Boston Guard return bulk of championship roster, add three players in waiver period

The Boston Guard are running it back for 2026, returning the bulk of their inaugural WLL Championship Series title roster.

Of the four WLL teams, the Guard made the fewest moves during the waiver period, adding three players: Maddie Burns, Brittany Read and Fallon Vaughn. Two of those players, former Yale midfielder Vaughn and former Michigan defender Burns, return to WLL play after being selected to the 2025 All-Star Game.

As one of the most decorated players in Yale’s history, Vaughn, a 2025 grad, started all 74 games she played for the Bulldogs, accruing 228 points (148G, 80A) and 151 draw controls. She helped lead the team to back-to-back Ivy League tournament championships and the NCAA tournament quarterfinals in 2024 and 2025. During her junior season, she was the Ivy League Midfielder of the Year, recording 55 points and a single-season best 53 draw controls. She upped her play to harness a career-best 80 points the following season.

Vaughn joins the offensive engine of the Guard, led by its Boston College alumni core of Charlotte North, Dempsey Arsenault and Cassidy Weeks.

Burns and Read round out the Guard’s defensive nucleus for the upcoming Championship Series. Burns, a 2024 grad, graduated with the Wolverines’ ground ball record, sweeping up 111 career GBs. She was the program’s first-ever Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year during her senior season.

Read dominated in net in her sole year at Oregon (2018), recording a single-season program record of 179 saves after spending the previous three seasons at Louisville. Read will likely sit behind starter Rachel Hall come February.

In corresponding moves, the Guard released goalie Kady Glynn and defender Marge Donovan.

Glynn, a 2019 Loyola grad, was last in a WLL uniform during the 2025 All-Star Game, when she played behind 2025 Northwestern alumna Delaney Sweitzer.

Donovan played in last year’s Championship Series. The Princeton (2018-21) and Maryland (2022) product graduated from the Tigers program with the records for career (214), single-season (112) and single-game (12) draw controls. She helped Team USA win a silver medal at The World Games in 2022.

The 2026 WLL Championship Series kicks off Feb. 27 at The St. James outside Washington, D.C., with the winner being crowned March 8. Game play will take place over the course of the two weekends — a format change from last year’s week-long tournament. Round-robin play lasts from Feb. 27 to March 6. The second- and third-placed teams will play in the semifinal on March 7, meeting the first-seeded team — which earns a playoff bye — in the title game on March 8. The fourth-placed team after round-robin action will be eliminated from the tournament.

The PLL debuted the Sixes format Championship Series in 2023, and women’s play began last year, with the Guard taking home the first title in tandem with the PLL’s Boston Cannons. In its return at the 2028 Olympics, lacrosse will be played in the Sixes style, showcasing the fastest, most creative and aggressive angles of the sport.