Evans scores six goals in opening game win

Peterborough’s Erica Evans had six goals and two assists and Peterborough’s Allison Daley made four saves to get the win in net to help lead Canada to a 15-10 win over Australia on Thursday to open the 2017 World Games in Wroclaw, Poland.

The pair, along with Peterborough’s Katie Donohoe, helped Canada win a silver medal last week at the 2017 FIL Rathbones world Cup of Women’s Lacrosse in Guildford, England. Donohoe didn’t make the trip with a condensed Canadian team of 15 to Poland.

Canada’s next game will be Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern against Japan, who are ranked No. 10 in the world despite only losing one game at last week’s World Cup.

They narrowly missed out on the championship quarter-finals, falling 8-7 to Israel.

The Japanese gave Great Britain, a squad with athletes from England, Scotland and Ireland, a good run in their first World Games match this morning, losing 9-5.

Canada will look to earn a berth in the semifinals which go Saturday. The medal games are Sunday.

The event pits Canada against five nations - United States, Australia, Great Britain (a combined England, Scotland and Wales squad), Japan and Poland - for gold at this international multi-sport event, where more than 3,250 athletes from 111 countries will compete in 31 sports.

These Games mark the first time women’s field lacrosse will be a part of the official sports program at an international multi-sport games, which is quite a milestone.

It is also one of the rare times over the past century lacrosse is part of an event of this magnitude. Men’s field was an Olympic medal event in 1904 and 1908, and a demonstration sport in 1928, 1932 and 1948, while men’s box lacrosse was a demonstration sport both times Canada hosted the Commonwealth Games, 1978 in Edmonton and 1994 in Victoria.

There will be some noticeable rule changes in place during the tournament as well, mainly that each team will only have 10 players on the field at a time instead of the normal 12 players and that mandatory stick checks after every goal have been eliminated.

The women will look to add to Canada’s medal count, which currently sits at four, having previously won gold in bowling, silver in water skiing, and bronze in climbing and ultimate.

The International World Games Association (IWGA), an organization formally recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been organizing this Olympic-style event, hosted on a quadrennial cycle, since 1981. Their events have been a launching pad of sorts, helping sports such as badminton, beach volleyball, water polo, trampoline, taekwondo, triathlon and rugby sevens, gain Olympic status