Fifteen minutes of the game were gone, and it already looked bad. Fresh off an ACC loss to No. 3 North Carolina, the No. 5 Terrapins women’s lacrosse team found itself in the middle of a horror story, trailing unranked Princeton, 3-1.
The plot twist, though, came soon enough. Beginning with an assist on midfielder Brooke Griffin’s goal, attacker Alex Aust authored a turnaround that saw alarm become elation.
Griffin’s tally sparked an 10-0 run that lasted through the halftime break and into the second half, with Aust either scoring or assisting on all of the team’s eight first-half goals. In the end, the Terps outlasted a late 5-2 Tigers run to secure a 15-9 victory.
“We’ve been having problems with us starting slowly the last few games,” Aust said. “But when we got into our offensive flow, started getting the draw controls and getting the ball where we needed to, we kept scoring.”
Although they struggled to put the ball in the cage in the first 10 minutes, the momentum swung for the Terps (12-3) as soon as they took control of the draws. After Princeton grabbed five of the first six draw controls, the Terps won the next five during a run that put the game all but out of reach in Princeton, N.J.
Aust finished the night with four goals and six assists for a game-high 10 points. It’s the highest point total for any Terps player this season, and her 62 points this year now rank first on the team.
“She has really grown into her role and has improved a lot at finding people in the open,” coach Cathy Reese said. “She’s been really important for us and is getting better as the season progresses.”
Even with a roster missing at least four players – including attacker Karri Ellen Johnson – due to flu symptoms, there were plenty of other sources of offense besides Aust. Attacker Kristy Black earned a hat trick on three first-half goals, and midfielder Kelly McPartland did the same on three tallies in the second. Midfielder Katie Schwarzmann also had a hat trick, something she has done 11 times in 15 games this season. Griffin had three assists to go along with her one goal.
Unfortunately for the Terps, even a strong performance was marred by occasional lapses on the defensive end. In both the game’s opening minutes – when the Terps let Princeton break out with a 3-0 run – and its closing phase – when the Tigers cut into the Terps’ once-dominant control of the scoreboard – there were shades of the same defensive performance from their loss to the Tar Heels last weekend.
That shoddy first half against North Carolina and those latest slip-ups against the Tigers last night are a concern. With a Saturday meeting with Virginia Tech fast approaching, Reese hopes her defense will have the stretch of brilliance during the middle of last night’s game, and not its recent mediocrity, become the norm as the Terps prepare for the ACC Tournament.
“We started the game really poorly defensively, but we made some changes and played much better for the remainder of the [first] half and kept them scoreless for about 15 minutes,” Reese said. “We need to get back to doing what we do best.”
munson@umdbk.com
