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PEAK MATCH RUNNING DEMANDS IN COLLEGIATE WOMEN’S SOCCER AND LACROSSE

Abstract

Peak match running demands, defined as distances covered at maximum relative speed over various time intervals, are critical for planning training and conditioning drills. While collegiate women’s soccer and lacrosse share similarities in match distances covered, the peak running demands for varying durations remain underexplored. PURPOSE: To compare peak match running demands over varying time durations in collegiate women’s soccer and lacrosse matches. METHODS: Collegiate women’s soccer (n = 10) athletes and women’s lacrosse (n = 10) athletes participated in this study. Wearable sensors collected distance covered during matches across an entire competitive season for each sport. Data were only included in field athletes that started in each match, excluding draw taker for lacrosse. Individual GPS files were analyzed to determine total distance covered over rolling durations lasting 30s, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes, with maximum relative speed (m·min-1) representing peak match running demand. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA was completed with Sidak correction for pairwise comparisons between sports for each duration (α=0.05). RESULTS: There was a significant sport by time duration interaction (p<0.001). Lacrosse athletes demonstrated greater (p<0.001) peak match running demands for durations lasting 30s (236 ± 37 m·min-1) compared to soccer athletes (216 ± 31 m·min-1). Conversely, soccer experienced higher demands (p<0.001) over 10 minutes (112 ± 11 m·min-1) compared to lacrosse (90 ± 9 m·min-1). There were no significant differences between soccer and lacrosse demands for any other duration. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis revealed that shorter intervals in lacrosse matches require higher running speeds, while longer durations in soccer demand greater sustained work rates. These differences are likely due to differences in rules of the game and styles of play between collegiate women’s soccer and lacrosse. Our findings can be utilized by performance professionals to optimize physical characteristics of athletes within these two sports.

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