HARRISONBURG, Va. — Maryland began its NCAA women’s lacrosse tournament Friday night with a perfect offensive start. That didn’t last for the Terrapins, but early goals and a stifling defensive effort were enough to carry them to the second round with an 11-6 victory against Drexel.
Maryland
Terps ride hot start, stifling defense to victory in NCAA opener
The Dukes, the No. 7 seed, defeated Army, 12-8, in the first game Friday at JMU’s Sentara Park. The Terps and Dukes met on the same field March 1, with James Madison pulling out an 8-7 victory. The Dukes own a two-game winning streak against Maryland for just the second time in a series with 47 meetings dating from 1974.
“You’re only promised one game when that bracket comes out, so I think our full focus was on Drexel and taking care of business there,” Maryland defender Abby Bosco said. “But I think since we walked off the field that day, we’ve been wanting another shot at [JMU]. We’re super pumped, but it’s the NCAA tournament — there’s nothing extra that needs to pump you up more.”
Chrissy Thomas, who had two goals and two assists to lead the Maryland offense, was one of four Terrapins to score twice. Emily Sterling stopped nine shots to earn her 15th win in goal.
Grace Harding scored three goals for the Dragons (12-6).
The Terps (15-6) opened hot, finding the back of the cage on their first four shots, with Hannah Leubecker scoring two. A buzzer-beating goal from Shannon Smith — off an assist from Libby May, who finished with three points — closed the first quarter with Maryland up 6-2 and five different Terrapins on the board.
“We played them even from then on,” Drexel Coach Katie O’Donnell said. “That type of recovery is not something we are totally foreign to. An emphasis is to try to start faster and start stronger, but we bounced back right away. We made adjustments and made saves.”
Bosco forced five turnovers, and the Maryland defense made it difficult for Drexel to move the ball inside the eight-meter arc much of the first half. She also scored the second half’s first goal on just her third shot of the season.
But Maryland’s offense couldn’t keep up its early pace. After taking an 8-2 lead into the half, the Terps scored just twice in the third quarter. The Dragons struggled to get decent looks at the goal, though. When they did, Sterling denied them more often than not.
“I think we really stepped up and executed our game plan,” Sterling said. “Obviously, we held them to a low tally in the first half, but we were like, ‘Let’s not stop here.’ There’s always something better we can do and something better we can execute. That was our goal.”
Drexel made a late surge with three straight fourth-quarter goals after Maryland had opened up a 10-3 lead. But Maryland had all the cushion it needed to move on to the rematch with the Dukes.
“We struggled against them the first time,” Maryland Coach Cathy Reese said. “I think both of our teams are a lot different. We’ve grown a lot since the early season, but so have they. We get to refocus and prepare for a tough team on their home field.”