Yesterday, in the first half of the Women’s Lacrosse League’s championship series final, there was an incident (or, more accurately, a series of incidents) which is destined to be talked about, and written about, ad nauseum.
The 12 seconds of footage on the Web are likely to be scrutinized by many people and interests within the sport. So, why start now? Well, it is something we haven’t seen before.
Let’s give this some context. This is the WLL Championship Series, which is a weeklong series of Sixes games played on a shorter and narrower pitch than most of the players are used to. The teams were the California Palms, the top seed in the league, and the New York Charging, the No. 2 seed.
There were fewer than two minutes left in the first half, with New York holding a 9-7 lead over the Palms. A groundball was available just outside the two-point arc in the Palms’ attack end, about seven yards from the sideline in front of the Palms’ bench.
Two Palms players, Ellie Masera and Jill Smith, converged on the ball. Smith picked up the ball and was pursued by Kendall Halpern of New York. Smith stopped, and both Halpern and Masera had to react. Both went to ground, with Masera running into Smith, dislodging the ball. A flag came down on the play.
Masera, a member of the U.S. World Games gold-medal Sixes team, attempted a ground-ball pickup by slashing at the turf to bounce the ball up for a pickup, but missed. Smith got the pickup, whereupon she was engaged by Halpern. Halpern attempted a check which appeared to hit Smith on the head. A second flag was dropped on the turf.
Smith crouched for a brief moment, holding her ponytail. But hearing no whistle, Smith played on and Halpern went after the ball within a step of the sideline.
At the same time, head coach Maddy Buss of the Palms had stepped to within a yard of the sideline. As Smith rolled away, Halpern found herself being pushed to the ground by Buss, who had stepped onto the pitch. Halpern, for her part, rolled over and could be seen laughing.
Several penalties were called, including a two-minute misconduct on the Palms bench.
“I almost thought I was grabbing Jill [Smith], and I just think with all the sticks flying it was about to get really out of hand and I just wanted it to stop,” Buss said. “But a coach cannot go on the field, so I apologized to Kendall after and hugged it out and everyone’s OK.”
The WLL is the fourth iteration of professional women’s lacrosse since 2016, and we haven’t seen anything like this in terms of aggression and physicality.
The fact that the format is Sixes (rather than full-field) is a factor in this. But you also need the perspective of the physicality of lacrosse the last decade. Since the UWLX began play in 2016, I’ve noticed one thread running through the sport’s pro history: the umpires tend to let the players decide the game.
I remember seeing one particular incident in the opening season of the UWLX in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. On the play attacker Kara Mupo of the Philadelphia Force was absolutely decked in the fan by a Baltimore Ride defender. No penalty; play on.
This kind of chaotic event, regrettably, is going to add to the calls to put mandatory helmets on players.
Instead, these self-appointed do-gooders need to concentrate on umpire training and coaching. The game — especially Sixes — is faster than ever before and requires an advanced level of control to enhance player safety.