Team USA remained undefeated at the 2022 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship Thursday, routing Australia 17-2. The team will face off against Canada in the gold medal match at Johnny Unitas Stadium on Saturday at noon and air on ESPN2.

The national team’s stingy defense, led by Megan Douty, Becca Block, Alice Mercer and Emma Trenchard, is often overlooked due to the squad’s prolific offense. But they’ve allowed a mere 4.83 goals per game throughout the tournament. Only Canada, which lost to the United States on opening night by a score of 16-11, has scored in double figures against them.

Prior to Team USA’s win over Japan on Wednesday, The Baltimore Banner spoke with Cummings, 28, the squad’s decorated midfielder and the current girls varsity head coach at McDonogh School. Here are excerpts from that interview:

First off, congratulations on this very impressive, undefeated run in the World Championships thus far. Watching you play, the joy and intensity that you present on the field is obvious. When did you first fall in love with lacrosse?

I picked up the game at about 5 or 6 years old, but I really started to become passionate about it when I was in the eighth grade. I was playing on a high-level club team that was very successful and fully recognized that I had dreams about winning championships and competing on the highest levels one day.

Your dad played soccer in college at William & Mary. How big was sports in your household when you were growing up in Ellicott City?

Sports was really big in my house. My dad was our rec soccer league coach and we were always in the backyard with him kicking soccer balls and shooting basketballs and lacrosse balls.

You’re the only three-time winner of the prestigious Tewaaraton Award. Your squad at McDonogh [School in Owings Mills] won four state championships and you were the nation’s top recruit coming out of high school. The University of Maryland teams you played on advanced to four straight NCAA title games, winning two. You already have one world championship gold medal and now you’re shooting for another. Do you ever reflect on that eighth grade girl shooting at the net in the backyard and the journey you’ve traveled to become what many believe is one of the game’s greatest players of all time?

I don’t really think about the individual stuff. I reflect more [on] and get more joy out of thinking about the teams I was able to be a part of. I’ve been fortunate to have had some great coaches and teammates over the years. All kids shooting around in their backyard dream about making the game-winning goal. As a kid, I dreamed about success in high school and in college, but I never dreamed about or even considered being part of the U.S. National Team and being able to travel all over the world playing the game that I love. I’m grateful to be in this position, to be a part of this group. This is a great journey that we’re on, but it isn’t done yet.

You were a year removed from college in 2017 when Team USA won the gold medal at the Women’s Lacrosse World Cup in England. Now in 2022, you’re one of the team’s veterans. What’s the biggest difference for you now as opposed to back then?

The experience when I was one of the young players on the 2017 team definitely helps me today. Being on the team so long has helped me with the mental and emotional side of it, along with the physical aspects of what happens in the actual games and practices. Now I can help the young players weather those emotions and navigate the tougher aspects of playing at this level.

The competitive schedule for this event is brutal. You women rarely get a day off, seemingly playing nearly every day. In addition to the competition, that must be another opponent that you have to battle through — playing game after game with such little rest time.

We have the potential to play eight games in 11 days if we make it to the gold medal game this weekend. You’re talking about 60-minute games in the summer heat. So it’s critical that we’re taking the rest and recovery aspect seriously. Not just taking ice baths and treatment to get our bodies right, but you also have to be focused on decompressing mentally. You have to refrain from having that “go-go-go” mentality all the time or you’ll get burned out. It’s definitely a unique and challenging experience, but we’ve waited five years for this, so you won’t hear any complaints over here. We’re thankful.

Watching Team USA during these world championships has been exhilarating. It’s like watching the 1992 basketball Dream Team. The speed, skill, passing, footwork and stickwork are so incredible. Can you talk about the chemistry that you all share out there, because it seems really special.

We have a lot of big personalities, both on the field and off. We all bring something different, yet find ways to connect with one another. The veterans and the younger players mesh really well, and that chemistry that you mentioned creates a trust and confidence in one another, and that’s really fun to be a part of.

What makes Jenny Levy, your head coach with the national team, so good?

She and the entire coaching staff embrace the players we have. She doesn’t try to fit us into a rigid system that she favors. She looks at what everybody brings to the table, the uniqueness of each player and their respective talents, and puts those pieces together like a puzzle to form our offensive and defensive strategies. She’s very flexible and trusts us, putting us in positions to succeed based on what she has at her disposal. And she manages to get everyone to play to their full potential.

Team USA is attempting to do something that no team in the history of this event has ever accomplished before, and that is to win the gold medal while playing on its home soil. Being a Baltimore girl who had a legendary career at McDonogh and the University of Maryland, and now as the head coach at McDonogh, what would that feel like, for you personally, to win the world championships right here in your hometown?

We’re in position to be the first team to do that, to win the gold medal as the host country. To do that in my own backyard would be really special. In college I won a national championship on this field. I have some great memories of playing here. To win the world championship here and to be able to showcase the game of women’s lacrosse and help it grow would be something that we would all cherish.

alejandro.danois@thebaltimorebanner.com

Read more:

• The World Lacrosse Women’s Championship comes home to Baltimore
• Local teen plays in world lacrosse championships for Spain