2025 Match Schedule
FINAL | Women’s Trophy | Exeter 2s 11-8 Durham 2 | 10am
FINAL | Men’s Trophy | Imperial College 1-11 Manchester Metropolitan | 12:30pm
FINAL | Women’s Championship | University of Nottingham 12-3 Exeter | 4:30pm
FINAL | Men’s Championship | Nottingham Trent 12-9 University of Nottingham | 7:15pm
BUCS Big Wednesday returns to Loughborough University tomorrow with four games of lacrosse across the men’s and women’s competitions in the battle to be crowned National Championship and Trophy winners for 2025.
The University of Nottingham are back in the Women’s Championship final looking to win a third title in four years after a narrow defeat to Durham last year saw them miss out on an historic three-peat under the tutelage of Head Coach Mike Armstrong.
With Exeter returning to BUCS Big Wednesday after a year away, it’s a repeat of the 2023 Championship final as Mike Molster’s side look to upset the odds and claim a first title in their history.
They had a dramatic journey to Wednesday’s final with an incredible 7-6 comeback win over last year’s finalists Durham.
Having been 6-2 down at the half, it was looking bleak for an Exeter side full to the brim with international talent but they rallied in miraculous fashion to take the win right at the death.
UoN’s semi-final saw a fairly routine 10-5 win over BUCS Big Wednesday hosts Loughborough and, with just one defeat between the two finalists all season (an 8-7 UoN loss to Durham in November), we’re surely in for a classic goal-filled match.
With no fewer than 16 players between the two sides in the England Performance and Development squads, including England U20 captains Ana Green and Rachael Ball (both UoN), the 2025 Women’s Championship final will be one for the ages.
The Women’s Championship final gets underway at 4:30pm.
Routes to the Women’s Championship
UoN Women
SF: UoN 10-5 Loughborough
QF: UoN 18-4 Birmingham
Exeter Women
SF: Exeter 7-6 Durham
QF: Exeter 16-3 NTU
Over in the Men’s Championship, we have a repeat of the past two finals between two of the best university sides in the English game.
Nottingham Trent will be looking to claim a third title in as many years against the University of Nottingham, and it’s a familiar story for both teams with NTU having already secured the BUCS Premier North crown with a six-point gap over UoN.
As with the women’s teams, both men’s rosters are stacked with experience, highlighting the strength of the game in England at the moment.
NTU Head Coach Sam Patterson has a four-strong leadership group that includes Blair Pachereva and Justin White, who have both featured in the NCAA for Brock Badgers and Rollins College respectively, as well as young England stars Nathan Wilkinson and Will Locker, who both helped England U20s to a silver medal at last year’s U20 Euros.
Across the city, UoN have a sturdy spine of England U20 players running through the team including captains Joachim Ruby and Billy Styche.
Noah Arnison, Jack Dearden, Xander Stewart, James Thompson, and Jamie Mochan also feature as part of the England U20 contingent, alongside Jamaican international Tony Diallo as UoN search for an historic first Championship title.
This season’s results all point to an NTU victory with the team going into the final unbeaten in 24/25 and claiming wins in both fixtures against UoN (14-5 & 11-3) but anything can truly happen when these two rivals take to the field tomorrow night.
The Men’s Championship final gets underway at 7:15pm.
Routes to the Men’s Championship
NTU Men
SF: NTU 20-3 Durham
QF: NTU 21-0 Sussex
UoN Men
SF: UoN 14-7 Loughborough
QF: UoN 20-0 Exeter
The opening match on BUCS Big Wednesday is the Women’s Trophy final as Exeter 2s take on Durham 2s in a repeat of last year’s showdown.
In that game, Exeter 2s came out with the narrow 13-10 win and they’ll be hoping to do the same again in 2025 after an unbeaten season saw them claim the Premier South 2 title by a huge 12 points.
Despite just one defeat this season (an opening day 9-5 loss to Liverpool), Durham 2s finished second in the Premier North 2 division behind Liverpool but will head into Wednesday’s Trophy final with confidence after nine league wins in a row.
The opening Women’s match up will be followed by the Men’s Trophy final between Imperial College and Manchester Metropolitan.
Both brand new teams to the Trophy final for this year, Imperial and Man Met completed unbeaten seasons to win their respective league titles.
Imperial come into this match with a big 11-2 semi-final win over Bournemouth 2s while Man Met, led this season by former England men’s box lacrosse team Assistant Coach Andy Downing, defeated Northumbria 9-2 to claim their spot in the end of season showpiece.
Routes to the Women’s Trophy
Exeter 2s
R1: Exeter 2s 26-4 Surrey
R2: Exeter 2s 31-1 Reading
R3: Exeter 2s 19-6 Exeter 3s
QF: Exeter 2s 19-6 King’s College
SF: Exeter 2s 20-4 Warwick
Durham 2s
R1: BYE
R2: Durham 2s 20-2 Leeds Beckett
R3: Durham 2s 21-3 Leeds
QF: Durham 2s 24-2 Edinburgh 2s
SF: Durham 2s 7-5 Liverpool
Routes to the Men’s Trophy
Imperial College
R1: Imperial 11-4 Kent
R2: Imperial 8-0 St Mary’s
QF: Imperial 18-2 Cardiff
SF: Imperial 11-2 Bournemouth 2
Manchester Metropolitan
R1: BYE
R2: Man Met 16-0 Liverpool
QF: Man Met 10-1 Warwick
SF: Man Met 9-2 Northumbria
Lacrosse fans can buy tickets for BUCS Big Wednesday HERE or can watch from home on the BUCS YouTube channel HERE.
