When watching a typical Terrapin women’s lacrosse team practice, one can see the best player in the history of her sport showing off her legendary stickwork.

When Terps Associate Head Coach Jen Adams demonstrates drills for her players, it is sometimes easy to see how, as a player at the university from 1998 to 2001, Adams played on four national championship teams, was named National Player of the Year three times and is still the all-time NCAA leader in assists and points.

“Every time she’s got a stick in her hand we all sort of watch her to see what she does,” junior attacker Casey Magor said. “She’s got something up her sleeve every time.”

Adams holds the Terps’ all-time career and single-season records for goals, assists and points. Along with head coach Cathy Reese, who also won four national championships here as a player and who was a teammate of Adams in 1998, Adams is a major reason the No. 5-seeded Terps are hosting their first NCAA tournament game since 2004 this Sunday afternoon against Yale.

After returning to the university in August after holding the same positions for two seasons at the University of Denver, the young and energetic coaching tandem has infused a new enthusiasm for the sport into the Terps.

“We have a lot of fun on the field and have fun doing what we love to do,” Reese said. “It’s kind of taking our playing experience and our coaching experience and really enjoying working with other players.”

Adams is a native of Australia, where she played on a club team in her native city of Brighton, South Australia, before playing for the Terps.

Adams was not approached by any other American universities to play lacrosse, and she became one of several Australians who have come to the United States to play for the Terps.

“They’d had a pipeline of Australians coming through … which was a big factor for me,” Adams said. “It was really attractive, the thought of coming to Maryland and being able to pursue an education and play some lacrosse over here.”

When Adams joined the team as a freshman in 1998, the Terps, led largely by Reese and two Australian players, Sarah Forbes and Sascha Newmarch, had just won three consecutive national championships and had lost only one game in the previous three seasons combined.

In Adams’ first season on the team, the Terps went 18-3 and won their fourth consecutive national championship.

“When she came in, she made an impact right away,” said Reese, who led the Terps in goals in 1998. “She was just kind of adjusting to that high level of lacrosse in the United States, but she just went right in and had great teammates around her that really helped raise her level, and she was able to do just awesome things.”

During her final three seasons on the team, Adams led the Terps in goals and assists each year, was named National Player of the Year each season and led the Terps to a combined 65-1 record and three more national championships.

Adams remains humble despite a unique run of success that solidified her reputation among those in the sport as the best woman’s lacrosse player of all time.

“I think I’ve been on the best teams with the best teammates, and they’ve always made me look good,” Adams said. “I think it’s a pretty tough statement to make that someone’s the best.”

In the 2005 International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Associations World Cup, Adams was the leading scorer in the tournament, and led Australia to the gold medal.

Magor, who is from Adelaide in Adams’s home state of South Australia, played on the 2005 World Cup team as well, and plans on playing with Adams again in the next World Cup in 2009.

“I think you could ask any little kid in Australia who Jen Adams is, and their face would light up,” Magor said. “All of them have probably got her autograph by now. They absolutely love her. She’s definitely huge in Australia.”

Adams has also shown she can be a world-class coach this season, as she and Reese have implemented a fast-paced and more creative offense that resembles the style of play they mastered during their playing careers.

Reese was an assistant coach for the Terps from 1999 to 2001 before Adams joined the staff in 2002 and 2003. The pair went to Denver when Reese was named head coach there. Reese and Adams returned to the university when longtime head coach Cindy Timchal left in August.

“When you watch Jen play, you can just tell she’s fast break, move the ball quick … and that’s kind of the way our offense is,” said junior midfielder Dana Dobbie, who credits her winning this year’s ACC Player of the Year award to working with Adams and Reese. “Our philosophy is just move the ball, find the open person and just put it in.”

Reese and Adams share many of their coaching responsibilities, and Reese said she has complete faith in Adams to do anything.

“For as great a player as she is,” Reese said, “I think she’s even a better coach.”

The Terps haven’t won a national championship since Adams played her last game as a Terp in 2001, and Adams hopes the 2007 Terps can bring the national championship trophy back to the university in the next few weeks.

“I know when I was a player you wanted to win for your team, and I want this so much more for them rather than for my own records and for my own success,” Adams said. “I just want to see them do the best they can and go as far as they can and experience a little bit of what I had in college … and hopefully have a chance to win a national championship.”

Contact reporter Greg Schimmel at schimmeldbk@gmail.com.