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Bears of Past, Present, and Future Fight for Team Ireland in 2024 Women’s European Lacrosse Championships
8/23/2024 2:12:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse
By: Linus Lawrence
Kiki Tormey was used to hearing Katrina Dowd give motivational speeches. With Dowd as her head coach at Brown last year, the rising junior Tormey was privy to plenty of impassioned pep talks throughout the Ivy League season.
"I try to keep everything in perspective for the team," Dowd explained. "To keep the nerves down, keep your minds right, and keep your heart beating fast."
On July 7, Dowd gave one of these speeches. But this time, its message took on an entirely different meaning — not only since it was delivered at halftime of a pivotal game against the Czech National Team in Braga, Portugal — but also because Dowd was not Tormey's coach: she was her teammate.
Dowd and Tormey, along with recent graduate Mia Mascone and incoming first-year Riley Peterson, represented four Brown Women's Lacrosse program members selected to compete with Team Ireland in the 2024 European Championships from July 10-20. The Bears of past, present, and future helped Ireland earn a fifth-place finish out of nineteen competing teams while clinching a spot in the 2026 World Championships, which will be held in Japan.
"The line of 'Evertrue' going out there was pretty amazing," Dowd said. "There's nothing like playing in an international tournament representing your country…to be able to enjoy it with the players I coach and take the field with them, it was truly special."
For one player, their journey to the tournament was intimately interwoven with their journey to Brown.
Before arriving in Braga this summer, the quartet first convened in Dublin for the national team tryouts in late October. There, Riley Peterson — then a senior at Redwood High School in Marin County — met Dowd and Mascone, having previously played with Tormey on the Ireland U20 National Team in 2023. A thought crossed her mind as Peterson talked with Mascone about Brown and got to know Dowd throughout the weekend.
"I went to bed one night in Dublin, and I was like, 'imagine if she gave me an offer or something.' Then, two weeks later, I committed to Brown," Peterson recalled. "The whole thing was honestly unreal."
The twist following the tryouts gave Peterson a tight timeframe to adjust her collegiate plans. "I had to complete the early application decision in five days," she said. "It was a stressful time, but it was worth it."
"Being eighteen years old and playing with a senior national team in a major tournament with world championship qualification at stake, she was just so confident," Dowd said. "I can't wait 'til we can coach her and have her in a Brown jersey. I think her future is bright."
The tournament allowed Peterson and Tormey to bond further before playing together at Stevenson-Pincince Field this fall.
"She knows how I play, I know how she plays, and we know what we do on the field," Peterson said. "So I think working together next year will be much easier."
"She's an amazing player," Tormey said of the rising collegiate rookie. "Establishing that connection on and off the field in Portugal (and) applying that to Brown will be interesting."
The pair, along with Mascone, also had the unique opportunity to compete alongside the veteran Dowd—a former U.S. gold medalist in the 2013 Women's Lacrosse World Cup who enters her second year as Brown's head coach.
"Just watching how great she is after all these years and how much she loves the game and can still perform is incredible," Tormey said. "Looking forward in my career, it's inspiring to see."
"I have so much respect for her, and honestly, I'm more excited now after getting to know her as a person to go and play for her," Peterson said. "Being her teammate made me want her to be my coach."
Dowd's 15 goals in the tournament would have led Team Ireland were it not for the offensive powerhouse and Brown record-shatterer Mia Mascone, who matched her former coach's total.
In her 2024 senior campaign, co-captain Mascone accumulated just about every accolade available to her: Ivy League Attacker of the Year, Five-Time Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week, First Team All-Ivy Selection, Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association All-Northeast Region First Team, and U.S. Lacrosse All-American Honorable Mention. Plus, she broke the previously held program records for goals and points in a season with 62 and 98, respectively, while leading the nation in points per game and finishing third in goals per game.
"I was following the Brown Instagram, seeing her winning five-time Ivy Offensive Player of the Week, and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I have to play with this girl,'" Peterson recalled. "I was a little bit scared. But on the field, she gives the best advice…I'd asked her about my shot placement, and she gave me helpful tips."
"Watching her play is just mesmerizing," Peterson added. "She deserves every single one of those awards."
"She is so driven, so talented, and such a thoughtful player," Dowd said of Mascone. "She gave everything to (Brown) last year as a captain…she was amazing to coach."
Mascone and Dowd formed a dynamic scoring duo, ranking in the top 12 for tournament points among 239 players who scored at least once.
"The two of them working together on the field was something I had never seen before," Peterson said. "They both knew how each other played and worked together on the offensive end. It would be crazy."
Tormey, meanwhile, played midfield rather than her usual attack position at Brown, contributing on both sides of the ball.
Dowd spoke about the on-field connection of having previously coached her tournament teammates. "I know their tendencies," she explained. "We all play a little bit different, so stylistically, we mesh very well together…I play in the crease, Mia plays on the wing, and Kiki plays off of us, so I think that the chemistry of us being attackers and spending a year together was definitely there."
That offensive chemistry yielded results early. Ireland got off to a roaring start, going undefeated in four group games against Austria, Norway, Portugal and Czechia while outscoring the opposition 55-15. But the wins weren't without obstacles.
"We definitely were challenged. We had some games where we really had to dig deep," Dowd said, referencing games against Norway and Czechia in which Ireland was tied and losing at halftime, respectively. "Those are the moments you want as a player, where there's a challenge and you really have to find something more within yourself and within the team."
It was at halftime in the Czechia game that Dowd — facing a team she later labeled "one of our strongest opponents" — gave a rousing speech, which received rave reviews from players.
"She gave us this hype-up speech that really gave me chills and gave everyone else chills," Peterson said, highlighting the way the team began "working together as a unit" to earn the victory. "If we were down a point or two (in the tournament), she would get us together and say, 'Look, this is our game. We're playing for the name on our chest; we're playing for our country. We need to get it together.'"
"She really has a gift for those," Tormey said. "She can really just draw everyone in a room to her. She really motivated us to win" against Czechia.
Sweeping group play sealed Ireland a spot in the quarterfinals, as the nineteen teams were whittled down to eight for the following round. Only seven would qualify for the World Championships.
In the quarterfinal match against Wales, Ireland was handed their first and only loss of the tournament by a final of 10-8. Despite a fiftieth-minute goal from Macsone to bring the score within one, Wales got the last laugh, adding a goal with just eighty seconds left to play.
"We seriously gave it our all, and we were fighting until the last whistle with them," Peterson said. "It came down to who was grittier, and they won that battle."
Wales "played an incredible game," Dowd said. "They played with great pride and passion, and they were able to catch momentum."
But with a hard-fought 11-9 win over Italy the next day, led by five points from Dowd, Ireland secured a top-six finish and clinched the qualification they sought.
"It was just a joyous moment," Dowd said of the victory. "You're setting up the legacy of the program and the opportunity for Ireland to keep competing at these world events."
Ireland's tournament action closed the following day with a 10-7 win over Germany, giving the team a fifth-place finish—tied for the nation's best since finishing fourth in the smaller ten-team 2008 European Championships.
"I think we're really proud," Tormey said, "but we're looking forward to improving even more in years to come."
The national team now sets their sights on 2026, where the band of Bears hope to return to help Ireland fight for a world championship in Japan. First, they will have to once again tryout to make the National Team.
"The future is bright for Ireland Lacrosse," Dowd said. "I take it year-by-year at this point in my career, but playing for Team Ireland in Japan in the World Championships, that's pretty incredible. Hopefully, I can stay a part of the program."
"I'll have two years of playing college lacrosse under my belt," Peterson remarked. "I'm good now, but I can't even wait to see how much I'll grow playing at Brown and trying out for the team again."
As for the future of Brown Women's Lacrosse, Tormey and Peterson will look to take their experience competing (and winning) on the international stage back to the Ivy League, while Dowd seeks to "build off" her first campaign as head coach. Despite breaking the program record for goals and assists and tying the program record for overall wins, the 2024 Bears finished in fifth place in the Ivy League — narrowly missing the playoffs for the second straight season since the institution of the Ivy Tournament.
For a player Dowd called "confident" multiple times, Peterson lived up to her coach's descriptor when discussing her goals as a Bear.
"I expect us, within my time here, to get to an Ivy League championship," Peterson said. "I think in the next few years, this team's gonna be the strongest it's ever been."
Both Peterson and Tormey cited Coach Dowd as a reason to expect great things from Bruno in the coming years.
"Seeing her play in these full games and just killing it, carrying our team, and acting with such grace and leadership…if we're coached by someone this great, we're gonna be great," Tormey said. "So I'm looking forward to 2025. I think we'll have a great season."
As for what Dowd hopes her players take away from this summer's action, she emphasized the love of the game as the greatest lesson one can learn from a career in lacrosse.
"If you love the game, it will love you back. It will take you places all over the world; it will give you friends for life, and it will give you the lessons and the confidence that we all want and need. It will give you so much fulfillment and joy in your life," Dowd said. "I hope that they see why I still play and why I care so much about the game."
Kiki Tormey was used to hearing Katrina Dowd give motivational speeches. With Dowd as her head coach at Brown last year, the rising junior Tormey was privy to plenty of impassioned pep talks throughout the Ivy League season.
"I try to keep everything in perspective for the team," Dowd explained. "To keep the nerves down, keep your minds right, and keep your heart beating fast."
On July 7, Dowd gave one of these speeches. But this time, its message took on an entirely different meaning — not only since it was delivered at halftime of a pivotal game against the Czech National Team in Braga, Portugal — but also because Dowd was not Tormey's coach: she was her teammate.
Dowd and Tormey, along with recent graduate Mia Mascone and incoming first-year Riley Peterson, represented four Brown Women's Lacrosse program members selected to compete with Team Ireland in the 2024 European Championships from July 10-20. The Bears of past, present, and future helped Ireland earn a fifth-place finish out of nineteen competing teams while clinching a spot in the 2026 World Championships, which will be held in Japan.
"The line of 'Evertrue' going out there was pretty amazing," Dowd said. "There's nothing like playing in an international tournament representing your country…to be able to enjoy it with the players I coach and take the field with them, it was truly special."
For one player, their journey to the tournament was intimately interwoven with their journey to Brown.
Before arriving in Braga this summer, the quartet first convened in Dublin for the national team tryouts in late October. There, Riley Peterson — then a senior at Redwood High School in Marin County — met Dowd and Mascone, having previously played with Tormey on the Ireland U20 National Team in 2023. A thought crossed her mind as Peterson talked with Mascone about Brown and got to know Dowd throughout the weekend.
"I went to bed one night in Dublin, and I was like, 'imagine if she gave me an offer or something.' Then, two weeks later, I committed to Brown," Peterson recalled. "The whole thing was honestly unreal."
The twist following the tryouts gave Peterson a tight timeframe to adjust her collegiate plans. "I had to complete the early application decision in five days," she said. "It was a stressful time, but it was worth it."
"Being eighteen years old and playing with a senior national team in a major tournament with world championship qualification at stake, she was just so confident," Dowd said. "I can't wait 'til we can coach her and have her in a Brown jersey. I think her future is bright."
The tournament allowed Peterson and Tormey to bond further before playing together at Stevenson-Pincince Field this fall.
"She knows how I play, I know how she plays, and we know what we do on the field," Peterson said. "So I think working together next year will be much easier."
"She's an amazing player," Tormey said of the rising collegiate rookie. "Establishing that connection on and off the field in Portugal (and) applying that to Brown will be interesting."
The pair, along with Mascone, also had the unique opportunity to compete alongside the veteran Dowd—a former U.S. gold medalist in the 2013 Women's Lacrosse World Cup who enters her second year as Brown's head coach.
"Just watching how great she is after all these years and how much she loves the game and can still perform is incredible," Tormey said. "Looking forward in my career, it's inspiring to see."
"I have so much respect for her, and honestly, I'm more excited now after getting to know her as a person to go and play for her," Peterson said. "Being her teammate made me want her to be my coach."
Dowd's 15 goals in the tournament would have led Team Ireland were it not for the offensive powerhouse and Brown record-shatterer Mia Mascone, who matched her former coach's total.
In her 2024 senior campaign, co-captain Mascone accumulated just about every accolade available to her: Ivy League Attacker of the Year, Five-Time Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week, First Team All-Ivy Selection, Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association All-Northeast Region First Team, and U.S. Lacrosse All-American Honorable Mention. Plus, she broke the previously held program records for goals and points in a season with 62 and 98, respectively, while leading the nation in points per game and finishing third in goals per game.
"I was following the Brown Instagram, seeing her winning five-time Ivy Offensive Player of the Week, and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I have to play with this girl,'" Peterson recalled. "I was a little bit scared. But on the field, she gives the best advice…I'd asked her about my shot placement, and she gave me helpful tips."
"Watching her play is just mesmerizing," Peterson added. "She deserves every single one of those awards."
"She is so driven, so talented, and such a thoughtful player," Dowd said of Mascone. "She gave everything to (Brown) last year as a captain…she was amazing to coach."
Mascone and Dowd formed a dynamic scoring duo, ranking in the top 12 for tournament points among 239 players who scored at least once.
"The two of them working together on the field was something I had never seen before," Peterson said. "They both knew how each other played and worked together on the offensive end. It would be crazy."
Tormey, meanwhile, played midfield rather than her usual attack position at Brown, contributing on both sides of the ball.
Dowd spoke about the on-field connection of having previously coached her tournament teammates. "I know their tendencies," she explained. "We all play a little bit different, so stylistically, we mesh very well together…I play in the crease, Mia plays on the wing, and Kiki plays off of us, so I think that the chemistry of us being attackers and spending a year together was definitely there."
That offensive chemistry yielded results early. Ireland got off to a roaring start, going undefeated in four group games against Austria, Norway, Portugal and Czechia while outscoring the opposition 55-15. But the wins weren't without obstacles.
"We definitely were challenged. We had some games where we really had to dig deep," Dowd said, referencing games against Norway and Czechia in which Ireland was tied and losing at halftime, respectively. "Those are the moments you want as a player, where there's a challenge and you really have to find something more within yourself and within the team."
It was at halftime in the Czechia game that Dowd — facing a team she later labeled "one of our strongest opponents" — gave a rousing speech, which received rave reviews from players.
"She gave us this hype-up speech that really gave me chills and gave everyone else chills," Peterson said, highlighting the way the team began "working together as a unit" to earn the victory. "If we were down a point or two (in the tournament), she would get us together and say, 'Look, this is our game. We're playing for the name on our chest; we're playing for our country. We need to get it together.'"
"She really has a gift for those," Tormey said. "She can really just draw everyone in a room to her. She really motivated us to win" against Czechia.
Sweeping group play sealed Ireland a spot in the quarterfinals, as the nineteen teams were whittled down to eight for the following round. Only seven would qualify for the World Championships.
In the quarterfinal match against Wales, Ireland was handed their first and only loss of the tournament by a final of 10-8. Despite a fiftieth-minute goal from Macsone to bring the score within one, Wales got the last laugh, adding a goal with just eighty seconds left to play.
"We seriously gave it our all, and we were fighting until the last whistle with them," Peterson said. "It came down to who was grittier, and they won that battle."
Wales "played an incredible game," Dowd said. "They played with great pride and passion, and they were able to catch momentum."
But with a hard-fought 11-9 win over Italy the next day, led by five points from Dowd, Ireland secured a top-six finish and clinched the qualification they sought.
"It was just a joyous moment," Dowd said of the victory. "You're setting up the legacy of the program and the opportunity for Ireland to keep competing at these world events."
Ireland's tournament action closed the following day with a 10-7 win over Germany, giving the team a fifth-place finish—tied for the nation's best since finishing fourth in the smaller ten-team 2008 European Championships.
"I think we're really proud," Tormey said, "but we're looking forward to improving even more in years to come."
The national team now sets their sights on 2026, where the band of Bears hope to return to help Ireland fight for a world championship in Japan. First, they will have to once again tryout to make the National Team.
"The future is bright for Ireland Lacrosse," Dowd said. "I take it year-by-year at this point in my career, but playing for Team Ireland in Japan in the World Championships, that's pretty incredible. Hopefully, I can stay a part of the program."
"I'll have two years of playing college lacrosse under my belt," Peterson remarked. "I'm good now, but I can't even wait to see how much I'll grow playing at Brown and trying out for the team again."
As for the future of Brown Women's Lacrosse, Tormey and Peterson will look to take their experience competing (and winning) on the international stage back to the Ivy League, while Dowd seeks to "build off" her first campaign as head coach. Despite breaking the program record for goals and assists and tying the program record for overall wins, the 2024 Bears finished in fifth place in the Ivy League — narrowly missing the playoffs for the second straight season since the institution of the Ivy Tournament.
For a player Dowd called "confident" multiple times, Peterson lived up to her coach's descriptor when discussing her goals as a Bear.
"I expect us, within my time here, to get to an Ivy League championship," Peterson said. "I think in the next few years, this team's gonna be the strongest it's ever been."
Both Peterson and Tormey cited Coach Dowd as a reason to expect great things from Bruno in the coming years.
"Seeing her play in these full games and just killing it, carrying our team, and acting with such grace and leadership…if we're coached by someone this great, we're gonna be great," Tormey said. "So I'm looking forward to 2025. I think we'll have a great season."
As for what Dowd hopes her players take away from this summer's action, she emphasized the love of the game as the greatest lesson one can learn from a career in lacrosse.
"If you love the game, it will love you back. It will take you places all over the world; it will give you friends for life, and it will give you the lessons and the confidence that we all want and need. It will give you so much fulfillment and joy in your life," Dowd said. "I hope that they see why I still play and why I care so much about the game."
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