The Waterdogs, Philly’s team in the traveling Premier Lacrosse League, are back in town for a playoff semifinal against the New York Atlas at Chester’s Subaru Park on Monday.
The team heads into the Labor Day game as an underdog, having made it into the playoffs with a 4-6 record. They defeated the Maryland Whipsnakes (also 4-6) in the quarterfinals, and now prepare to face the Atlas (7-3), who have beaten Philly twice this season.
Even so, Waterdogs head coach Bill Tierney had a simple message for his team ahead of the Maryland game: “We’re in the playoffs, fellas. Why not us?”
‘On any given day’
Underdog has often been a familiar status for Philly sports teams over the years, but not so much recently. Kyle Schwarber has the National League East-leading Phillies in euphoria, the Union could be the first Major League Soccer squad to book a postseason spot if it wins against Cincinnati on Sunday, and the Eagles kick off the NFL season as defending champions on Thursday.
It’s a status that Tierney, the most successful coach in college lacrosse with a world championship, has been unfamiliar with during his 50-plus years of coaching. But that’s where he has found himself in his two years coaching a pro team.
“This is my 52nd year of coaching lacrosse and you think you’ve seen it all, until I got into the PLL, and I’ve learned so much in the last two years,” he said. “The best part of it all is just the relationships with these guys, and I think that has more to do with the improvement [in] our relationship — them understanding me, me understanding them and the pro game.”
The Waterdogs were chosen to represent Philly in 2023, when the field lacrosse league announced it was assigning its eight teams to cities around the country. The first season under Tierney didn’t go great, though the team’s first-ever homecoming weekend at Villanova was entertaining.
Having finished in last place in 2024, the team got the first pick in the league’s draft and selected Cornell University attacker CJ Kirst.
Tierney said they started the season as “an unknown” and it has been a rollercoaster: Kirst sat out the start of the season after wrist surgery; the team started 4-2, lost its remaining four regular season games, then squeaked into the postseason based on a score differential tiebreaker.
That’s not great, but the team has been here before. When the Waterdogs won their first championship in 2022, at Subaru Park, the team was 5-5 going into the playoffs. Tierney said the potential to beat any team on a given day remains. Though the team lost to New York twice, they narrowed the margin from an eight-goal loss in June to just one goal two weeks ago.
“This league is so tight,” he said. “I mean, yes, we’re the underdogs. But the truth of the matter is, we had a 20-to-19 game with the Atlas a couple weeks ago. So there’s the old cliche, ‘on any given day,’ and that’s why you don’t feel like you’re an overwhelming underdog, especially with the way our offense is playing right now.”
Leveraging homefield advantage
Tierney said the key to defeating New York is keeping their offense in check. If Philly can play consistent defense and ride the positive wave that its offense has been on lately, the upset is possible.
Despite the PLL being a traveling league, the Waterdogs have a strong local fanbase. Much of that is thanks to star and MVP finalist Michael Sowers, a Dresher native who played for Princeton.
As Kirst has settled in with the offense, Tierney said, Sowers has adapted his game to accommodate an attacking system that best suits playing with the rookie and three-time all-star Kieran McArdle.
“I love many things about Michael, but one of the things I love about him is he refuses to accept how good he is,” Tierney said. “He’s always on a journey to improve … His role hasn’t changed — he’s still our most impactful player — but his ability to be flexible and give CJ his opportunities, still look for Kieran when he’s dodging, has just enhanced his play. And he certainly is the face of the Waterdogs in Philadelphia.”
Tickets are still available for Monday, which features a tripleheader of games starting with the Waterdogs-Atlas at noon. The second semifinal between the California Redwoods and the Denver Outlaws begins at 3 p.m., followed by the Stars & Stripes Classic exhibition game between Green Beret and Navy SEAL veterans at 5 p.m. Tickets are available for all three games, and are free for active-duty military and veterans.
All three games are also streaming on ESPN, with the 3 p.m. semifinal also on ESPN 2 and the 5 p.m. exhibition on ABC.
The semifinalist winners will face off at the Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, N.J., on Sept. 14.