Jami MacDonald couldn’t help but feel excited as she pulled on her jersey before Canada’s first game at the World Lacrosse Women’s Under-20 Championship in Hong Kong.
“It was a lot of fun to get to put on that uniform,” she said. “I kept thinking how cool it was to be playing for Canada and that didn’t really go away. You’re there to play lacrosse but at the same time, playing for your country is a whole different experience.”
MacDonald would do that jersey proud, scoring just 5:15 into Canada’s opening game and continuing to fill the net on the world stage.
“That definitely helped the nerves to put a few goals away early. It helped my confidence and the team’s too,” she said. “We had to gel quickly in such a short tournament. It wasn’t like the NCAA where you can build chemistry over a season.”
The 20-year-old had at least two goals in each of Canada’s seven games, including three in the gold-medal game, a 23-6 loss to the defending champion United States.
Despite falling behind 7-0 to the U.S., the Canadian team continued to battle. MacDonald scored all three of her goals in the second half as Canada tried to fight back.
“Our team had a belief that every time we attacked we were going to score. We were trying to chip off one by one,” she said. “Obviously we were a little disappointed, but silver is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s a great accomplishment and its a stepping stone going into other international tournaments.”
Canada had won its previous six straight games to reach the gold-medal game. MacDonald was named the player of the game following a five-goal performance in a 22-2 win over Chinese Taipei and had another five goals, plus two assists, in the 17-2 victory over Japan in the semifinals.
The Georgetown sniper would finish fourth in the tournament in scoring with 35 points and led Canada with 25 goals to earn a place on the all-world team.
“It was really cool hearing them call my name for the team. It was definitely a great personal accomplishment, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my teammates, so it was really a reflection of my teammates and our coaches.”
MacDonald is now back at Princeton for her third season with the Tigers. She finished fifth on the team in her sophomore season with 24 goals in 18 games and third with 42 while helping the 11-7 Tigers reach the second round of the NCAA tournament.
She believes her experience at worlds will help when the season starts up in the spring.
“I wanted to expand my game and become more versatile,” she said. “I got a lot of new perspectives from our coaches and I want to use all that advice and experience playing at a high level when our season starts.”
