Midfielder Taylor Cummings powers past a Tar Heel opponent during the No. 1 Terps’ 13-11 win over No. 2 North Carolina at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex on Feb. 22, 2015.

When Terrapins women’s lacrosse midfielder Taylor Cummings was a freshman, her team raced through its 2013 campaign with an unblemished record to reach the national championship against North Carolina.

The Terps’ perfect season, though, ended in crushing fashion when the Tar Heels escaped with the crown in a 13-12 triple overtime victory in Villanova, Pennsylvania.

But almost exactly two years later, Cummings and the No. 1-seed Terps will have a shot at redemption Sunday night when they face No. 2-seed North Carolina for the national title in Chester, Pennsylvania, in the program’s fifth championship appearance in the last six years.

Coach Cathy Reese’s squad, however, won’t harp on the past when it enters PPL Park — about a 20-minute drive from its 2013 upset loss. Fresh off the Terps’ semifinal victory over No. 4-seed Syracuse on Friday, they want to cap their season of national dominance with a final victory.

“New year, new team. Obviously there are a lot of similarities between our two teams and the situations,” Cummings said. ““We’d like to come out on the other side this time.”

The Terps did top the Tar Heels in February when they visited College Park for a regular-season duel. After the initial contest was postponed by snowy conditions, the Terps hung on for a 13-11 triumph, which matches their closest margin of victory this season.

North Carolina has given the Terps trouble in the past, though. Last year, the Terps went 23-1 en route to a national championship victory, but their lone blemish came to North Carolina.

Reese said she didn’t watch any of the Tar Heels’ 16-7 thrashing of Duke on Friday before her team’s game, but she is well-versed in the Tar Heels’ tendencies from when the Terps squared off against them sometimes as much as three times per year as members of the ACC.

“I know they’re very aggressive and very athletic,” Reese said. “We need to be able to handle their pressure. We expect a physical game. We need to make sure that our offense is working well off-ball — that’ll open up some stuff — and that’s something we’ve been focusing on all season.”

The Terps defense, which held Syracuse’s multi-faceted offense to 16 shots, will have to contend with a slew of Tar Heels players who outmaneuvered the Blue Devil’s scheme for their fifth-highest scoring output this season.

Attacker Aly Messinger recorded three goals and two assists to lead her team, while Brittney Coppa returned from an ACL injury to score with seven seconds left in the first half to boost the Tar Heels’ lead at halftime to 7-4.

Coppa, who cleared the ball and assisted attacker Sammy Jo Tracy’s title-clinching score against the Terps in the 2013 championship thriller, tore her right ACL during pregame warm-ups against Syracuse on April 11. After missing all of 2014 with the same injury to her left knee, the redshirt senior postponed surgery and played for the first time Friday.

“I know that I’m hurt, but I don’t look at it as though I’m hurt,” said Coppa, who scored twice against the Terps in February. “It’s just me getting back on the field and helping my team as much as possible whether it’s on the sidelines or on the field.”

When the Terps do have possession, they’ll rely on their diverse, fast-paced offense, much like they have all season, to limit North Carolina’s approach.

The Terps out-drew the Orange, 14-6, on Friday night and controlled the circle with an 18-8 margin against the Tar Heels in the regular season. Cummings posted five draw controls in each of those outings, but the Terps shot less than 40 percent both times.

“Our shooting percentage wasn’t exactly what we would have liked it to be,” Reese said. “Sometimes we’ve struggled this year with getting ahead of ourselves, and we just need to stay present and in the moment and when the shots aren’t falling… that’s the time that we need to reset and refocus and try to attack the next play.”

The Terps were able to do that as they rolled past Syracuse in the semifinals. If they can continue that success Sunday, they’ll have a strong chance at repeating as national champions and avenging the 2013 loss.

“We’ll focus on us,” Cummings said, “and hopefully win a national championship on Sunday if we do it right.”