The Maryland women’s lacrosse team appeared to be in firm control for much of its 18-8 win at Michigan on Saturday afternoon.
It scored eight of the game’s first nine goals and entered the break with a 10-goal lead, which resulted in a running clock to start the second period. The Terps’ 15 first-half goals marked a season high.
Still, defensive coordinator Lauri Kenis wasn’t pleased with the performance from the Terps defense, which ranks fourth nationally in terms of scoring defense. The Terps allowed the Wolverines to go on two three-goal spurts despite securing a double-digit win.
“The goals that they scored, our help was just a little late,” coach Cathy Reese said. “We weren’t putting them on the eight meter. We weren’t fouling. Just need to get our help there a second sooner.”
Midfielder Jen Giles said Saturday that the Terps’ slides were late. Midfielder Bryn Boucher said that was uncharacteristic, since “it’s something we’ve always worked on and always been good at.”
Michigan’s first 3-0 run came after Giles scored the Terps’ eighth goal with 10:36 to go until intermission.
Midfielder Kim Coughlan started the sequence with a shot above the head of Terps goalie Megan Taylor. Attacker Jess Angerman found the back of the net less than a minute later, and Coughlan drove and scored again about 90 seconds after that to cut Maryland’s lead to four.
The Terps went into halftime with a 15-5 advantage. But in terms of the team’s defensive performance, Boucher said the players “looked at each other like ‘this shouldn’t even be happening.'”
Kenis had a message for her defense, which only allows an average of 6.44 goals per game.
“When we went in at halftime, Kenis gave us a few sharp words,” Boucher said. “She told us exactly how it is. All of us snapped right back into it.”
Reese’s squad responded by scoring the first three goals out of the break, giving the Terps an 18-5 edge with just under 22 minutes remaining.
In response to her team’s sizable lead, Reese took out several starters and inserted goalkeeper Emily Kift between the pipes. The Terps didn’t score the remainder of the contest.
With about 11 minutes remaining, Wolverines attacker Allie Breitfeller scored her first goal of the game. Midfielder Anna Schueler scored two more goals, both unassisted, before the final buzzer.
Saturday’s contest wasn’t the first time an otherwise dominant Terps defense allowed an opposing team to go on a late run after seemingly putting the game away. In their 12-8 win over Penn on March 23, the Terps allowed the Quakers to score the game’s final six goals. Princeton scored four of the last five goals three weeks later in the Terps’ 15-6 victory.
Even so, the Terps produced enough offense throughout the game to maintain a comfortable lead. The defense also forced the Wolverines into 15 turnovers in a win that helped Maryland clinch at least a share of the Big Ten championship.
“We might have had a few chances where we slipped up,” Giles said. “I think we got it back together.”
