Maryland Charm make Women’s Lacrosse League history: ‘Amazing’

In the days since the Maryland Charm captured the inaugural Women’s Lacrosse League championship on Saturday, attacker Alex Aust Holman is still in her feels.

“I have not stopped crying,” the former Maryland star and current Terps assistant coach said Sunday. “I’m so emotional about it because I think that just being able to do it with the girls and do it with everyone that works so hard and seeing some of my teammates win their first-ever championships, we went down in history, and I think that there’s such a power in being that underdog. Everyone thought we were doomed from the beginning, and I think that fueled our fire. But we always knew that we had it.”

Considering how the state is perhaps the hottest of hotbeds for lacrosse, it seemed fitting that the Charm emerged with the WLL crown after forging a 16-13 victory over the California Palms at Subaru Park in Philadelphia. The achievement occurred seven years after the Whipsnakes — who eventually made Maryland their home base — won the Premier Lacrosse League’s first title.

“I think it’s amazing,” said Charm attacker Sydni Black, who thrived at Loyola Maryland. “When you think of lacrosse, you think Maryland. I think that anyone across the country would say that.”

The state’s influence runs deep within the Maryland roster. Seven of the team’s 22 players played for the Terps, three were Greyhounds, and assistant coach Corey Donohoe grew up in Jarrettsville and graduated from North Harford.

The roster boasts a pair of Tewaaraton Award winners, Boston College’s Sam Apuzzo (2018) and North Carolina’s Chloe Humphrey (2025), and the most recent World Championship Most Valuable Player, Stony Brook’s Ally Kennedy. After disappointing back-to-back last-place finishes in the WLL Championship Series, the team set the tone this summer with a thrilling 18-17 overtime win against the Palms on May 29 in Baltimore.

“Even going back to the first time we played the Palms in Maryland back in May and winning in overtime, I honestly think then we kind of knew because we were just so battle-tested throughout the season that we knew that when things got hard, we never crumbled,” said former Maryland midfielder Grace Griffin, a Sykesville native and Liberty graduate. “We never doubted. We always knew we had what it took.”

The Charm dropped just one game during the regular season. That 12-10 setback to the New York Charging forced the players and coaches to address some flaws.

“I think that you learn so much more from losing than you do from winning, and maybe if we didn’t lose that game, we would have kind of still continued to skate by until it came back to bite us,” Aust Holman said. “So I think that loss really fueled us a little, just made us a little bit sharper, fine-tuned some roles on the team and some game plans and stuff.”

Despite a four-week hiatus to allow players to compete in the World Championship in Tokyo, Japan, Maryland shook off any rust by racing to a 7-3 advantage in the first quarter on Saturday. Although California eventually tied the score at 9-9 in the third quarter, the Charm closed the door by scoring seven of the game’s last 11 goals.

After amassing four goals and one assist, Black was named the title game’s Most Valuable Player. She in turn cited her teammates for giving her confidence, especially fellow attackers Apuzzo and Humphrey.

“I’m truly honored to be the first,” she said. “But I’m glad to know that with what the league has given and put into investing in the sport, I won’t be the last.”

At 35, Aust Holman is the oldest member of the team — two years older than former Maryland defender Meg Douty-Marino. Ten months removed from giving birth to her son Tiger, Aust Holman celebrated Saturday with her mother Longma, her husband Marcus Holman (who grew up in Baltimore and graduated from Gilman and North Carolina) and her son.