It cost the Terrapin women’s lacrosse team two of its biggest games of the season and an ACC championship.

But it has suddenly become a part of their repertoire.

In their third game of the season, Duke outscored the Terps 6-4 in the second half to rally back for the win. The problem continued throughout the season. Against some lesser competition such as Towson, it created a headache – but nothing to worry about – as the Terps outscored their problems in the first half.

But the problem lingered and ultimately derailed the Terps’ ACC championship hopes as Virginia outscored them 6-2 to snatch the ACC title.

The meltdown in Charlottesville, Va., was the wake-up call for the Terps. All season long, the team had second-half quandaries. In their 17 games prior to the trouncing of Princeton, the Terps averaged a paltry 1.06-goal second-half scoring margin over their opponents. And in the ACC tournament, they were outscored a combined 9-2 in the two games.

Since the Charlottesville collapse, the Terps have been on a tear, and they have finished games better than they have all season. In their three games after the ACC title game, they have outscored their opponents 31-11 in second halves and by an average margin of 6.7.

Against Temple in the first round of the NCAA tournament, the Terps had two scoring droughts in the first half totaling nearly 18 minutes. In the locker room at halftime, the Terps knew they couldn’t afford another second-half collapse.

“When we were in the locker room at halftime, the coaches said that there are 30 minutes left in this game, and one team is going to move on, and one team is going to go home,” senior attacker Katie Princiotto said. “That really sent a message to everyone and fired everyone up. And we knew that we had 30 minutes [to] go out and do it.”

“As [coach] Cathy [Reese] always says, ‘In the game of lacrosse, there are always two halves.’ Thank God,” senior midfielder Kelly Kasper joked.

Senior defender Katie Pumphrey scored the Terps’ first goal of the half, which really fired up the team. After Pumphrey’s goal, the route was on, and the Terps outscored the Owls 12-2 in the second half.

“At halftime, we just thought that, after everything we have worked for, this could be our last 30 minutes, potentially,” senior midfielder Dana Dobbie said. “It has to be the best 30 minutes for us to be the team [that] continues on.”

The Terps dominated scoring and kept the Owls off balance by constantly shifting the tempo from an upbeat, quick transition offense, which resulted in two goals in nine seconds, to a slower, methodical offense.

“In the second half, we needed to adjust and refocus to make sure that we were changing the tempo around,” Reese said. “We made those changes in the second half, and I was much happier with the way we played.”

With revenge for their early-season collapse in Durham, N.C., on their minds, the Terps hope their newfound second-half efficiency will help them have their vengeance.

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