The WLL’s inaugural Championship Series is over. Boston Guard took the trophy. New York Charging went home empty-handed. Maryland and California spent the weekend reminding everyone they exist. Now the real work starts — and Year Two isn’t going to forgive the same mistakes.
The 2026 season is the first full WLL season with a real schedule and playoffs, which means the gap between a championship contender and a development project is about to get very obvious, very fast. Here’s what each team needs to address before that first whistle.
Boston Guard: Defend the Crown Without Getting Comfortable
Charlotte North and the Guard did exactly what a franchise with a marquee captain is supposed to do: they won. Beating New York 22-17 in the final wasn’t a fluke — it was a performance built on North’s ability to control the pace of a Sixes game in a way that makes defenders look like they’re playing a different sport.
But championships make teams complacent, and the WLL’s compressed format punishes roster thin-ness quickly. Boston’s biggest offseason question isn’t whether North can carry them again — she can. It’s whether the players around her are deep enough to absorb the physical demands of a full season where opponents have had twelve months to scheme specifically against how the Guard attacks.
In a 6v6 format, one or two role players who can’t execute under pressure becomes a liability that no single star can paper over. Boston needs to add depth that can hold up when North is being doubled and the shot clock is running down. If they just show up expecting the trophy to defend itself, New York will remind them why that’s a losing plan.
New York Charging: Izzy Scane Has Nothing Left to Prove — Now Win the Team Game
Let’s be clear: losing 22-17 in the championship final is not a referendum on Izzy Scane. The all-time NCAA scoring record holder at Northwestern is one of the most dangerous offensive players in the women’s game, full stop. The Charging built their identity around that correctly.
The problem in Sixes isn’t individual talent — it’s the system around it. The Championship Series revealed that New York can generate offense but struggled to protect leads and convert when it mattered most in the final. That’s a team problem, not a Scane problem.
Coming back from a final loss with the same roster and the same habits is how you become a perennial runner-up. The Charging need to solve their defensive communication issues, build chemistry in the transition game, and find players who make Scane’s life easier rather than just watching her work. This roster has championship ceiling. The ceiling means nothing if the floor keeps cracking in big moments.
Maryland Charm: Alex Aust Holman Deserves Real Pieces Around Her
Year Two is when the “we’re building something” grace period expires. The Charm can’t run that play anymore. Alex Aust Holman is one of the most technically complete players in the WLL — she’s a legitimate captain, a legitimate threat, and the kind of player who makes a franchise credible the moment she steps on the field.
The issue is that Aust Holman has spent too much of her early WLL career being the answer to every question Maryland has. That is not sustainable in a full season format. In Sixes, spacing and movement depend on every player reading the game at a high level — you cannot have one person doing the creative thinking for an entire unit.
Maryland’s offseason priority should be simple: find her a partner. Someone who draws defensive attention, who can operate in tight windows, and who makes the Charm a two-threat problem instead of a one-woman show with support staff. Aust Holman has earned the right to have real help. The front office needs to deliver it.
California Palms: Time to Decide What Kind of Team You Actually Are
Ally Mastroianni is a legitimate WLL captain and the Palms are not without talent. But heading into Year Two, California has an identity problem that roster tweaks alone won’t fix. The Championship Series left the Palms looking like a team that hadn’t fully figured out what they were trying to do in the Sixes format — and that’s the kind of thing that festers when you move to a full season schedule with no place to hide.
The Sixes game rewards teams that have committed to a coherent style — aggressive transition, disciplined possession, or systematic pressure. The Palms need to pick one and build around it before training camp, not discover it mid-season. Mastroianni is capable of leading this team somewhere real, but she needs a coaching staff and front office willing to make a firm bet on an identity.
Another development year is not an option they can afford. The rest of the league is not standing still, and by the time the 2028 Olympics conversation heats up — WLL players are very much auditioning for those LA rosters — the Palms need to be in the contender conversation, not still sorting out their roster philosophy.
The Bigger Picture: Year Two Is When the WLL Gets Real
Paul Rabil announced this league on ESPN Get Up in November 2024 and six months later there was a champion. That’s a fast build. The 2025 Championship Series was proof of concept — four teams, a weekend of games, a trophy presented. What it wasn’t was a stress test.
A full 2026 season changes everything. Fatigue is real. Injuries are real. Chemistry built over a weekend dissolves under the grind of an actual schedule. The teams that invested in their rosters this offseason — not just their stars, but their depth, their systems, their coaching — are the ones that will still be playing meaningful games at the end of the year.
Boston Guard is the standard. Every other team in this league should be spending this offseason figuring out exactly how they’re going to knock them off it.