Taylor Cummings
After 263 days, the Terrapins women’s lacrosse team thought it was finally going to be able to put the heartbreaking triple-overtime loss to North Carolina in the national championship behind it.
But a winter storm forced the Terps to wait one more day as their season opener at UMBC was pushed from yesterday to today because of the weather.
Ever since that loss, the No. 2 Terps have been eager to start their new season.
“We are all excited to play someone other than ourselves,” attacker Brooke Griffin said. “We are all excited just to get out there and see what this season brings us.”
While practices have provided an opportunity to integrate the freshmen into the offense and defense, the Terps have been anxiously awaiting the moment they finally get to step on the field against a new opponent.
Today’s opener will provide 2010 National Coach of the Year Cathy Reese with a chance to start filling the empty spots left by last season’s senior class. The Terps lost a key starter at each of the four positions on the field.
“The freshmen that we have are awesome,” midfielder Kelly McPartland said. “They are really helping us, and I think we are going to be fine without the seniors we had last year.”
The highly touted freshman class provides depth at all four positions. Reese plans to use these first few games to provide extra playing time for the inexperienced freshmen. She expects midfielders Morgan Torggler and Zoe Stukenberg, and defender Nadine Hadnagy to have an impact right away, while goalkeeper Emily Kift will vie for the starting job as well.
The season opener will provide Reese with her first look at the goalkeeper battle between Kift and Abbey Clipp. She plans on splitting the playing time, giving each goalkeeper a half. Clipp, a redshirt junior, played the second half of the Terps’ 17-10 win over UMBC at home last season when she was competing with former starter Kasey Howard for the job.
The frustration of not having a declared starting goalkeeper can be tough for the team, but it has benefited the offense in practice.
“It’s kind of neat,” Reese said. “Because our shooters get to practice against two totally different styles.”
Reese, however, said it has been hard to tell how the offense and defense have been performing at practice. She said that when the offense is scoring frequently, she has to wonder if the offense is executing well or if the defense is struggling that day.
“We need to see who is ready to step up,” Reese said. “Who understands what we are looking for, who is willing to do it when we get on the field and see which players fit into the mix.”
While the attention surrounding the team to start the season is focused on its quest at redemption in the NCAA tournament, Reese doesn’t want to look too far ahead. She said the focus is to learn one game at a time and get better from there.
Today’s season opener will finally provide the Terps with some closure from a season ago. They will look to begin establishing new team roles as they face an offense and defense they don’t see on a daily basis.
“For us, I just want to get out of our comfort zone a little bit,” Reese said. “Play against somebody else, challenge us and see where we are. We kind of need a starting point.”
