Team movement up and down divisions in the Western Women's Lacrosse League is the theme while the WWLL prepares for the Spring 2026 season. The WWLL has reorganized their D1 teams into a Premier Division with the nine top teams. Each team in Premier will play every team in the division for standings. Division Two will again feature North, Central and South conferences. North has eight teams, Central has six teams and South has five teams. Three more teams are waiting in the wings in the WWLL Provisional Team Division for full membership in D2 for Spring 2027.  

The top six Premier Division teams will qualify for WWLL play-offs based on standings. It cleans up the post-season selection committee having to consider at-large candidates who haven't played each other. Still, though, D2 is so big with 19 teams that the selection committee will have work there awarding five at-large spots, possibly among teams that haven't played each other.

The top team in each D2 conference will receive an automatic qualifier spot in the WWLL Post-Season Tournament. Another five teams will be selected at-large for a total of eight D2 play-off teams. The winner of a quarterfinal, semifinal and first place format bracket for each division will be awarded an automatic qualifier spot in the WCLA National Championship Tournament.  

Overall, the WWLL has thirty-one member teams with twenty-six teams in California, four teams in Arizona and one team in Nevada.  Complete division placements and contact information for each team are here on the WWLL website.

 

Wichita, Kansas — It was a game worthy of a national championship.

A tightly contested, high-intensity matchup between two teams with incredible stakes on the line. Fittingly, the well-played contest required overtime to decide a winner.

In the end, the hero was Boston College’s Ally Maguire, who scored unassisted 36 seconds into the extra session to lift the Eagles to an 8-7 victory over UCLA to win the USA Lacrosse WCLA Division I national championship.

Boston College (14-3) claimed its third title in the last four years after also winning the crown in 2022 and 2023.

Maguire, a junior midfielder, won the draw to start overtime, passed the ball ahead, then got it back at the top of the 12-meter arc once BC started its settled offense with an extra-player advantage.

“I was open, caught the pass and knew we could finish the game and win right there,” said Maguire, who dodged left and worked to goal. “I just took a shot and scored. I saw the ball go in, but I don’t remember much besides that.”

Maguire, named the tournament’s most outstanding player, finished with a game-high three goals in addition to handling BC’s draw duties for most of the game. Every possession was critical, none more so than the last one.

“Every draw was so important, and we happened to win that last one,” said Maguire, a freshman on the 2023 championship team. “UCLA is such a good team. We just put it all out there and fought hard all game. It was a fight to the end.”

Boston College entered this year’s tournament as the No. 5 seed, a sharp contrast to 2022 and 2023 when it went back-to-back as the top seed. The Eagles leveraged this year’s underdog position to their benefit.

“This year’s journey was so much different, especially as the lowest seed in the final four,” All-American goalie and team captain Finley Collins said. “We had to work every single game just to get here. We really had nothing to lose and just put it all out there.”

Other than the final shot, BC only had the lead for four minutes all game, taking a one goal advantage late in the third quarter on Kate Donovan’s second goal of the contest. UCLA then knotted the score at 7 on Caroline Underwood’s free-position goal at 12:32 of the fourth quarter.

Both teams had several possessions down the stretch to push across a go-ahead score, but the defenses and the goalies were equal to the task. UCLA’s Kate Ruiz was brilliant for the Bruins, finishing with 10 saves.

Playing her final game as BC’s four-year starter in cage, Collins was equally outstanding, finishing with 10 saves.

“I knew I needed to make some big stops in the second half for us to have a chance to win,” Collins said. “It was kind of back and forth, goalie for goalie.”

As last year’s champion, UCLA finished one goal shy of becoming just the fourth back-to-back champion in WCLA history. The Bruins finish 16-1 on the year and have a 33-2 record over the past two seasons.

With the win, Boston College improved to 3-1 all-time in WCLA championship games and won the first overtime final since Colorado State’s victory in 2008. The 15 combined goals was the third-lowest scoring championship game in the tournament’s 25-year history.

None of that mattered to the Eagles as they celebrated.

“All these girls love playing for each other,” Collins said. “It’s a really special team.”

In the third place game, attackers Kayleigh Page and Mia Pisani both tallied four goals and two assists each to lead Georgia past Clemson 20-10 in a matchup of SWLL rivals. The Bulldogs beat the Tigers for the third time this season and finished the year with a 17-1 record.

Lacrosse Specialties, Here We Flo, Powell Lacrosse, Gatorade, and GoLive Sports were official event sponsors for the 2025 USA Lacrosse WCLA Championships, with local support provided by Wichita Youth Lacrosse, Visit Wichita, and Chicken N Pickle of Wichita. In addition, STX provided support for the Elevate 28 youth clinic.