England will play hosts Czechia on Sunday in the 2023 ELF Women’s U21 Lacrosse Championship after a commanding 17-5 win over Sweden in the semi-finals in Prague.
Another four goal haul for Sofia Wise, a hat-trick from captain Millie Cant, and goals for Carys Johnson, Lara Renders, Molly Light, Lucy Evans, Charlie Bell, and Rachael Ball ensured England swept aside Sweden to reach a second successive European Championship final in this age group.
England started in their usual quick manner and were 3-0 up with five minutes gone on the clock with goals through Johnson, Cant, and Renders.
But Sweden, who had scored a massive 64 goals in just four games before the semi-final, were not going to go down without a fight and finished the quarter strongly, getting to within one goal of England as Ava Main and Emma McCrea scored to make the score 3-2.
Just before first quarter time, Bell eased any nerves for England as she fired home from a free-position to see her team go in at the break with their three goal lead still intact.
England came back out for the second quarter smelling blood and played a perfect 15 minutes of lacrosse with Wise, Johnson, and Evans all adding to England’s tally within four minutes of the restart.
Then a bizarre moment as England were gifted a goal as Maja Hunter attempted to pass the ball to her goalie under pressure from the England offence but instead played it into her own net.
This rocked Sweden and England saw out the half, adding another goal in the process through Wise.
A barn-storming second quarter was followed by a slightly more leisurely third from England who eased off Sweden in the opening few minutes, conceding two in quick succession as Main and McCrea gave their team some hope with the score at 9-4.
But Wise was there again when England needed her, as she has been through the entire tournament, and scored her hat-trick goal followed shortly by her fourth of the game to increase England’s lead before Cant finished off the scoring in the third quarter with her second of the day.
Sweden did not lay down, however, and Main grabbed a deserved hat-trick goal early in the fourth before England’s quality and class shone through once again as they finished the game in style, hitting five goals without reply through Cant, Light, Evans, and Bell to see out the game and book a spot in the U21 European Championship final.
England will play Czechia in the 2023 ELF Women’s U21 Lacrosse Championship at 2pm BST on Sunday.
Watch the semi-final game versus Sweden in full HERE.
Watch England’s final versus Czechia on Sunday HERE.
England points scorers | Wise (4G), Cant (3G), Bell (2G, 2A), Johnson (2G, 1A), Evans (2G), Ball (1G, 3A), Light (1G), Renders (1G), Mather (2A), Pearce (1A).
Sweden points scorers | Main (3G), McCrea (2G), Czajkowski (1A), Runske (1A).