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When Emily Hawryschuk thinks back to the Women’s Lacrosse League Championship game on Feb. 17, a specific play comes to mind. As Hawryschuk and the New York Charging battled back against the Boston Guard, she corralled a tight window pass from former Syracuse and current Charging teammate Megan Carney. Hawryschuk buried the shot, pointing to Carney as they raced back on defense.

Instead of wearing orange, they sported powder blue uniforms. Rather than the JMA Wireless Dome, they were inside The St. James gym in Springfield, Virginia. Still, at the next stoppage of play, Hawryschuk knew the connection felt familiar.

“I said to (Carney), ‘I feel like we are back in Syracuse,’” Hawryschuk said.

Hawryschuk, Carney and sisters Meaghan and Emma Tyrrell all developed into superstars with the Orange, overlapping in their careers from 2020-22. Meaghan is the program’s all-time points leader. Hawryschuk is the program’s all-time goals leader. Emma made the Final Four three times. Carney led the 2023 squad in goals.

From Feb. 11-17, they reunited with the Charging in the inaugural WLL Championship Series. The Charging fell short of a championship, losing to the Guard 22-17. But in the sixes format, the SU alumnae showcased the future of the sport while reliving their chemistry on its biggest stage yet.

“It was special to suit up again with former Orange (players),” Hawryschuk said. “There are a lot of memories that were created at Syracuse, and it’s great to continue to make them at the professional level.”

Co-founded by former lacrosse superstar Paul Rabil and his brother Mike in 2018, the Premier Lacrosse League is the standard of professional men’s lacrosse. Though with men’s and women’s lacrosse coming to the 2028 Summer Olympics, the PLL is showing interest in expanding the women’s game professionally.

The league hosted its first women’s lacrosse exhibition with the Unleashed All-Star Game in February 2024 and gained more traction at PLL All-Star Weekend in Louisville, Kentucky, in July, according to Hawryschuk. Eventually, in November 2024, Hawryschuk and Carney were invited by PLL Vice President of Lacrosse Rachel DeCecco to New York City for a special announcement.

At the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, the PLL announced the new WLL and its inaugural tournament with four home cities representing each team. In the ensuing weeks, Meaghan said the league contacted each player, asking if they were interested and if they could balance it with their jobs. The WLL announced its four team names but kept rosters private, forcing players to keep their status confidential.

In early January, the league revealed its rosters to its players through a Zoom call. Each player was sent a Zoom link to see which team and who they’d be playing with, increasing the suspense.

Emma said she’d heard rumors of the league grouping certain colleges’ alumni, but couldn’t confirm. She attempted to see who’d be playing through who was reposting Instagram stories, and on the day of the meeting, she briefly spoke with her older sister, Meaghan, to see if they both were planning to play. When they entered the Zoom, they all saw familiar faces.

“Going on and not knowing who’s gonna be your teammates, I was kind of hoping it’s gonna be some of my fellow alumni,” Emma said. “I wouldn’t want to play with any other people. It’s so fun being able to play with them for so long and then do it again.”

Immediately after the Zoom, Hawryschuk started a group chat by saying, “Teammates again,” to express her excitement at their reunion.

Each of the four were previously drafted to Athletes Unlimited post-graduation but declined to play to explore other ventures. Since Hawryschuk graduated in 2022, she’s played for Team USA in box lacrosse and coached at the Rochester Institute of Technology and with 51 Stars Lacrosse. Carney’s done the same while joining Florida State’s new staff and giving one-on-one lessons. Meaghan, while balancing life in the corporate world, looked to Pilates or yoga classes while still keeping the stick in her hand. Emma, the most recent graduate, took two months off after SU’s Final Four loss in May but kept her workout routine mostly intact.

When the time came to reunite, they were all ready to seize the moment. And they relied on their already established chemistry to find a groove. Following a few practices together with the Charging, which also included former Northwestern stars Izzy Scane and Erin Coykendall, among others, they began the tournament with a 14-13 victory over the Maryland Charm. The four SU players combined for eight points in the opener.

Charging head coach Colleen Magarity said she inserted motion sets similar to what the Orange alumnae ran at SU. When multiple members of the quartet were on the field at the same time, they’d run the play.

“I would know what they were going to want to do or want to think about doing before they even did it,” Emma said of the teammates’ connection.

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With the tournament’s faster-paced style of sixes, which featured a 30-second shot clock compared to 90 in college, extremely fast ball movement is a necessity. Meaghan and Hawryschuk said anticipation was key to succeeding at the new tempo.

“There’s just so much chemistry between the four of us all over the field,” Carney said. “So there are a few plays definitely where it felt like we’re back at Syracuse.”

Between the four, Hawyrschuk’s performance stood out. She entered the tournament fresh off a Gold Medal at the Box World Championships and brought her pinpoint shooting accuracy to the WLL. She led the league in points (23) and goals (19), taking home the first WLL Golden Stick Award while posting a 55.9% shooting mark.

As New York breezed through the Round Robin slate with a 2-1 record, it needed to beat the California Palms to advance to the title game. Hawryschuk scored seven goals on seven shots, propelling an 18-11 win.

After taking down California, New York faced Boston in the championship. The Guard was comprised of stars from Boston College and Notre Dame and led by superstar Charlotte North, who’s regarded as the Caitlin Clark of women’s lacrosse. North captured an NCAA title in 2021 by beating Syracuse. She did the same in the WLL’s inaugural championship.

Despite the Orange alumnae combining for 11 points and Scane leading the way with seven, North and fellow BC alumnae Cassidy Weeks propelled Boston to a 22-17 win. Magarity said she was bummed because she felt the Charging were just beginning to come into their own. Still, the magnitude of the event couldn’t go unnoticed.

The St. James was sold out, forcing the WLL to turn away fans at the door. The venue’s crowd was filled with jerseys and merchandise of the four squads, and young fans lined up between games to receive autographs from their favorite players.

For years, college was the end goal for women’s lacrosse players with no possible future in the sport after college. Meaghan said when she graduated, she hoped to play professionally, but with nothing solidified, it wasn’t much of a reality. Now, with the WLL, the best players in the world proved there is a path past the NCAA.

The quartet turned a dream into reality for the future of the sport, and were at the forefront of the movement by each other’s side every step of the way.

“We wore the Syracuse orange. We wore the block ‘S,’ and we went to so many championship games together,” Meaghan said. “To be able to have another opportunity to play with them, it was a really special feeling.”

Published on March 31, 2025 at 10:51 pm
Contact Aiden at: amstepan@syr.edu | @AidenStepansky