England U20 women's team in a huddle before a match, sticks in the air

The England U20 women’s team fell agonisingly short of a fifth-place finish at the 2024 World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship after a 16-13 defeat to Puerto Rico in their final match.

Freya Moody once again showed her huge quality, scoring six goals and taking her tally for the tournament to 26, with Carys Johnson scoring a hat-trick, Rachael Ball hitting a brace, and single goals from Molly Light and Annie Mather.

Puerto Rico, fresh off the back of a huge 23-2 play-off win over Wales yesterday, started with intent, storming to a five-goal lead with just seven minutes on the clock after goals from Victoria Rankin, Karina Herrera (2), Hannah Lewis, and Maya Maldonado.

From here, England composed themselves and hit back with two goals in quick succession from Johnson.

Another goal for Puerto Rico by Isabella Henson-Vendrell from a free-position at the start of the second quarter was followed by a third for England through Mather before Herrera scored her hat-trick goal to put Puerto Rico 7-3 up.

With 10 minutes to go in the half, England kicked on, scoring three without reply as Ball hit two and Moody added her name to the scoresheet to make the score 7-6 going into the half-time break.

Head Coach Vic Alexander’s words to the players at the interval must have been to continue doing whatever they were doing as England found themselves ahead for the first time in the match early in the third quarter after goals from Johnson and Light.

Puerto Rico have been fairly prolific throughout the tournament, scoring 87 goals in their six games before this one, and they wouldn’t give England a moment to settle as Herrera scored two more goals to put her team back in front at 9-8.

Moody levelled up once again for England from a free-position but, with 30-seconds to go in the third quarter, Puerto Rico put themselves in the driving seat as Hannah Lewis scored their 10th.

Lewis began the fourth quarter as she had ended the third and scored Puerto Rico’s 11th of the game which was followed closely by goals from Maldonado, Lucia Nash, and Herrera to put their team ahead by five with just under 10 minutes to go.

With England looking like they’d have to settle for sixth-place, Moody turned the after-burners on to score four goals in as many minutes and put England within three goals of Puerto Rico but it turned out to be too little too late and the team from North America secured a 16-13 victory and the fifth-place finish.

Re-watch all of England’s seven games on World Lacrosse TV HERE.

Puerto Rico 16-13 England (2-5, 4-2, 3-3, 4-6)

England scorers: Freya Moody (6G), Carys Johnson (3G), Rachael Ball (2G), Annie Mather (1G), Molly Light (1G), Grace Connor (1A).

MVP: Karina Herrera (Puerto Rico

England top points scorers