DORA THE EXPLORER: Haven Dora heads to goal this past spring in her sophomore season for the Princeton University women’s lacrosse team. Star attacker Dora, who tallied 20 goals and team-high 49 assists in the 2024 campaign for the Tigers, will be competing for Team USA in the Women’s U20 Championships from August 15-24 in Hong Kong, China.

By Justin Feil

She may not need a map, but Haven Dora is quite the explorer.

Dora was in Italy on the Princeton University women’s lacrosse team’s overseas trip last fall, just months after traveling to London. Now lacrosse will take her to Hong Kong, China, to compete for Team USA in the Women’s U20 Championships from August 15-24.

“It’s really exciting,” said Dora, who will be a junior at Princeton this fall. “I’m honored to be on the team and represent the USA. I think it’ll be really fun to be able to play with a lot of the players that we play against in college and that I’ve played with growing up. I think it’ll be a really awesome experience to go over to Hong Kong and compete against all the other countries.”

Dora is representing the U.S. for the first time. She might not have gotten there if it hadn’t been for exploring another option on the lacrosse field. After returning from a torn ACL suffered as a high school senior, Dora played some midfield in her first season with Princeton before assistant coach Kerrin Maurer suggesting she try low attack and played her behind the goal.

“I just really thrived,” said Dora, a native of Spring Lake. “That was clear that that had kind of become a new role for me that I just did really well in. I’d say field vision is one of my strengths as a player and just being in that spot down low, it was really able to show.”

Dora tried out as a midfielder when she was a part of the USA Lacrosse National Development Team Program. But over the last year and a half, she has made a name for herself on the attack for Princeton. She led the Tigers with 40 assists in 2024 and also scored 29 goals on a team-high 54.7 percent shooting as Princeton went 11-7 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

“I think playing obviously midfield my whole life helped me become the player that I am,” said Dora. “I don’t think I’d be where I am without that. I think it’s just a continued development over time and I’m really happy where I am now. It’s just I’m playing a different game than I was playing.”

The Trinity Hall product has retained her fitness from the midfield – she placed eighth in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Non-Public B state cross country championship in 2020 — and adjusted her offensive skills to playing behind the cage to become a top attacker.

“I think obviously speed is one of my strengths and dodging, and so being able to do that up top was something that I always kind of defaulted to,” said Dora. “Obviously I was a feeder, but not as much as I am now from behind the cage, and so I think just overall I can still dodge down low. But that comes from all the experience that I have as a midfielder up top. I think it’s just built off of what I used to do.”

Dora has continued to prove herself at the national level. She is the lone Ivy League player to make the final 22-player U.S. roster. She was the only Ivy Leaguer even invited to the selection camp in June before the team was pared from 32 to 22.

“I think it’s just really special because I don’t think a lot of people give the Ivy League credit in women’s lacrosse,” said Dora. “I’m able to show that the Ivy League really is a tough division and we’re able to really compete with everyone. And so this is just kind of one small step in showing people that.”

Dora had to overcome a number of hurdles in recent years, not just an Ivy stigma. She tore her ACL in the first scrimmage of her senior year at Trinity Hall, and it cost her the final scholastic spring season. She missed fall workouts at Princeton that calendar year as well, and that could have set her back. She was catching up when she was asked to switch positions. She adapted quickly and this year raised her level further while advancing through the Team USA tryouts as an underdog.

“Despite having the season that I did, I think I still kind of went into it thinking I was an underdog and that I was going to have to work even harder because of where I go to school,” said Dora. “You’re competing against these girls that go to Boston College, Northwestern, the top Division I lacrosse schools and I definitely felt like an underdog. I think it makes me work harder though just to show these people that I’m just as good.”

The first selection camp was more than a year ago. Dora was in Italy with Princeton when the first selection then played in the Fall Classic in Baltimore. But she was invited back to join the final 32 when they met again in June.

“I kind of just went into it coming off of a really good sophomore season, so I was confident in myself that I was going to be able to compete with these girls,” said Dora. “But I knew at the end of the day that everyone was good, and if I didn’t make it, it didn’t necessarily mean that I wasn’t like a good player. It just meant that my role wasn’t really needed on the team. So going into it, I was just going to try to play against these girls, compete hard and just show what kind of assets I bring as a player. And it ended up working in my favor. So I’m excited to play with them again.”

Dora is more accustomed to playing against some of her teammates. They have been meeting ahead of the Worlds to try to foster cohesiveness. The team was together in Maryland in June and at Northwestern in July. They head to Stanford before leaving for Hong Kong. They have been able to come together quickly on the field.

“I haven’t really played with any of these girls, but there are a couple BC girls, a couple Northwestern girls, some girls that play together in college now, so that definitely helps in building team chemistry,” said Dora. “All the girls are good and we all know how to play with other people. And we have really high IQ’s so just putting us together on the field, like making sure the right combos are out there, is really important for team chemistry. But everyone is a great player. And so just putting a bunch of great players together doesn’t take a lot of practice before we can really read each other and play as one cohesive unit.”

Dora and the team are adjusting to the international rules that have two fewer players on the field. The offense has more space to operate with just 6v6 at the offensive end and no 8-meter arc. Dora is hoping she can be just as effective for the team in the quarterbacking role as she’s been at Princeton, just with a new set of teammates.

“It’s just being able to balance my style with their style,” said Dora. “And so obviously sometimes I’ll play behind, and sometimes I’ll bump up a little bit. But that’s something I’m kind of used to. Towards the end of the season coach Mauer was having me move around a little bit, and so I was able to get some experience playing above the goal line extended. There’s a lot of good shooters and cutters and so I kind of have a similar role where I’m looking for those girls coming down the middle for a goal. I think I primarily have a feeding role, but because there’s so much more space with the 6v6, I’m able to take it 1v1 a few more times than I would at Princeton.”

With Team USA counting on its offense to be effective in the World Championships, Dora believes she can play a key role in helping to set up others and score as well.

“I think it’s really essential that we work with our teammates,” said Dora. “It’s a lot of, especially how we’re setting it up, we’re doing a lot of 2v2 game so picks and cutting. And growing up I played a lot of basketball with a lot of picks and cutting and so it kind of translates well for me. Working with each other, obviously there’s more space for individual play, but for team success it’s playing with one another and focusing on that two-man game.”

Playing two years of college lacrosse gives her another advantage over some younger players. She is accustomed to the high level of play that the U.S. will face. Among the teams that will challenge the U.S. is Canada, which features her Princeton teammate Jami MacDonald.

“Jami going and playing as well, against each other, gives us both a lot of experience in preparation for going into junior year,” said Dora. “I think both of us like really just work off each other extremely well. And so both of us having this experience in August and then going in junior year and continuing to play with each other and off of each other will just be really, really helpful for the team and kind of bump up the attack that we have at Princeton.”

The United States is the top-ranked team in the world and wouldn’t face Canada until knockout play. The U.S. is in Pool A along with China, Germany, Israel and Puerto Rico.

“It’s just going in and just playing with each other competing and hopefully the results turn out in our favor and we stay at the top and that’s the ultimate goal,” said Dora. “And so I think going into this with a lot of training camps together, the team just gets stronger and more cohesive every single time we meet. Going into it, we have a really good outlook on how it’s going to end.”

It’s already been quite a year plus for Dora. She has been on the move on the lacrosse field and as a world traveler. She will combine the two as she heads abroad again, this time as a part of Team USA in pursuit of a world title in Hong Kong.

“I’m excited to go explore and see what else is out there in the world,” said Dora. “I think it’ll be a ton of fun.”