Since the competition weekends were released a month ago for the Premier Lacrosse League, we’ve been trying to figure out what was going to happen with the schedule for the Maybelline Women’s Lacrosse League.
We’ve known that the four teams in the league — Boston, New York, Maryland, and California — were going to meet each other in the eight match windows which were set out for them, but we weren’t sure exactly what the format was going to be.
Five days ago, the schedule was released on social media, and, while it is admirable that there will be a WLL fixture during every PLL weekend, it’s notable that there will only be one game on every weekend.
This has several implications for the 2025 season:
- A unbalanced, balanced schedule. Each team in the WLL will be playing four games each. However, with three other opponents, there will be two games repeated in the fixture list. Boston and California will play each other twice (Week 3 in Charlotte, week 8 in Boston) and New York and Maryland meet on Week 4 on Long Island and Week 6 in Chicago.
- Present vs. absent. Because only two teams in the league will be playing each other at each of the eight regular-season sites, that means that two will not. You won’t be seeing, for example, Charlotte North and the Boston Guard playing in California on June 27th. If you’re getting a ticket for the Baltimore weekend on May 29th, you’re not seeing Izzy Scane and the New York Charging.
- Gaps in the schedule. Because the teams aren’t all playing every week like the PLL teams do, there are going to be parts of the season where a team is going to not be on the field. The Boston Guard, for instance, will have a gap of almost six weeks between the Charlotte and the Fairfield match weekends. By the same token, the New York Charging will play three consecutive weekends between the Long Island and the Chicago fixtures, then will have to wait for a month to know whether they will qualify for the title game in Chester, Pa. on August 15th.
- Roster upheaval? While each of the teams currently has about a dozen players listed on their current rosters after the waiver period, the influx of players from the college season could have an impact on the league. We’re expecting that the WPLL draft will occur about the same time that the PLL draft is, which is usually the first week of May.
You’ll notice that a lot of what the WPLL has done thus far has piggybacked on what the PLL has done, rather than playing a schedule which was not dependent on anyone else except for the women who play the games. It’s disheartening, I think, that professional women’s lacrosse has gone from the possibility of two or three games at any one match site to just one.
Now, I get the fact that the PLL has star players, name recognition, sponsors, and a vision of the game for the future. Plus, they have millions of dollars in backing and investments.
But wouldn’t it be great of the women’s league could be backed on its own merits and not be hidden like a candle under a bowl?