How long is a lacrosse game?
Lacrosse games last about 40 to 60 minutes of play, depending on the level or league. However, the entire game usually takes longer because of breaks and clock stoppages, so a spectator might be there for up to two hours or more.
A youth game is generally shorter (8–15-minute quarters), while high school (12–15-minute quarters), college, and professional games (15-minute quarters) have more play time and often run well over an hour once all pauses and breaks are added in.
Youth Lacrosse
Youth lacrosse games are the shortest. Many youth games use a running clock, which means the clock keeps running even when play stops. Often, youth leagues play either two halves of 20 minutes each or four quarters of about 8–15 minutes each. This comes out to roughly 40 minutes of game clock time for a typical youth match. With a brief halftime and few stoppages, a youth lacrosse game is usually finished in under an hour of real time.
High School Lacrosse
High school lacrosse games are longer and more standardized. A high school game usually has four quarters of about 12 minutes each, so the game clock runs for roughly 48 minutes in total. High school lacrosse uses a stop-clock system, meaning the clock stops whenever play stops (for example, for goals, the ball going out of bounds, penalties, or timeouts). There is a short break between quarters (around 2 minutes) and a longer halftime break (about 10 minutes). In real-world terms, a high school game often lasts around 1 to 1.5 hours from start to finish, since the clock stoppages and breaks add extra time.
College (NCAA) Lacrosse
College lacrosse games (NCAA) have four quarters of 15 minutes each. This means the official game clock runs for a total of 60 minutes. Both men’s and women’s college lacrosse now use this 4x15 minute quarter format (women switched from halves to quarters in recent years). Like high school, college uses a stop-clock for whistles and other stoppages, so the action clock pauses frequently. Because of this, a college game’s actual duration is longer than 60 minutes of play – often around 90 minutes or more including all the stoppages and halftime. Big games with many goals or timeouts can even approach two hours in real time.
Professional Lacrosse
Professional lacrosse leagues each set their own game lengths and rules. Here are the major pro leagues and their game times:
- National Lacrosse League (NLL): The NLL is an indoor “box” lacrosse league. NLL games consist of four 15-minute quarters (60 minutes of regulation play). The clock stops for goals and official whistles, similar to hockey, so the real game can last around two hours or more with all the breaks. There are short breaks between quarters (about 2 minutes) and a halftime (about 12 minutes) in the NLL.
- Premier Lacrosse League (PLL): The PLL is an outdoor field lacrosse league. PLL games use four 12-minute quarters, for a total of 48 minutes of game clock time. The PLL uses a mostly running clock with some special stoppage rules – for example, in the final minute of each quarter, the clock stops on whistles. Teams also have timeouts and a 10-minute halftime. In practice, a PLL game usually lasts a little over an hour of real time, since the 48 minutes of play can easily stretch past 60 minutes with breaks.
- Athletes Unlimited (AU): Athletes Unlimited is a women’s professional lacrosse league with a faster format. An AU lacrosse game is played in four 10-minute quarters, totaling 40 minutes of game clock time. The clock stops on every whistle (stopped-time quarters) in this league, and there are brief quarter breaks (3 minutes) and a halftime (15 minutes). Even though the quarters are shorter, an Athletes Unlimited game usually takes around an hour or slightly more to complete when you include the breaks and any timeouts.
In all these professional leagues, if the game is tied at the end of regulation, they have overtime rules that can add a few more minutes until a winner is decided. For example, both the NLL and PLL use sudden-death overtime periods (up to 15 minutes in NLL, up to 12 minutes in PLL) where the first team to score wins. Overtime is rare, but it can make a game longer when it happens.
References
- LacrosseMonkey – How Long Are Lacrosse Games? Guide to Lacrosse Game Times
- Bownet – How Long Does a Regulation Lacrosse Game Last?
- Lacrosse Balls Direct – How Long is a Lacrosse Game? High School, College, & Professional Lacrosse Game Length
- Athletes Unlimited – How We Play: Lacrosse
Michael Simon
