When Massachusetts women’s lacrosse coach Alexis Venechanos brings her team to College Park this weekend, she’ll be the latest former Terrapin player to grace the sideline wearing colors other than red, white, black and gold.
The Terps’ dominance of the sport in the 1990s and early 2000s launched coaching gigs for many former players across the country, and Terps’ coach Cathy Reese has had to plan against former teammates and players regularly in her four-year tenure.
Venechanos and Dartmouth head coach Amy Patton, who the Terps will face next weekend, are the next in line.
“They have great coaching,” Reese said of the two teams. “Obviously, I’m a little biased.”
Of the nine other teams joining the Terps in the top 10 this week, four of them are coached by former Terp players, including No. 2 Northwestern’s Kelly Amonte Hiller and No. 6 Duke’s Kerstin Kimel.
But even with Venechanos and Walker’s homecomings, the Terps aren’t focused on welcoming their forebearers but rather building off their ACC Championship.
After upending then-No. 1 North Carolina on Sunday for their second straight tournament title, the Terps (16-1, 4-1 ACC) rose to No. 1 in the national rankings and now hope to sustain that momentum against Venechanos and her unranked Massachusetts squad (10-8).
While the Minutewomen won the A-10 conference championship last week, the matchup is less significant to the Terps than their last two games against the Tar Heels and then-No. 4 Virginia.
Teams such as Massachusetts and No. 10 Dartmouth provide a buffer for the Terps to recover before the NCAA Tournament and the possibility of facing their ACC foes again.
“It gives us a little bit of time to refocus instead of going full speed into both tournaments,” defender Karissa Taylor said. “We can get back into practice and understand what the coaches are looking for.”
With the team’s newfound time off and middling upcoming opposition — the Minutewomen have lost all of their games against ranked opponents this season — the Terps have found opportunities to tend to their injuries and postseason futures.
“At this point, we’re trying to take care of people who are sore, tired so that we can take care of our bodies,” Reese said. “We have a lot of time to prepare and get better.”
The Terps insist there is a lot of room to grow even after holding North Carolina to a season-low five goals this weekend and earning the No. 1 ranking for the first time in seven years.
“It starts with the seniors, the captains on the team and the coaches — just the intensity that they bring and their drive to do well,” midfielder Katie Schwarzmann said. “Now we’re entering into a whole new season.”
For the team, it doesn’t matter if it’s against a familiar name.
“We can really stick it to these teams before NCAAs,” Taylor said. “Even though we won the ACC Championship, we can still step it up another level really show the rest of the country who the 2010 Terps are.”
ceckard@umdbk.com
