Women top Ohio State – Whittle sets record

By Todd Carton –

Both Maryland lacrosse teams were in action Sunday but the only element in common was the elements. Both games were played in a cold rain. While the men’s team was engaged in a fierce battle with the elements and conference for Rutgers in College Park, the women’s team celebrated a return to conference play with an overwhelming 20-5 victory over Ohio State in Columbus.

It’s generally not a good idea to be a team that beats Maryland. Since joining the Big Ten in 2015, the Terrapins have lost exactly one game in conference regular season and conference tournament play. That loss came in the semifinal of the Terps’ first B1G Tournament when the Ohio State Buckeyes edged the Terps 11-10.  In the three games (including Sunday) the teams have played since then, Maryland has outscored Ohio State 53-19.

While one story line for the game was to see how the Terps would bounce back from their close call at Princeton Tuesday night, the other was, as play by play man Dean Linke termed it, the Whittle Watch. It had been clear from the beginning of the season that even a subpar season from the senior from Glenwood, MD would likely see her pass Jen Adams as the all-time career leader in goals scored. After scoring three times against Princeton, Whittle entered Sunday’s game tied with Adams at 267 goals.

After Jen Giles scored the first of three consecutive goals to open the scoring, Whittle ended the watch by finding the back of the net on a free position shot with 24:16 to play in the first half. Terrapins head coach Cathy Reese called a timeout so the entire team could congratulate one of their captains on her accomplishment.

Of course Whittle, who is no stranger to facing physical play from Maryland’s opponents, couldn’t join the huddle to accept those congratulatory hugs until she’d had her leg bandaged after being shoved to the turf as she took the shot.

With the matter of breaking the record settled, Whittle took a back seat to her teammates for most of the remainder of the game. Junior Caroline Steele, who would equal her career high of seven points (five goals and two assists) score the next two goals for Maryland sandwiching a pair of Buckeyes goals. Her second goal, which extended the Terps’ lead to 4-2, ignited a run of seven consecutive Maryland scores with Meghan Siverson (who finished with a hat trick) scoring back to back followed by Steele topping off a first half hat trick.

The run continued as Giles added the second of her three goals and Kali Hartshorn, who would also finish the game with 12 draw controls, scored her own set of back to back goals. Giles added a third between a pair of Ohio State goals and the Terrapins took an 11-4 lead into the halftime break.

Ohio State scored their first and last goal of the second half 1:42 into the period. When Whittle finally got back into the scoring column to register the second of her three goals, Steele had already added her fourth and Hartshorn had again scored back to back goals. Whittle’s goal gave Maryland a 10 goal lead and started the running clock. The Terps final score came on a freshman connection as Catie May fed fellow freshman Kylie Davis for her second goal of the season.

Maryland returns home to close out the regular season with games against Penn State Thursday night before closing the season a week later when they host Northwestern.