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30 August 2019
Three students from Monmouth School for Girls represented their nations at the 2019 World Lacrosse Under-19s Women’s Championships in Ontario, Canada.
Former Monmouth School for Girls’ captain Madison Jones and current skipper Elinor Hart played for Wales, while Haoling Zhang represented China.
Departing Director of Sport, PE & Dance and former international lacrosse player, Miss Lou Scott, was a table manager for the tournament’s technical team, a role which included recording stats, operating the scoreboard and maintaining event protocols.
Wales had a very positive tournament, retaining their seventh-placed ranking after some outstanding displays from Madison.
Seven younger players from Monmouth also travelled to Canada with Wales Under-17s to represent the Dragons in a festival tournament alongside the main event.
Tatjana Mount, Maya Woodward, Florrie Taylor, Erlina Ainsworth, Olivia Armstrong, Tallulah Freeman and Luella Hay played a four day tournament against junior teams and finished with a bronze medal.
Having finished seventh (from 14) in 2015, Wales were drawn in Pool B, against the other fifth to eighth seeds; New Zealand, Japan and Scotland in the expanded competition
Wales opened with a 17-3 loss to New Zealand and then a 21-7 defeat against Japan.
Captain Madison was voted player of the match against Scotland as the Welsh hit back from a 4-3 deficit to seal a 12-5 victory in their final pool match.
Madison’s former coach and junior international player, Lou Scott, presented the award to her as she stated that she had, ‘learnt from the best.’
Wales entered the final 16 with a match against Pool D winners, Czech Republic.
Wales controlled possession to lead 12-8 as they entered the final 15 minutes of the match. Attacking play led by the Czech goalkeeper saw a short resurgence but it was not enough to deny Wales a place in the quarter-finals against the USA.
As expected, the mighty USA were quick off the mark and finished with a 26-0 scoreline to progress to a semi-final against Australia.
Wales then slipped to a 15-9 defeat against Japan in a fifth-to-eighth-placed play-off and faced Germany in a bid to retain their seventh-placed ranking.
Wales finished the first quarter with a 5-1 lead before Germany made a ferocious fight back to level the game at 9-9 at the end of full-time. However, a goal in overtime from Madison secured a memorable 10-9 triumph for Wales.
A delighted Madison, who was voted player of the match, launched her stick in the air and jumped up and down as she celebrated her match-winning goal.
Miss Scott said: ‘It was an honour to see our Monmouth players reach and perform at the pinnacle of junior lacrosse. Madison was a key driver in every game for Wales. She led with passion yet kept the team cool; qualities that I have no doubt she developed in part through her education at Monmouth School for Girls.”
