From East Hampton High School to Hofstra University to Puerto Rico, if there is a lacrosse field, Melina Sarlo will find it. The college sophomore spent her winter break playing in the Pan American Lacrosse Association Sixes Cup in Humacao, Puerto Rico, where she represented Argentina and helped her team win a bronze medal.
“It was a lot of fun. It’s so fast paced. Our Argentina team, everyone is so friendly. I’ve been competing and playing with the girls for a few tournaments now and I’ve become good friends with them,” Sarlo said. “Getting to compete at a high level with such good players, while also getting to represent Argentina, is a great experience.”
Sarlo was raised in East Hampton, the daughter of Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo and his wife, Paula. She started playing lacrosse when she was just 10 years old, and qualified for the Argentine team thanks to her mother.
“There is a percentage of people on the team who have Argentinian citizenship. I have mine through my mom, who was born in Argentina,” Sarlo said. “Then there are two spots for people who show their heritage — even if they don’t have their citizenship. Those spots are very competitive.”
Typically lacrosse has 11 players on the field, but for the Olympics and World Games, there are just five field players and a goalie on a smaller field, creating a fast-paced version of the game known as “sixes.” Sarlo compares it to basketball.
“In sixes, the goalie passes the ball after a goal — very similar to basketball in that sense. It’s much more fast-paced, with eight-minute quarters instead of 12.”
The competition is fierce too. In the first round, Argentina played the Haudenosaunee, a Native American confederacy of six Indigenous nations who invented lacrosse over 1,000 years ago. The Haudenosaunee won 16-10 and went on to win the championship, but Argentina kept fighting. It beat Mexico 15-14, before losing 17-12 to Puerto Rico. Another strong lacrosse team with many U.S.-mainland-based players, Puerto Rico took second in the tournament. Argentina went on to beat Brazil 17-11, before playing both Mexico and Brazil again in the medal rounds. It defeated Mexico 8-6 and Brazil 9-8 in sudden-death overtime.
“We were pumped up and ready to go,” Sarlo said. “It was so fast paced. First to score wins.”
The third-place finish was especially impressive because Argentina was short staffed, traveling to Puerto Rico without two of its players. Thankfully, one of the goalies stepped in to help.
“The roster size is 12, but my team only had 10 people because two girls couldn’t make it, so we ended up having eight field players and two goalies,” Sarlo explained. “One of our goalies tried playing defense a little bit. Having one extra person made a huge difference in the rest we got. She really stepped in for that, which was really awesome.”
This month, Sarlo is back at Hofstra in Hempstead, where she is a mid-fielder gearing up for the spring lacrosse season and getting ready for long days of practice and classes.
“In college it’s a lot faster-paced. In high school there are people who just play for fun, but in college everyone is competing to win,” Sarlo said. “The pace, the skills, all of that plays a big role. You’re practicing at 5 a.m. before school. We’ll have practice for four hours and then lift. It’s not just two hours after school like high school. Time management is definitely very important.”
She’s also gearing up for the World Lacrosse Championship this summer.
“The end of July is the 2026 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship in Tokyo, Japan,” Sarlo said. “And for that, our roster hasn’t been selected yet, so that’s a possibility. Hopefully I’ll know by the end of January.”