Women’s Lacrosse League to host two series in New England during inaugural season

The Women’s Lacrosse League will play its inaugural season in 2026, with two stops on the 10-city tour in New England.

The league features four teams: The Boston Guard, New York Charging, California Palms, and Maryland Charm. Playing in a 10-on-10 format, the WLL will open with games at Rhode Island’s Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket May 15 to 17.

The league will travel for weekend series in Baltimore, Md., on Memorial Day weekend, then Charlotte, N.C., Long Island, N.Y., and San Diego, Calif., in June.

An All-Star game, to be held with the men’s Professional Lacrosse League, will be played over Fourth of July weekend at a site to be determined. The season resumes with games in Chicago and Fairfield, Conn., in July.

From Aug. 7 to 9, the WLL will play at Harvard Stadium in Cambridge. The season will wrap up with a championship in Philadelphia from Aug. 14 to 16.

Boston Legacy will play inaugural game against NWSL champion, and schedule includes seven games in Rhode Island

The WLL was formed in 2024 with eyes on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where lacrosse will be contested for the first time since 1908.

Lacrosse at the Olympics will be in an “Olympic sixes” format. The WLL and PLL will play its Championship Series in six-on-six in Springfield, Va., from Feb. 27 to March 8. It’s a round-robin style tournament.

But the inaugural WLL season will be in the more familiar 10-on-10 format seen at the college and high school levels.

Leading the Boston Guard will be Charlotte North, a two-time winner of the Tewaaraton award, given to the nation’s best college player. North won a title at Boston College in 2021 and led the Eagles back to the championship in 2022.

“Women’s lacrosse is in a really cool spot right now,” North told the Globe last year. “There’s more opportunity to play than there ever was, and especially post-college, professionally, and internationally. We’re motivated by being able to be in a position to do that and to do it to the best of our ability.”

The WLL hopes to capitalize on the wave of emerging women’s sports leagues. LOVB (pronounced “Love”), a professional volleyball league, began its second season this month, as did Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 women’s basketball league featuring WNBA players.

Launching later this year will be the Women’s Pro Baseball League, which features a Boston team but will play its inaugural season in Illinois.