(Inside Lacrosse Photo: Michael Clark)
CHESTER, Pa. — The Maryland Charm claimed the first-ever Women’s Lacrosse League Championship, 16-13, against the California Palms inside Subaru Park on Saturday.
Sydni Black was snatching ankles en route to Championship MVP honors, scoring four goals for a game-high five points, but she certainly wasn't alone in the title triumph. Cassidy Spilis and Alex Aust Holman notched key hat tricks with precise interior finishing, Livy Rosenzweig had 13 draw controls (including 10 of the first 16) with a goal and goalie tandem Caylee Waters and Jenika Cuocco both made 8 saves to anchor a defensive effort that limited the Palms to their lowest goal total all summer.
THE @wllcharm WIN THE FIRST-EVER WLL CHAMPIONSHIP!! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/uuZuk6QHVg
— ILWomen (@ILWomen) August 15, 2026“I mean, it’s history books right there,” Black told ILWomen postgame when asked what it meant to win the league’s first full-season title. “I think it’s amazing to go down in history as the first champions. A game on ESPN and an amazing crowd with fans, it’s something we’ll never forget and hopefully little girls watching get inspired to continue dreaming big.”
Black’s night was unmistakably incredible, with each of her four scores getting better than the last. Her first-half hat trick was eye-popping matched up against one of the best defenders in the world in California’s Emily Nalls, but her fourth was the highlight of the game.
With a jab left and dart right underneath, Black sent Nalls to the grass and finished a bouncer past Taylor Moreno (15 saves) to make it 11-9 in the third quarter.
— Inside Lacrosse (@Inside_Lacrosse) August 15, 2026“That’s the beauty of this team,” Black said. “There’s no ‘Ok Ally [Kennedy] has to step up here’ or ‘Alex [Holman] has to step up right now.’ There was a calmness for all of us because when you’re playing next to the World MVP, a two-time Tewaaraton winner, national champions, you have a lot less pressure on you personally.”
While there was less pressure on Black, that also meant there was less help for her on-ball matchup in support and the former Loyola star took full advantage.
“So just having each other’s backs, we knew we were going to get it done,” Black said. “All day I was visualizing holding that trophy with my teammates.”
With Boston and New York taking home the first two pieces of WLL silverware, Maryland turned their fortunes around from the team who finished last in both Championship Series sixes tournaments to the one hoisting the trophy on Saturday.
“It’s been a long road, but each person did their part and at the end of the day that’s all we can ask for,” Charm coach and general manager Emily Parros said. “That’s how you build really good team culture. And it’s just the beginning for us.”
It was a wonderful display of women’s lacrosse at the highest level as the Charm stormed out of the gates en route to a 9-4 first-half advantage, the Palms battled all the way back at 9-9, then Charm regained control, weathered a late flurry and pulled away for good.
For California, who sported the league’s best scoring offense and defense through four games this summer, the loss meant a second-straight defeat at the final hurdle after falling to the Charging in the Champ Series title game in March.
“It’s tough to be here again, to come up short again,” Palms coach Maddy Bus said. “But we’ll be together tonight.”
It was the Charm who got to be in the celebratory mood, achieving history thanks to a balanced scoring effort and key defensive stops at timely intervals. That included when California battled back from 12-9 down at the end of the third quarter to make it a 13-12 game with 6:56 remaining. Brigid Duffy (2G, 2A, 6GB) got a hockey assist to set up Apuzzo for a wing stepdown, but she opted for a one-more to Holman for the dunk to make it 13-11.
Their leader Ally Mastroianni answered that Charm tally immediately with a goal storming down the alley right off the draw with her left hand. California looked ready to make its final push.
Maryland was unfazed.
“When you get too big for the moments, you lose sight of everything else going on,” said Parros, who brought her team together to collect themselves and re-emphasized the need for faster ball movement offensively at that juncture. “When you can focus moment to moment instead of the end result, that’s what our team did. They dug in when things weren’t going our way they kept at it and found success.”
From there, Spilis turned provider after already scoring a hat trick to Holman for her hat trick score after not getting much playing time during the regular season. A possession later, lefty Erica Evans received a flip on a sweeping overlap, protected her stick and finished low to make it 15-12. Black assisted Ally Kennedy for the ultimate before Emma LoPinto’s goal on the other end finalized the scoring.
ERIN EVANS WITH A HUGE ONE! 🔥
She finds the back of the net to give the @wllcharm a three-goal lead with 3:28 to play! pic.twitter.com/wcCY1ok418
Months after getting to win the national championship at home as a grad transfer at Northwestern, Charm’s second-half goalie was in disbelief she got to be the one hoisting the ball into the sky for the triumphant final whistle.
“It kinda feels surreal. I’m just getting over the first one so now I never have to stop celebrating, so it’s been pretty awesome,” Cuocco said.
Parros’ roster construction yielded the clear most balanced team on both ends as the final result bore out, no matter how doubted the players felt. Ultimately, the off-field connections led to on-field chemistry for a squad littered with incredible talents.
While the 11 first-quarter goals presented a pace impossible to keep up, Maryland was prepared for the early rock fight.
“You’re playing against the best in the world…We knew they were going to come out fighting and we went punch for punch pretty well in the first quarter,” Black said. “Just sticking true to our gameplan and having fun and playing together.”
Abby Bosco did an incredible job matched up against LoPinto, the two goalies anchored things and Grace Griffin in particular was a huge 1-on-1 standout in the defensive role she’s excelled at all summer long.
“We just played as such a unit,” said Bosco. “We always have each other’s backs, I feel like sometimes without even saying we just know each other’s next moves and we just click on all cylinders. From Caylee, Jenika, Meg [Doughty], Maddy [Sterling], myself, and Sam [Forrest], we just really turned into a unit and just played together.”
Just as Charm fans would want for such a monumental occasion as the first WLL champions, MVP Black gave the appropriate answer when asked “What’s next?” after CashApp matched the PLL prize purse of $80,000: “We’re going to celebrate, we’re going to celebrate really hard tonight.”
Parros’ response was more forward spinning.
“More winning!”
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