Palms: Too Many Mistakes and Missed Chances

California was the last team of the four teams to slip into the knockout round, and against a loaded New York Charging team, needed elite execution to play for a title on Monday. That didn’t happen.

The Palms struggled to threaten the Charging defense from the opening whistle. As she has all week, Taylor Moreno held it down in between the pipes, and more importantly, sparked the offense with long outlets to spark transition. 

However, when Moreno couldn’t manufacture unbalanced sets in transition, New York had California’s number. The Palms turned the ball over 19 times. They shot under 25% in the game.

A lot of the credit goes to Madison Doucette and the New York defense, but California’s finishing and offensive execution was not up to its standard.

“Credit to [Doucette] for standing tall, and at the same time, I think there's a lot of those that we want back that went stick side high or right to the chest,” Erin Bakes said postgame.

Ally Mastroianni was a Golden Stick frontrunner heading into Sunday, tied for the league lead with 12 goals through day five of the tournament. In the semifinals, the Palms’ offensive engine scored just one goal and had one assist.

The opportunities were there (eight shots), but the finishing touch wasn’t there.

Moreno and the defense held for the first two and a half quarters, but New York’s superstars got going in the second half. Ultimately, California didn’t have the answers to match.

For the Palms, the week can ultimately be seen as a success. Coaches and players raved about the culture built behind the scenes. They defeated the Boston Guard in their first-ever game and made it to the semifinal.

In whatever format the WLL takes next, California is excited to be a part of it.

“The buy-in from each and every one of us was absolutely incessant, so some of the stats broke down in the end, but our hustle didn't,” Bakes said. “We're going to keep building on this identity.”

Charging: Historic Dominance Sends New York to the Final

In the first knockout game in WLL history, the New York Charging more than met the challenge. From the opening minutes of the first quarter, it was clear that New York was the better team on the day. As the game ran on, the Charging only cemented their status as a title favorite.

It started with the defense Sunday. California never got going on offense, struggling to even create good chances outside of early transition. The Charging, led by Kendall Halpern, forced the Palms into heaps of turnovers.

“She’s our one true defender, so she had no choice but to lead,” New York head coach Colleen Magarity joked postgame.

Halpern, who now leads the tournament in caused turnovers, had four more today. Erin Coykendall and Emma Tyrrell had three caused turnovers each. Even when California evaded the swarming defense and got a shot on cage, Madison Doucette made history between the pipes.

She casually put together the best goalkeeping performance in league history. She made an eye-watering 21 saves — a new league record — at an elite 65.6% rate. The Palms never had a chance.

“Defense wins championships,” New York assistant coach Molly Wolf said. “Big time plays jumpstart our offense. We’ve had double-digit caused turnovers in the past two games and 50% of our games, and it’s game changing for us.”

For all of the dominant defensive exploits, the offense exploded as well. 

Emily Hawryschuk is now the clear frontrunner for the Golden Stick after a seven-goal game on just seven shots(!). She scored from the outside, she won off the dodge, she created offense in early transition. Heading into Monday’s championship final, Hawryschuk will be the first name on the scouting report.

“We're just grateful to get the opportunity to coach her,” Magarity said. “She played phenomenally today, but she’s also played great this whole entire series and she just keeps getting better.”

Now fans will get to see the undeniable two best teams in the WLL get a rematch in the final. Boston Guard. New York Charging. It doesn’t get better than this.