2009 Women's Lacrosse World Cup

The 2009 Women's Lacrosse World Cup, the eighth World Cup played, is the preeminent international women's lacrosse tournament. The tournament was held at SK Slavia Praha Sport Centre in Prague, Czech Republic from June 17 to June 27, 2009. USA defeated Australia in the finals to win the tournament.

Sponsoring organizations
The event is sponsored by the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) and the Czech Women’s Lacrosse (CWL). This tournament was first held in 1982 and is held every four years. It is the first major event to be sponsored by the FIL. In August 2008, the men's international governing body International Lacrosse Federation merged with the former governing body for women's lacrosse, the International Federation of Women's Lacrosse Associations, to form the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL).

The CWL also sponsors the 12th annual Prague Cup as an associated event. This tournament, held at the same venue as the World Cup, allows international club teams to compete at the same time in the open event.

Teams
Sixteen teams, the most ever, competed in the 2009 World Cup tournament. New entries include: Austria, Denmark, Haudenosaunee, Ireland, South Korea, and the Netherlands. The Haudenosaunee is the first team of women to represent the indigenous peoples of the Americas in the Women's World Cup. Lacrosse is seen as a sacred sport to the Iroquois and was traditionally a sport reserved for only men. In earlier tournaments, clan mothers protested the women's team playing the sacred sport and threatened to lay down on the field to prevent them from playing.

The tournament saw the return of defending gold medal winners Australia, as well as Canada, England, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland, United States, Wales and the Czech Republic.

Teams were split into three separate pools. Pool A (Australia, United States, England, Canada, and Japan) and Pool B (Wales, Scotland, Czech Republic, Germany and New Zealand) played round robins games against each team in their pool seeding for the quarterfinals. Pool C (Austria, Denmark, Haudenosaunee, Ireland, Korea and Netherlands) played in two mini-pools ((I)& (II)) to determine who will advance to the next round of play. The quarterfinals were followed by consolation games, the semifinals, and the bronze and gold medal games.

Round Robin results
''WPct. = Winning Percentage, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, P.I.M. = Penalty Minutes, PPG= Points per Game''

Quarterfinals
places 1-8:
 * USA 22 - 5 Ireland
 * Australia 17 - 4 Scotland
 * Canada 10 - 6 Wales
 * England 19 - 12 Japan

places 9-16:
 * Czech Republic 23 - 0 South Korea
 * Germany 24 - 1 Denmark
 * New Zealand 18 - 0 Austria
 * Haudenosaunee 16 - 2 Netherlands

Semifinals
places 1-4:
 * USA 20 - 3 England
 * Australia 12 - 10 Canada

places 5-8:
 * Ireland 15 - 13 Japan
 * Wales 11 - 8 Scotland

places 9-12:
 * Czech Republic 12 - 7 Haudenosaunee
 * Germany 15 - 4 New Zealand

places 13-16:
 * Netherlands 28 - 1 South Korea
 * Austria 10 - 9 Denmark

Finals
15th place final:
 * Denmark 17 - 3 South Korea

13th place final:
 * Netherlands 14 - 3 Austria

11th place final:
 * Haudenosaunee 18 - 6 New Zealand

9th place final:
 * Czech Republic 15 - 5 Germany

7th place final:
 * Japan 11 - 7 Scotland

5th place final:
 * Ireland 12 - 7 Wales

3rd place final:
 * Canada 14 - 9 England

1st place final:
 * USA v Australia