Wilc 2015: World Indoors Underway

What a year for lacrosse fans. The Rush capped off the National Lacrosse season with the franchise’s first championship before pulling up stakes and heading for Saskatchewan to try to defend their title. Then we saw a summer of Canadian summer lacrosse that capped off with the Akwesasne Indians winning the Founders Cup, Six Nations Arrows winning the Minto Cup, Six Nations Rivermen taking the Presidents Cup and just three days ago the Victoria Shamrocks ending the western drought by capturing the Mann Cup.

Now the season that just doesn’t stop will keep rolling this week with the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships kicking off Friday at Onondaga Nation in upstate New York. The first game highlights the changes the tournament sees in 2015 with a pair of first-time participants facing off at 9:30 in the Onondaga Arena as Israel faces Serbia.

The opening ceremony goes at 7 pm Friday in the War  Memorial Arena followed by the first game featuring main medal contenders as the United States and Iroquois Nationals go at it.

Canada, which has won the gold medal in all three world championships and is the prohibitive favourite to continue that streak, doesn’t get into game action until Sunday when they take on the three-time silver medalist Iroquois in a 5 pm start at the War Memorial Arena.

The Canadian squad will see some bitter and recent rivals as opponents in the Mann Cup team up. Peterborough Lakers Adam Jones, Curtis Dickson, Shawn Evans and Matt Vinc wil team up with Victoria Shamrocks Dan Dawson, Ryan Dilks, Steve Priolo and Aaron Bold. 

There will be plenty of interesting action with six teams taking part for the first time: Finland, Germany, Israel, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey.

Follow IL Indoor for the best coverage of the tournament. By Stephen Stamp for Inside Lacrosse. Photo by Larry Palumbo.