Terps over Hoyas in Women’s Lax

By Todd Carton –

The Georgetown Hoyas women’s lacrosse team came to College Park ranked 24^th in the most recent IWLCA poll. It might seem odd to describe a game against the 24^th ranked team in the country as something of a respite but when you’re the Maryland Terrapins and three of your previous four games came against teams ranked in the top 10 and two of those teams were undefeated entering the game, the final game in Maryland’s brief two game home stand proved to be just that as the Terps bulldozed the Hoyas by a final of 17-5.

Although they dominated the scoreboard, Maryland played far from their best game of the season. The Terps shot an uncharacteristic 3-10 on free position shots and after three consecutive strong games in goal, Megan Taylor managed only one save while conceding all five Hoyas scores. So how did Maryland so thoroughly dominate Georgetown?

That started in the draw circle where the Terrapins built a 17-7 advantage due in large part to 10 by Kali Hartshorn. Maryland won the first nine draws of the game with Hartshorn grabbing seven while teammate Lizzie Colson picked up the other three. And, for the most part, the Terps’ defense was absolutely suffocating causing eight turnovers and allowing the Hoyas only 16 total shots with seven on goal. (Backup goalie Emma Moss registered a save on the only shot she faced.)

After Georgetown tied the game at two with 19:50 to play in the first half, the Terps used the dominance in the draw circle to put together a six goal run and build an 8-2 lead. After the Hoyas closed the gap to 8-4, the Terrapins scored a late goal to carry a 9-4 lead into the half.

If there was any doubt about the outcome, Maryland ended it quickly by scoring five times in the first 10 minutes of the opening half to start a running clock. Freshman Grace Griffin wrapped up her second consecutive game with at least three goals as Coach Cathy Reese gradually emptied her bench with 31 players seeing action.

Maryland’s star attacker and current IWLCA National Player of the Week, Megan Whittle, picked up a pair of goals to increase her team leading total to 38 on the season. Kali Hartshorn and Caroline Steele each found the back of the net four times but it is, perhaps Griffin, who is becoming the real revelation. Her hat trick against Georgetown gave her seven goals in the past two games in which she has taken only seven shots. She’s added three assists and a pair of ground balls over this span as well.

The Terps return to the road and to Big Ten play as they travel to Michigan where they will look to improve to 2-0 in conference as they face the 5-6 Wolverines. Their next home game will be April 4 when they host another top 10 squad, the Virginia Cavaliers.