WORLD CLASS: Jami MacDonald prepares to unload the ball in a game this spring for the Princeton University women’s lacrosse team. Rising Tiger junior MacDonald will be playing for Canada in the upcoming U20 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship, which is taking place from August 15-24 in Hong Kong, China. (Photo by Steven Wojtowicz)

By Justin Feil

Jami MacDonald’s fuel to play in the U20 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship was triggered five years ago when she wasn’t invited to try out for Team Canada.

“I just remember having this goal grow after I didn’t make it when I didn’t get invited,” said MacDonald. “I had this goal I’m going to make it next time.”

When it was last contested in 2019, it was still at the U19 level and MacDonald was just a freshman in high school. The Georgetown, Ontario, native hadn’t yet transferred to the Hotchkiss School (Conn.), where she would excel for three years before following her older brother, men’s lax star Mikey, to Princeton University. After two strong seasons with the Tigers, she will have her first chance to represent Canada in the U20 World Championships in Hong Kong, China, from August 15-24.

It’s an opportunity that’s been a long time in the making. “Being able to get through this process to try out and stuff, it means a lot to me,” said MacDonald. “I always wanted to play for Canada in some way, shape, or form. It’s been kind of a goal throughout my life growing up watching it, so it was honestly pretty exciting news when I got the call making the team.”

MacDonald was among the first of nearly 150 invitees a year ago, then was called back when the tryout pool was whittled down last fall, but she missed Canada playing in the Fall Classic in Baltimore while going on the Princeton women’s lacrosse team’s overseas trip to Italy. She won a spot with her play through Canada’s remaining tryout that finished after she tallied 55 points on 34 goals and 21 assists this spring in her sophomore season at Princeton.

“With the tryouts I was definitely playing some of my best lacrosse that I’ve played,” said MacDonald. “So I went in and just played with as much confidence as I could and really just tried to be balanced out there and not put too much pressure on myself, but enough to play well.”

MacDonald is looking forward to playing in the international competition for the first time. International rules open the field up for the offense because there are only nine field players, not 11 like college, on the field plus a goalkeeper. And instead of an 8-meter marking, it’s a much wider 15-meter marking for international play.

“It’s going to give everybody much more space and room to work together and work on their dodges and it makes the slide longer, so that’s definitely going to be a big part of the difference,” said MacDonald. “Adapting to those two things is going to be probably a little bit of a challenge for everyone, but maybe a good thing for some others.”

MacDonald was still coming off the college season in the final Canadian tryouts as she worked to adjust to the extra space now available. She will be counted on as a main cog for her national team’s offense.

“The Canadian team is going to ask a little more of me just because I’m going to be one of those older girls and I think the older girls are going to be the people who are looked to, especially in times of need,” said MacDonald. “I’m honestly really looking forward to that. I think it will help me a lot going back into season for next year and the upcoming years — it will just give me the other hand of experience of being that older girl and just set me up for my junior and senior year to be able to take on this leadership role and the role of an upperclassman of controlling the attacking end and helping moderate and everything like that.”

She is hoping to use her playing time from her first two seasons at Princeton as a plus. Her scoring output doubled from her first to her second season. She went from 17 goals and 11 assists for 28 points as a freshman to 34 goals and 21 assists in her second year. Her shooting percentages climbed while she increased her ground balls and caused turnovers.

“It’s just a lot of experience,” said MacDonald. “Having that experience of going into a national tournament and playing in tough scenarios like the NCAA Tournament and we’re playing in that first round, that second round, when it’s do or die or those times where you have to win or you have to score that goal, it’s just really going to set me up for playing in an international tournament where you need to win. I have known these pressures over the past two years so going into this I’ll be able to handle that pressure super well and kind of play my best lacrosse even though it’s a very stressful situation.”

MacDonald is one of the older players on Team Canada’s roster that also features a 16-year-old. The U20 team brings together several players who grew up playing with and against each other. There are about a dozen girls from MacDonald’s Team Ontario, a team that twice won the Canadian Championships at the U17 and U19 levels.

“It’s nice having some familiar faces and some people that I know how they play and I kind of know their style,” said MacDonald. “That was kind of nice going into it, just knowing that I have these people that I’m familiar with.”

To that core that MacDonald has a lot of familiarity with, Canada has picked up the best players from their other provinces to make up a formidable side. Canada is in Pool B with Haudenosaunee, Korea, Chinese Taipei, and Wales.

“Even throughout the tryouts our coach made it very clear — we are picking these girls to go for gold,” said MacDonald. “We fully believe 100 percent we are on the road to gold. That’s the end goal. I’m sure it is for everybody else, but we have been preaching the whole time just everybody’s giving 100 percent because that’s the only way that’s going to get us to that gold medal. Like each practice, each time you have your stick in your hand, make sure you have that vision of you holding that gold medal in mind and just make sure you’re always putting your best foot forward just every time we’re together as a team and not waste any moments together because it’s definitely going to be a tough road and a tough path facing all these other great teams.”

The Canadians are ranked second in the world behind the United States. The U.S. will be in Pool A so they would not meet until the medal round.

“We know we have this rivalry kind of with the U.S.,” said MacDonald. “These past however many years we’ve been ending up in the final game against them, so just kind of going into it knowing that no matter what, we have to give 100 percent and just play our best lacrosse. And if we all play our best lacrosse I have no doubt that we will be great.”

MacDonald can’t wait for the chance to travel to a new place again to play lacrosse. Princeton’s trip to Italy gave the Tigers a chance to bond and see some of that country’s sights. This trip to Hong Kong will be more of a business trip with gold the goal.

“Lacrosse has just given me so much in life,” said MacDonald. “The fact that it’s giving me a trip to Hong Kong where I never foresaw myself visiting really in the near future, just being able to go there to play the sport that I love, it’s just going to be an amazing opportunity. I couldn’t be more excited and more happy about it.”

Her first major international competition is the chance for MacDonald to shine on the biggest stage. She has been a major part of the Princeton team in her first two seasons and will now try to lead Canada to gold. Doing so would be an important resume builder looking ahead to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 when lacrosse returns to the Olympic Games in the form of sixes, a streamlined version of lacrosse played outdoors with six players on each side.

“It’s definitely on my radar,” said MacDonald. “It’s something that, ever since it’s been announced that it’s in the Olympics, I’ve had my mind on and just thinking maybe one day this is something I could do. I know growing up watching the Olympics, I’d never seen lacrosse in there, so it was never a dream of mine, but ever since it was put into action and actually coming up in a year that I can play in it’s just so exciting. I know it’s two years after college, but I just think it’ll be a great opportunity and to try out for that team. And I think playing on the U20 team, especially if I go down there and I do well and I play the lacrosse that I know I’m able to play and I want to play that’ll just get my name out there for the older senior team and just prove to them that I am a good candidate for that upcoming Olympics.”

MacDonald had been biding her time for the U20 chance, waiting for the opportunity to play for Canada. She is ready to make the most of it after waiting five years for her shot.

“Going into the tryout I was like this is my one opportunity, like a once in a lifetime opportunity, to play for this team and kind of have this chance to represent my country,” said MacDonald. “It just made it so much more meaningful.”