Gabriel goes #1 in draft
Ava Gabriel (#41) was drafted first overall by the Arrows of the Women’s Arena Lacrosse League (ALL) East, where she has registered one assist in two games thus far. Courtesy Eric Jacobs
Star laxer Ava Weriasanoron Gabriel has reached yet another milestone, this time being the first overall selection in the Women’s Arena Lacrosse League (ALL) East draft for the Arrows.
Her selection late last year capped off a thrilling 2025 that saw her play Junior C lacrosse in Kahnawake, scoring the first ever goal by a woman in league history, and be immortalized in the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame (NAIAHF) alongside her 2024 World Lacrosse Box Championships Haudenosaunee Nationals team.
Games for the six-team ALL East – six more teams play in the West – are all held at Six Nations’ Iroquois Lacrosse Arena.
Prospective players must register to one of the league’s divisions, where they are then drafted by one of the teams prior to the start of the season.
That’s where Gabriel went first overall.
“We knew she was going to go sign up to play in the league, and that there was a draft, but her going first overall was a surprise,” said Gabriel’s stepfather Eric Jacobs, who is also a lacrosse coach.
“Anytime there’s any kind of a draft and you get first picked, it’s exciting.”
The women’s ALL has constantly been expanding since it begun play in 2018 with just three total teams, all in the East.
The Arrows were added as an expansion team before the beginning of the 2025 season, before going winless in 12 games during their inaugural season.
They are still looking for their first win of the new season, currently sitting 0-2 after playing two games on January 3; a 5-2 loss to the Sirens and an 8-5 loss to the Cobras, where Gabriel registered her first point, an assist.
“It’s good to see girls playing. The league and the game are growing,” said Jacobs.
“It’s a big deal.”
Jacobs said Gabriel’s abilities have also been growing.
“From watching her play with the Quebec national program a few years back before the Canada Games to now, she’s leaps and bounds above where she had started,” said Jacobs.
That has come through experience, and the sheer amount of lacrosse she has played in the last few years on some of the lacrosse world’s biggest stages.
The Women’s ALL is a smaller league right now, but it is still a place to play with and against some of the female talent that have or will go and play at a high level, whether it’s in college, internationally, or perhaps even professionally in the Women’s Lacrosse League (WLL), a field lacrosse league that first started play in 2025.
For now, though, Jacobs is proud of how far Gabriel has come as a player.
“I think it makes everybody proud. Now I try and keep her going. Now, I tell her ‘you can’t let your brother outscore you, try and keep the edge going there!’” said Jacobs, referring to her brother, Logan, himself a strong Junior lacrosse player.
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The Women’s ALL regular season will continue until mid-March.
