, announced by PLL President Paul Rabil live on ESPN’s Get Up. Four teams. A championship weekend. And a direct pipeline to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where Lacrosse Sixes makes its debut on the biggest stage in sports. Year One is real, and the talent assembled for this thing is genuinely absurd.
Before you write this off as a weekend showcase, understand what’s actually happening here: the WLL is a wholly owned PLL subsidiary running the Lacrosse Sixes format — six-on-six, built for speed, built for TV, built for the casual sports fan who hasn’t watched lacrosse since college. And every player on every roster is auditioning for Team USA (and beyond) in front of Olympic selectors. The stakes are not theoretical.
Boston Guard — Charlotte North’s Team to Beat
If you’ve watched women’s lacrosse at any point in the last five years, you know Charlotte North. The Boston College standout has been the most physically dominant player in the college game, and now she’s carrying the Boston Guard into the inaugural WLL season as team captain. Boston enters as arguably the most recognizable brand in this league from day one — North’s star power alone guarantees eyeballs. The question isn’t whether Boston will be competitive. The question is whether anyone can slow down a 6v6 offense built around one of the best players alive.
New York Charging — Izzy Scane and the Weight of History
Izzy Scane holds the all-time NCAA scoring record at Northwestern. That sentence alone should tell you everything you need to know about what New York is bringing. Scane doesn’t just score — she breaks records that were already considered unreachable. As captain of the Charging, she’s the player opponents will game-plan against first. The Sixes format theoretically spreads the floor and opens space, but Scane has spent her entire career finding the net regardless of what defenses throw at her. New York is a real contender, full stop.
Maryland Charm — Alex Aust Holman Brings the Pedigree
The Maryland Charm are captained by Alex Aust Holman, one of the most decorated attackers to come out of the college game. Maryland lacrosse culture runs deep — this isn’t a fanbase that needs to be educated on what excellence looks like — and Aust Holman is the exact kind of player who turns a brand-new franchise into something worth following immediately. If the Charm develop a cohesive identity around her playmaking, they’re dangerous. This is a team that could surprise people who sleep on them.
California Palms — Ally Mastroianni and the West Coast Wildcard
The California Palms are the league’s wildcard, captained by Ally Mastroianni. There’s real intrigue here — the West Coast doesn’t have a deep professional women’s lacrosse footprint yet, which means the Palms have both the most to prove and the most to gain. Mastroianni has the credentials to lead, and a team built around California could become the league’s signature franchise if they win early. Every league needs a team people love and a team people root against. The Palms have a real shot at being both.
Why This Actually Matters
Here’s the honest take on Year One: this is a new league, and new leagues are fragile. The WLL has everything going for it — elite talent, PLL infrastructure, media access — but a Championship Series weekend format is not a full season. There’s no margin for error in terms of putting on a good show, and 6v6 lacrosse, however electric it plays, is still an unfamiliar product for most fans. The league needs wins on the broadcast side as badly as the players need wins on the field.
But here’s the part that cuts through all the uncertainty: those 2028 Olympics aren’t going anywhere. Every player in this league knows the timeline. Lacrosse Sixes on the Olympic program means the WLL is, functionally, the proving ground for who represents their country in Los Angeles. That context changes everything about how you watch these games. Charlotte North, Izzy Scane, Alex Aust Holman, Ally Mastroianni — they’re not just playing for a league title. They’re playing for something much bigger.
The WLL Championship Series runs February 11–17, 2025 in Springfield, VA. Four teams. Six-on-six. Olympic stakes. Pay attention.