This past July, Vassar women’s lacrosse senior Emilia DiLiberto ’27 had the remarkable opportunity to compete with Team Argentina at the 2026 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship. The tournament took place in Tokyo, Japan, where DiLiberto competed among the world’s best and quickly made a name for herself with her skill and competitive fire.
While DiLiberto may have made her mark in Tokyo, this has been no secret to the Liberty League. She is an All-Liberty League 2nd, 3rd and Honorable Mention Team recipient, as well as a two-time member of the Liberty League All-Academic Team, and a 2023 to 2024 Vassar Athletics Rookie of the Year Award Finalist. She is also a two-time captain for Vassar women’s lacrosse, and ranks No.1 in all-time program draw controls with 210 DC, which she surpassed after only the first game of her junior season. Since her freshman year, she has been a key contributor to the women’s lacrosse program, setting the tone for many seasons to come.
I asked DiLiberto about her journey with Argentina. After her standout freshman campaign, she came across an interest form for the Argentinian national team. After ultimately deciding to ignore it, her dad filled it out behind her back, and within a day she heard from the head coach, who asked her to try out. This coach was Nico Prandi, assistant coach of Endicott College Women’s Lacrosse, who remembered DiLiberto after her impressive performance against them that previous spring. From then on, she took part in a variety of tryouts and training camps for Team Argentina, making it past each in what she described as “by the skin of my teeth” (DiLiberto). Yet it clearly paid off because in late July 2026, DiLiberto was not only a member of their team, but dominating on the world stage at the 12th Women’s World Championship.
The tournament consisted of 10 days of intense competition against the world’s top 16 nations. Argentina started with a pre-tournament scrimmage against Team Chinese Taipei, where DiLiberto faced Vassar women’s lacrosse alumna Trina Chou ’23. In the official tournament play that followed, they competed in five games against Scotland, Puerto Rico, England, Ireland and the Philippines. After beating Ireland by one point, Argentina guaranteed a top 10 tournament finish. This left their final game for ninth place, where they faced the Philippines. Compared to their No.26 ranking after the 2022 Women’s World Championship, Argentina had already achieved the unthinkable—but they were not finished yet. Fueled by their win over Ireland and a chance to prove what their team was made of, they had nothing to lose.
The ninth-place match was a heated back-and-forth fight with Argentina and the Philippines in tow. After trailing in the fourth, Cornell University sophomore Gretta White tied the game in the last seven seconds to send it into overtime. DiLiberto was a massive contributor with three goals in regular time—but she had more in store. In a one-on-one matchup, DiLiberto scored the golden goal to win the game for Team Argentina and seal their global ninth-place ranking. “It was really meaningful for me to go from fighting my way onto the roster every event to breaking out and making a big impact when my team needed me,” she told me. This standout performance earned her the “player of the match” honor. DiLiberto ultimately finished the tournament ranked 16th in points with 9 goals and 1 assist across the competition, and Team Argentina finished with a 3-2 record in tournament play.
DiLiberto expressed gratitude for her experience in Tokyo: “This was a really unique opportunity for me to leave Division III athletics and get to play in an environment that I wouldn’t typically get to… It’s a very high level of play and a privilege to get to do it for Argentina.” As much as this experience was about lacrosse, playing with Argentina and competing in Tokyo was also an opportunity for DiLiberto to connect to her heritage and other cultures outside of her own: “It’s an immersion experience as well as a competitive environment,” she said. This was a chance to play for something bigger than lacrosse, and bigger than herself.
So what is next for DiLiberto and Argentina Women’s Lacrosse? After her exceptional performance in Tokyo, DiLiberto secured herself a spot on the 12-woman roster for the 2026 Pan-American Sixes Women’s Lacrosse Championship. The Sixes tournament will take place from Sept. 29 to Oct. 4 in Oshawa, Canada. This marks the beginning of their road to the 2028 Olympic Games, where only six teams will qualify. 2028 will mark the first Games in which lacrosse has been featured since its official contestation in1908. DiLiberto and the Argentinian National Team are only just getting started, and are more eager than ever to keep their Olympic dreams alive.