Photo Courtesy of WMSL Peterborough Lakers, David Pickering
The City of Peterborough is gearing up for a landmark event as it prepares to host the 2025 Women’s Major Series Lacrosse (WMSL) Provincial Championship from August 15-17. The announcement, made earlier this week, has sparked excitement among local lacrosse enthusiasts and players alike, particularly for Peterborough Lakers players and co-founders, Chelsea Campbell and Victoria Clark, two key figures behind bringing a WMSL team to this lacrosse hotbed.
The WMSL, which rebranded in 2022 from the Ontario Women’s Box Lacrosse League, has grown into Canada’s premier women’s box lacrosse league, now boasting 10 teams (Windsor will be added as the 11th team in 2026) spanning from Kingston to Niagara. The WMSL operates in a unique ‘League Day’ format. Instead of weekday games, which can be tough with work and coaching commitments the players have, they play two games per Saturday at host cities over five weekends in the summer. It’s a way to make travel manageable for everyone. This year, with 10 teams, each squad will face the others once across nine games, with hub locations rotating to balance the travel load.
For Campbell and Clark, both lifelong lacrosse players raised in Peterborough’s rich lacrosse culture, Clark says bringing a WMSL team to their hometown was a dream realized in 2024.
The duo’s efforts paid off last year with the inaugural season of the Peterborough Lakers in the WMSL. Despite the inevitable challenges of launching a new team, the community’s support made it a resounding success. Like with any big project there were hiccups, Campbell admitted, but she says the support from Peterborough made every bump worth it.
The Lakers finished the 2024 regular season with a strong 5-3-1 record and made it to the provincial semifinals in Niagara-on-the-Lake, falling 2-0 to the eventual champions, the Whitby Rush. Campbell says it was great feeling to be in a tight game with the team that won it all.
Although field lacrosse gave both women some great opportunities, like playing at Trent University, Clark says box lacrosse holds a certain allure.
The emotional high point of their first season came when Peterborough hosted a League Day. Seeing the stands filled, hearing the crowd sing the anthem, is when Campbell says it really hit them.
Echoing Campbell’s sentiments, Clark says the feeling she had before that first game was one of the proudest moments of her life.
Now, with the 2025 provincials coming to Peterborough, the stakes, and the excitement, are even higher. The tournament, set to feature all 10 WMSL teams and over 150 athletes, will take place at the Peterborough Memorial Centre and Kinsmen Civic Centre. Clark says the city reached out to them after last season, seeing it as a great opportunity for Peterborough.
Campbell added that with most of their players being from Peterborough, having the provincials in their own backyard holds special significance for the Lakers organization.
The growth of women’s lacrosse has been remarkable, both women agree. In the last 10 years it’s exploded, with the new Women’s Lacrosse League (WLL) in field lacrosse, Team Canada winning silver at the first ever Women’s World Lacrosse Box Championships last September, and lacrosse’s upcoming return to the Olympics in 2028. Campbell, who also coaches in the Peterborough Minor Lacrosse Association (PMLA), says they’re seeing more girls than ever playing lacrosse in this area.
The Lakers’ 2025 season kicks off on May 31, with their first game on the road in Mississauga. The pair has had a lot of people reaching out to ask how they can help, and they encourage those eager to support the team to contact them directly. Clark also hinted at another way to support the team.
With the provincials on the horizon, the Peterborough Lakers are poised to make their mark, not just on the scoreboard, but in the continued rise of women’s lacrosse across Canada. As they look ahead, Campbell and Clark’s passion for lacrosse and their community shines through, with their love of the sport the driving force that keeps them motivated to continue being great ambassadors for the game and for their city. It’s one thing to use the popular lacrosse catchphrase, “grow the game,” but it’s another to actually walk the walk, and that’s exactly what these two influential women are doing.
(Written by: Scott Arnold)
