Which former and current members of the Lake Show will represent their country?
It may be the offseason, but Northwestern lacrosse is still in action. With two women’s international tournaments scheduled for the summer, former and current members of the Lake Show will have their calendars filled with playing time, whether through training camps or actual competition.
Here are some of the players and events to watch for this summer as Wildcats trade purple and white for their nation’s colors:
Pan-American Lacrosse Championship
The 2025 Pan-American Women’s Lacrosse (PALA) Championship runs from June 26 to 30 in Auburndale, Florida, and serves as a qualifier for the 2026 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship in Tokyo. The top four-placing nations in Florida will book their tickets to Japan.
Former Northwestern attacker Izzy Scane and recently-graduated (and future college basketball player) Sammy White will represent the United States in competition. Despite holding stacked resumes, neither athlete has senior national team experience. After missing the 2022 World Championships due to injury, Scane’s last international appearance for Team USA was at the 2019 U19 World Championships. Meanwhile, White has never played for the Stars and Stripes.
Rising senior attacker Madison Taylor was also named to Team USA, but had to withdraw due to a minor injury. Former goalie Delaney Sweitzer and attacker Erin Coykendall got invited to a Team USA training camp in early June and were part of the player pool considered for the PALA Championship team.
Northwestern will also be represented on Team Canada through incoming Harvard graduate transfer defender Annabel Child and former midfielder Megan Kinna. Both players are mainstays for their national team and were on the Canadian roster that took silver at the 2022 World Championships.
Other competing teams include Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and the Haudenosaunee Nationals. Having won every World Championship competition since 2009, the United States will enter Florida as the heavy favorites.
A full schedule of the 2025 PALA Championships can be found here.
World Games
While the PALA Championships will be held in the typical field lacrosse format seen in college, the 2025 World Games have Sixes lacrosse, the sport’s official format at the 2028 Olympic Games. While the competition — which takes place in Chengdu, China from Aug. 7 to 11 — doesn’t have any further qualification implications for now, it will be Team USA’s first major international Sixes competition since lacrosse’s inclusion in the Olympics was announced in 2023.
Sixes is played in a six-on-six format with 12-player rosters, unlike the traditional 11 v. 11 or 10 v. 10 format of field lacrosse. Draw controls are taken only at the start of each quarter, giving the game more of a back-and-forth pace. With fewer players on the field, positional versatility is prioritized.
Despite missing the PALA Championships, Taylor is still slated to play for Team USA at the World Games. She is one of just two current college players on the squad, with the other one being North Carolina rising redshirt sophomore attacker Chloe Humphrey. Also on the American team is Scane, who excelled on the ride defensively in college despite being an attacker. Her Sixes versatility was put on display during this February’s WLL Championship series, where she recorded six goals, one assist, three ground balls and two caused turnovers in the finals match.
Child will be playing on Canada’s Sixes roster. She was previously part of her nation’s 2022 squad that took home gold. Meanwhile, former Northwestern attacker Hannah Nielsen is suiting up for Team Australia at age 37. Despite graduating from college in 2009 and holding a head coaching job at the University of Michigan since 2017, Nielsen’s playing career is still going strong on the international stage.
Other teams competing include China, Ireland, Great Britain, Japan and the Czech Republic. Canada comes in as the defending champions, defeating the United States 14-12 in the 2022 gold medal game. The Americans should come in as prohibitive favorites this time around with a significantly stronger squad than three years ago.
For more information about the World Games, click here.
How to Watch
All international lacrosse competitions this summer will be streamed on the World Lacrosse app, which also includes full replays of each game.