Seeing Double: UVA's Women's Lacrosse World Champions

You are not seeing double. That is, in fact, two gold medals worn by two Virginia women’s lacrosse second years in the header photo above.

In a six-week span, Madison Alaimo and Cece Webb both helped Team USA win world championships.

“I don’t think I stopped smiling that whole night, probably the plane ride home too,” Alaimo said.

“Everyone was smiling, laughing, crying. It was incredible,” Webb said.

Outside of the joy of their victories and the honor of wearing the letters USA across their jerseys, their two experiences could not have been more different. Alaimo competed for the US Junior National Team at the 2024 World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship, while Webb was on the senior national team that competed at the World Lacrosse Box Championships.

“Box lacrosse is a game of five-v-five, plus the goalie, that’s six,” Webb explained. “You play in a hockey rink with turf down. You play in pads – the chest pad, kidney, elbow, bicep. Just everything you can think of. And you play with boys’ sticks. You pretty much are allowed to do whatever you want. The two big things you can’t do is you can’t shove somebody in the back and you can’t slam them into the boards, at least not head first into the boards. So it’s much more violent and aggressive than the [traditional] women’s game.”

Another difference between their experiences was the history of the two tournaments. Alaimo helped lead the U20 team to its sixth world championship in eight tries since the event was first held in 1995. Box lacrosse has existed since the 1930s, with the first men’s world championship in 2003. However, it is an emerging sport on the women’s side, with this year’s tournament being the first-ever world championship. Team USA took full ownership of being the first team to compete for gold, branding themselves as “Team One.”

“It is really special for me to say that I was the first to do something, especially with a group of girls who took it so seriously,” Webb said. “Every single member of Team One knew what this meant, and proudly, like we had cheers about Team One. Team One – it meant so much to us to be the first. Being the first to win gold is just completely unreal. And it’s just so special. I’m so grateful.”

The venues were very different. Alaimo played in full-sized soccer stadiums, while Webb played in a converted hockey arena. An even bigger difference was the location of the venues.  While Webb was 500 miles away in Utica, N.Y., a place made even more familiar by having held training and practices there, Alaimo flew halfway around the world to compete in Hong Kong.

“It was actually my first time leaving the country, so it was one to remember,” Alaimo said. “Once we got there, it didn’t really feel too different. It reminded me of  New York City, just like a cleaner version. One of the first nights, the whole team got to go to Victoria Harbour. It had a light show that night. So we got to see that and walk around. And we all got ice cream! It was just so fun to explore a new place. My parents were there the whole time, so we also went exploring. We took the cable cars over to see The Big Buddha [on Lantau Island]. We walked around, went to a little shop, and had a lot of fun.”

What was similar for both was the long process of earning a spot on their teams. Both had started participating in camps and training sessions for their respective teams over a year and a half in advance. As time and camps went on, the prospective athlete pool was narrowed down to a 22-player roster for the U20 team and a 23-player Box squad.

“Something really special for me was last fall when I was getting into my head a little bit during Virginia Fall Ball, I would go to a training camp and just remember why I love lacrosse,” Webb said. “Because we were all learning this new game together. And it felt like everyone was just on the same playing field, exploring this uncharted territory together. It was really special.”

Both also had the support of their Cavalier teammates, who were back in Charlottesville rooting them on during the tournaments.

“I was driving to Charlottesville to fly out to California [to catch her flight to Hong Kong], and I got the ‘good luck’ video in our Group Me sent from Coach Mike [with all the girls in it],” Alaimo said. “I put it on while I was driving, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is so awesome! Like, they’re so nice.’ I was just super grateful to have all these girls cheering me on and being excited for me. It was definitely so awesome. Their texting me throughout the journey, ‘Good luck,’ or ‘You’re crushing it,’ felt really good. I’m so grateful for them.”

Both also stepped up to the challenge of playing on the global stage. Alaimo set the event record for most assists with 25 in the tournament, breaking the previous record of 19 set in 2019. She ranked third among all players in points with 43, scoring 18 goals in addition to her 25 assists and was named Player of the Game during the pool play contest against China.

“It was super exciting and surreal playing alongside those girls,” Alaimo said. “They always pushed me to be my best. We all encouraged each other, so being named the Player of the Match after the [China] game was just so exciting. And being able to keep the little dragon that they gave me is so awesome. It’s still in my room today.”

Webb was given the historic honor of taking the very first faceoff in a women’s gold medal match.

“They wanted me to get in there [to the faceoff circle] and push some girls around,” Webb said. “So I worked on them and took a couple in every match. One of my favorites was when we were down two players, so it was a 5-v-3, and my coaches were like “Webber, get out there!” And I won it and just kept running around to try to get the time away.

“For the gold medal match, we’re kind of just out on the bench, and Coach said, ‘Webber, why don’t you take it.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, someone giving my faceoff stick!” So I ran out there, and the girls said, ‘You got this, Cece. Just do your thing.’ And so I went. As soon as I clamped it and pulled it out, I was like, ‘Okay, we’re just playing lacrosse.’ But I was honored to be the opener for the first-ever women’s box gold medal match.”

The dissimilarities return when looking at how both won gold.

The U20 team sailed to a 23-6 victory against Canada in the final, outscoring opponents 211-20 in the tournament.

“All the games felt so different, but that game was so special from the start,” Alaimo said. “We had a special walkout. There were flames going and smoke. It was so awesome hearing our anthem. At the end of the game, I was actually on the sideline. I was standing next to Maddie Taylor. We went to high school together, so it was super exciting to play with her again. We were just super excited. We’re like, ‘Should we take off our goggles? Should we bring our sticks? Oh my god, this is so awesome!’ So, as the time ticked down, we literally flung off everything and sprinted at the goal. We were all hugging and cheering.”

The Box team headed into the finals, having outscored its opponents 99-11 in pool play and 58-3 in the knockout rounds, but they trailed Canada 7-5 with eight minutes left in the final. Team USA scored five unanswered goals to come back to win 10-7 and be crowned world champions.

“We were down until seven minutes left in the game,” Webb said. “We knew it was going to be a battle. Canada grows up playing Box. This is their game. And we knew that we were really, really going to have to bring out everything we had to win. The one thing that’s really important to Team One is the word ‘certain.’ Our coach said that she was ‘certain’ of everybody. Everyone was there because she was ‘certain’ of us. She was ‘certain’ that when times got hard, we would climb our way out. We should be certain of ourselves, our teammates. So ‘certain’ was our word, and I was ‘certain’ the entire game, but I got really hopeful when Canada knocked in their own goal. I’ve done that before – it really hurts. And so I knew that we would take that and run with it. And when Allie Kennedy scored on the open net… I knew our defense was playing lockdown all games. Our goalie Ingrid Boyum was incredible.

“At the end, we were on offense, so all the defenders were out. We were grabbing each other like already unhooking our helmets. I just jumped over the barrier. Some girls tried to get out the door. I just jumped over. Flung the helmet and just dog piled. Everyone smiling, laughing, crying. It was just, it was incredible.”

Both headed right back to Charlottesville to their current task at hand, fall training with their Cavalier teammates. Once again, their journeys could not be more different. Alaimo set the UVA single-season freshman record last year with 27 assists, also scoring 17 goals while appearing in all 20 games, starting eight. Webb redshirted and is still looking to make her UVA debut.

“I joked that I had made my international debut before my collegiate debut,” Webb said.

Alaimo, Webb and the rest of the team have two events left on the calendar for this month, competing at the American Boy Playday in Gainesville, Va. on Saturday, Oct. 19 before closing it out with a scrimmage at James Madison on Friday, Oct. 25.

Their golden skills will be on full display at Klöckner Stadium when the regular season begins in February.