The Terrapin women’s lacrosse team was in a lull and another second-half collapse seemed imminent.

But their senior defensive captain wouldn’t allow it.

Less than three minutes into the second half with the Terps’ lead having slipped to two, Katie Pumphrey took matters into her own hands and scored her first goal of the year. Her teammates celebrated as though the goal had sealed the win – and they carried that momentum through the rest of the game.

“My one goal of the season, I thought it was the right time,” Pumphrey said. “Coaches told us that if you’re there and you’re coming down the field to take it. And I saw the land, and I don’t really remember what happened, but all of a sudden the ball was in the back of the net, and I was hugging my teammates and jumping up and down.”

The Terps used their strong second half, sparked by Pumphrey, to roll over the Owls 20-7 in the first round of the NCAA tournament and advance to a second-round matchup with Duke.

Ten minutes into the first half, the Terps held a 6-1 lead. But Temple turned up the pressure with a 5-2 run to cut the lead to 8-6. That’s when Pumphrey stepped up and took the ball down three quarters of the field to score a goal that would spark a 12-1 scoring run to close out the game.

“We were in a drought … and to have one of our senior defensive captains come up with her first goal of the season, at a time when we really needed it, it changed the momentum,” coach Cathy Reese said. “It got everyone excited. That was our game-changing moment.”

“Big players make big plays at the time you need it,” senior midfielder Dana Dobbie said. “Pumphrey, taking that coast-to-coast goal and putting it around the goalie like that, a great shot – something you don’t see from a defender very often – was definitely the one play we really needed.”

The Terps began the game with an offensive surge. Led by three assists by senior midfielder Kelly Kasper and a pair of goals by senior attackers Casey Magor and Lauren Cohen, the Terps outscored the Owls 6-1 in the first 10:28 of the game.

But a lull set in and turnovers became an issue. The Owls finished the half on a run, and their patient offense began to control of the tempo.

“We came out really strong, then I think we got a little too ahead of ourselves,” Kasper said. “We started not making smart passes and doing the right things, and they capitalized on our mistakes and started putting it down our throats. But once they did that, we realized we couldn’t take anything for granted and not slack off.”

In the second half, where the Terps have wilted throughout much of the season, the team forfeited a quick goal. But that was the end of Temple’s building momentum. Pumphrey’s goal pumped up the Terps, and Dobbie took over the game.

Dobbie had a hat trick and two assists, all in the second half.

“At halftime, we just thought that, after everything we have worked for, this could be our last 30 minutes, potentially,” Dobbie said. “It has to be the best 30 minutes for us to be the team [that] continues on. Once the whistle blew in the second half, I just left it all on the field because I wanted to be able to walk off and say that I did all that I could.”

Aside from senior leaders making plays, the Terps began to control the tempo of the game. They ran their transition at will, at one point scoring two goals in just nine seconds.

“In the second half, we needed to adjust and refocus to make sure that we were changing the tempo around,” Reese said. “That’s one thing that we like to do – control the tempo of the game – and I felt that we didn’t do that in the first half. We made those changes in the second half, and I was much happier with the way we played.”

After their second-half surge against Temple, the Terps couldn’t be happier to move on in the tournament, especially with a revenge game against Duke looming.

“We are excited to come away today with a win and move on to the final eight teams left in the NCAA tournament,” Reese said.

bkapurdbk@gmail.com