On the Saturday morning of a long week in early April, Eloise Clevenger woke up and decided to play lacrosse.
Maryland
For Maryland’s Eloise Clevenger, breakout season comes amid heartbreak
That day, the sport that had shaped much of her life felt distant. But her team was facing Ohio State at noon, and her siblings were telling her to go. Lacrosse had always been an outlet for Clevenger. Maybe it could help when life was doing its worst.
“They were telling me, ‘You know what mom would want you to do,’ ” Clevenger said. “Having that reassurance that I knew she’d want me to be out there gave me the strength to come back and play that game.”
So she drove the 45 minutes to College Park. There, she played the best game of her college career, breaking the program’s single-game assists record in an 18-7 win. She returned to the hospital shortly after the final whistle. Elizabeth died the next day at age 51.
“Thank God I wore sunglasses for that game because the tears just started streaming down my face,” Maryland Coach Cathy Reese said. “It was one of the most powerful moments I’ve been around in sports.”
Clevenger’s resilience has become a constant source of strength for the Terps during an up-and-down season. Maryland (14-6) begins the NCAA tournament Friday afternoon against Drexel.
“We all grew from that experience in recognizing that our relationships are important,” Reese said. “Being able to connect and show up for your friends when they need you is really a huge part of being on a team.”
Clevenger is the second oldest of four children who gravitated to lacrosse. Their parents were both athletes, but neither had played the game. Growing up in Maryland, however, made it unavoidable. She always enjoyed the freedom of the sport, how creative it allowed her to be. At Marriotts Ridge High, Clevenger blossomed into a Division I prospect.
Her college decision became obvious when Maryland came calling. It was close to home, it had a history of success, and Reese was a family friend. Clevenger arrived in College Park as a highly touted high school star and found herself on a roster of players who were the same. That took some adjusting.
Between her freshman and sophomore years, she switched from midfield to an attacking role and earned more playing time. By this spring, she was an experienced junior expected to generate offense and win games.
She leads the team with 69 points, totaling 25 goals and 44 assists. She was one of four Terps to earn first-team all-Big Ten honors, cementing her evolution from a young midfielder into a celebrated attacking star.
But as this season progressed, her mom’s condition steadily worsened. Being in school can sometimes split life in two: home and campus. They run parallel to each other, and navigating the two can be disorienting.
“Communication became the biggest thing,” Clevenger said. “Making sure I was always up to date with everything going on at home was what allowed me to be present [on campus], knowing that things were handled.”
In the first week of April, Clevenger left campus to be at the hospital with her mom. More family started to gather. She missed daily practices and a Wednesday night game against Johns Hopkins. She texted with Reese and her teammates every day, thankful for their support.
On that Saturday morning, though, she opted to join them. Reese wasn’t surprised to hear that her starting attacker was driving down for the game, knowing the family valued the chance to watch Clevenger do something they had all come to love.
On the field, Clevenger quickly settled into the familiar rhythms of a game. She started strong, picking up a goal and assist in the first two minutes. The action didn’t feel any different, but her mind-set had shifted.
“My mind was so focused on other things that when I got here, my brain was doing less,” Clevenger said. “I was more just in the moment. I didn’t have the time or space to overthink things.”
By halftime, she had a goal and five assists. It felt as if her teammates were moving so well off the ball that every time she found them, she was confident they would score. At the end of a hard week, the game was coming easy.
Late in the third quarter, after Clevenger found teammate Libby May to give Maryland a commanding 14-5 lead, the public address announcer informed the crowd that she had just tied the program record for assists in a game. The milestone had belonged to Alex Aust, who was on the Terrapins’ sideline.
“You’re going to let her break it, right?” Aust asked Reese.
Reese, shielded by her sunglasses, said, “Of course.”
The eighth and final assist came with three minutes remaining. Seconds after Victoria Hensh’s shot hit the back of the net, Clevenger was mobbed in celebration. In Baltimore, her family watched with pride from a hospital room.
“I know they were all cheering for me, and I’m sure my mom could hear that,” Clevenger said. “It was nice to know that she was present as that was happening, even a little bit. . . . I just know how excited and proud she would have been.”
Elizabeth died April 9. The entire Maryland women’s lacrosse team attended the funeral. Later, her teammates would adorn their equipment with her name, writing “Ish” — Elizabeth’s nickname — on the tape that marked their sticks, their helmets and their wrists.
“You try to control what you can control in a week like that. And the one thing you can control in these situations is your love for your teammate,” Reese said. “There’s nothing else. There’s no words to make things better. All you can do is show up and support and love.”
The next morning, the team traveled to Penn State for a Thursday night conference game against the Nittany Lions. Clevenger stayed back with her family in Howard County. The Ohio State game had been her only lacrosse in the past two weeks, a brief respite from the whirlwind of gatherings and grief. But the game had been good for her. Lacrosse had always been good for her.
So on the day after her mother’s funeral, she got into the car with her dad, and they started driving north toward Pennsylvania. State College was only a few hours away.