The Women's Lacrosse League (WLL; sponsor name

Maybelline Maybelline New York (formerly The Maybelline Company and Mabelline and Co.), trading as and commonly known as simply Maybelline ( ), is an American multinational cosmetics, skin care, perfume, and personal care company, based in New York City. ...

Women's Lacrosse League) is a professional

lacrosse sixes Lacrosse sixes (also known as World Lacrosse Sixes) is a version of lacrosse played outdoors with six players on each side. The game follows similar rules to traditional field lacrosse, with modifications and a shorter game time, and is conside ...

league owned and organized by the

Premier Lacrosse League The Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) is a professional field lacrosse league in the United States. The league comprises eight teams. Its inaugural season debuted on June 1, 2019, and included a 14-week tour-based schedule taking place in 12 major- ...

(PLL). It is the sole professional

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

league for women in the United States. The WLL commenced play in 2025, with four clubs competing. Its matches are broadcast domestically by

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

History

Prior to Athletes Unlimited Pro Lacrosse, two attempts at establishing a professional league for traditional

women's lacrosse Women's lacrosse (or girls' lacrosse), sometimes shortened to lax, is a field sport played at the international level with two opposing teams of ten players each (12 players per team at the U.S. domestic level). Originally played by indigenous ...

were made – the

United Women's Lacrosse League The United Women’s Lacrosse League (UWLX) was a women's lacrosse league in the United States. It was co-founded in Boston, Massachusetts, by Digit Murphy and Aronda Kirby of the Play It Forward Sports Foundation, under the ownership of Unite ...

(UWLX), and the

Women's Professional Lacrosse League The Women's Professional Lacrosse League (WPLL) was a women's lacrosse league in the United States. The league was formally composed of five teams: the Brave, Command, Fight, Fire, and Pride. The league announced on February 27, 2020, that it wou ...

(WPLL). The UWLX was established by United Women's Sports in 2016, and played three seasons before quietly disbanding. Under the leadership of former UWLX Commissioner Michele DeJuliis, the WPLL played two seasons in 2018 and 2019, before its 2020 season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States On December 31, 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20, and United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Human Services Secreta ...

, and collapsed as a result. A number of players in the WPLL would be offered contracts to play in Athletes Unlimited's non-traditional, individualized league, which commenced play in 2021. By the 2020s,

(PLL) executives were motivated to take advantage of both a growth in demand for women's sports in the U.S., and the timing of the

2028 Summer Olympics The 2028 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 2028 or LA 28, is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place July 14–30, 2028, in the United States. Los Angeles ...

in Los Angeles, where discretionary lacrosse sixes tournaments will be contested. The PLL established its "Unleashed" program in 2020, aimed at fostering women's participation in lacrosse through training camps and

exhibition game An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the playe ...

s, including the first Unleashed All-Star Game during the 2024 PLL Championship Series. The establishment of the Women's Lacrosse League was announced by PLL President

Paul Rabil Paul Rabil (born December 14, 1985) is an American Business executive, sports executive and retired professional lacrosse player. He is currently the president of the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL), which he co-founded with his brother, league CEO ...

on the November 13, 2024 broadcast of ''

Get Up Get Up may refer to: Film and television * Get Up! (film), ''Get Up!'' (film), a 2003 Japanese film directed by Kazuyuki Izutsu * Get Up (film), ''Get Up'' (film), a 2008 South Korean television film directed by Lee Jae-dong * Get Up! (TV program ...

'' on

. U.S. national team players Lizzie Colson, Ally Mastroianni, and Charlotte North, former

Northwestern Wildcats The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, located in Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and one of two private universities in the conference, the other ...

midfielder Izzy Scane, and Athletes Unlimited assistant coach Alex Aust Holman, were also simultaneously unveiled as the league's first five signings. All but Colson were later appointed

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

s of each of the four charter clubs: the Boston Guard, California Palms, Maryland Charm, and New York Charging – the brandings of which were unveiled on a December 10 broadcast of ESPN's ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande, Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...

''. In the same month, Athletes Unlimited announced the suspension of its lacrosse activities, leaving the WLL as the sole professional lacrosse league for women.

Format and rules

The

format is used for games in the Women's Lacrosse League, which feature six-on-six teams, smaller fields, and shorter time periods than

. There are no specialized roles in sixes, and thus no qualifying designations for ''attackers'' and ''defenders''. Sixes also features thirty-second

shot clock A shot clock is a countdown timer used in a variety of games and sports, indicating a set amount of time that a team may possess the object of play before attempting to score a goal. Shot clocks are used in several sports including basketball, w ...

s and quick restarts initiated by the

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

. The league's season begins with the annual WLL Championship Series, which takes place concurrently with the PLL Championship Series in February. The format of the league's full season is yet to be determined, though a series of tournaments similar to the WLL Championship Series held throughout the year is being considered.

Organization

The Women's Lacrosse League is a wholly owned

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

of the

. Courtney Ellis serves as the league's

operations director The role of operations director generally encompasses the oversight of operational aspects of company strategy with responsibilities to ensure operation information is supplied to the chief executive and the board of directors as well as external ...

through her role as the PLL's director of women's growth, while Rachel DeCecco serves as its

sporting director A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The ...

through her role as the PLL's vice president of lacrosse.

Teams

The Women's Lacrosse League consists of four clubs: the Boston Guard, captained by Charlotte North; the California Palms, captained by Ally Mastroianni; the Maryland Charm, captained by Alex Aust Holman; and the New York Charging, captained by Izzy Scane. The league chose the markets for their four charter franchises based on local television viewership for lacrosse, the size of the local fandom for women's lacrosse, and the success of the PLL clubs that share the markets. Official home grounds for the four teams are yet to be determined.

Results

Broadcasting and sponsorship

hold the domestic broadcasting rights to the Women's Lacrosse League in the United States, airing some matches on its

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...

channel, while also

livestreaming Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming of video or audio in real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as ''streaming'', the real-time nature of livestreaming differentiates it from other non- liv ...

all the league's matches on

ESPN+ ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...

. The league's primary sponsors are

Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota, Toyota Motor Corporation. The Lexus brand is marketed in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. It has ranked amon ...

and

Whirlpool A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms ( ). ''Vo ...

, while

holds the

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

to the league and the WLL Championship Series, as the "Maybelline Women's Lacrosse League" and "Maybelline Championship Series", respectively.

References

External links

Official website
{{Major women's sport leagues in North America 2024 establishments in the United States Lacrosse leagues in the United States Professional sports leagues in the United States Sports leagues established in 2024 Women's sports leagues in the United States