How Long Is A Lacrosse Game? (Boys & Girls)

So how long is a lacrosse game? The length of a lacrosse game depends on two things: whether it is a boy’s or girl’s lacrosse game, and the league or division you are watching or playing in (youth, high school, college, pro). Because there are different levels of play, the rules of a lacrosse game slightly differ for each lacrosse league. In this article, we will lay out the length of lacrosse game for every level of the sport (boys and girls); however, here is a quick snapshot of the average length of a lacrosse game:

• Youth: 40 minutes
• High School: 48 minutes
• College: 60 minutes
• Pro: 48 minutes

Lacrosse Game Overview

Lacrosse games are divided up into halves and quarters with timeouts allotted to each team. If the game is tied at the end of regulation, both teams will play an overtime period.

Quarters

Every lacrosse game is divided up into four quarters. Only very young youth divisions, like 8U games, will not use quarters.

Halftime

Halftime is the break between the second and third quarter. The length of halftime can vary based on age bracket, but most halftimes are 5 minutes long.

Timeouts

The amount of timeouts given to each team varies based on age bracket and league you are playing in. Most youth and high school teams are allotted 2 timeouts per half. NCAA college lacrosse teams receive 2 timeouts per half. Professional lacrosse teams in the Premier Lacrosse League receive 3 timeouts per half.

Overtime

If the game is tied at the end of regulation, both teams will go into overtime. High school lacrosse games and college lacrosse games have sudden death overtime. Teams will play periods of four minutes each until a goal is scored. The first team to score wins.

How Long Is A Boy’s Lacrosse Game?

How Long Is A Boy’s Youth Lacrosse Game?

The length of a boy’s youth lacrosse game depends on the age bracket you are playing in:

• 8U games are 24 minutes long. They are divided into two 12 minute running halves.
• 10U games are 40 minutes long. They are divided into four 10 minute running quarters.
• 12U games are 40 minutes long. They are divided into four 10 minute stop-time quarters.
• 14U games are 40 minutes long. They are divided into four 10 minute stop-time quarters.

A running clock will not stop during referee stoppages. Running clocks exist at the 8U level and 10U level. Stop-time clocks will stop and start during referee stoppages. For example, if a penalty is called, the referee will stop the clock to call the penalty, and then restart game. Because stop-time exists at the 12U level and above, game lengths can run a bit longer.

How Long Is A High School Lacrosse Game?

A high school boy’s lacrosse game is 48 minutes long. They are divided into four 12 minute stop-time quarters.

How Long Is A College Lacrosse Game?

An NCAA men’s lacrosse game is 60 minutes long. They are divided into four 15 minute stop-time quarters.

How Long Are Premier Lacrosse League Games?

The Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) is the professional men’s lacrosse league. PLL games are 48 minutes long, and are divided up into 12 minute quarters.

How Many Quarters In Lacrosse?

There are four quarters in a lacrosse game. The length of a quarter slight differs depending on if it’s a high school, college, pro, or youth lacrosse game.

How Long Is A Girl’s Lacrosse Game?

How Long Is A Girl’s Youth Lacrosse Game?

The length of a girl’s youth lacrosse depends on the age bracket you are playing in:

• 8U games are 24 minutes long. They are divided into two 12 minute running halves.
• 10U games are 36 minutes long. They are divided into two 18 minute running halves.
• 12U games are 40 minutes long. They are divided into two 20 minute running halves.
• 14U games are 50 minutes long. They are divided into two 25 minute running halves.

How Long Is A Girl’s High School Lacrosse Game?

High school girl’s lacrosse games are 50 minutes long. They are divided into two 25 minute running halves.

How Long Is A Women’s College Lacrosse Game?

NCAA women’s lacrosse games are 60 minutes long. They are divided into four 15 minute quarters. Play should be continuous, but at the discretion of the officials, timeout may be taken for unusual circumstances, for example, a broken stick, animal on the field, lost ball, a ball that has gone too far out of bounds, a team delays the start of play from out of bounds or spectator interference.

Wrap Up

As you can see, the length of a lacrosse game very much depends on what league you are playing in. League associations typically make lacrosse games longer as the players get older and progress into high school lacrosse and college lacrosse. A college lacrosse game is the longest of all levels of play. Interestingly enough, the Premier Lacrosse League (who absorbed the former pro league – Major League Lacrosse) decided to speed up the game and make it a shorter duration than a college lacrosse game.