The Terrapins women’s lacrosse team dominated much of its game against No. 14 Penn on Wednesday, yet coach Cathy Reese felt the need to use a timeout with 7:39 to go. The Quakers had just scored their fifth straight goal to cut the Terps’ lead to five, the closest they had been since midway through the first half.
“[Reese] said, ‘It’s time to turn it on,'” midfielder Zoe Stukenberg said. “Our effort really wasn’t there. Some things were out of our control, but the things we could control we weren’t doing well enough.”
The nation’s ninth-best defensive unit buckled down after the break, allowing one more goal in their eventual 12-8 win. But as the Terps prepare to host James Madison at the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex on Saturday afternoon, Reese said she wants her defense to remain consistent regardless of how sizable of a lead the team has.
“[Penn] challenged us through the end of the game and never gave up,” Reese said. “Defensively, we didn’t help each other out. We were more individual than in the first half.”
Early on, it was the Terps who jumped out to a comfortable lead.
Midfielder Taylor Cummings scored three goals and attacker Megan Whittle added a pair, helping the Terps end the first half with a six-goal lead. And after holding No. 2 Florida to a pair of goals in the first half of their 14-4 road victory last weekend, the Terps only allowed Penn to score twice in the opening period on just five shots.
Nine minutes into the second half, Whittle’s unassisted goal gave the No. 1 Terps a 10-goal advantage, which resulting in a running clock. But shortly after, Penn went on a run of its own.
Midfielder Lely DeSimone started the offensive spurt by scoring midway through the second half, and the Quakers scored the next five goals, too. They scooped up nine ground balls and took 11 shots after the intermission while cutting into the Terps’ lead.
While the Quakers still didn’t surpass their season average in goals, they capitalized on a handful of turnovers Reese called “a little uncharacteristic.”
“Penn does a really nice job of moving off [the] ball and cutting into open space,” Cummings said. “We were just a step behind.”
In playing James Madison (4-6) on Saturday, the Terps (7-0) will go up against the 28th-best scoring offense in the country, with about 12 goals per game. But the Dukes are coming off a 10-9 loss to Virginia and fell to North Carolina, 11-7.
So if the offense is able to take a large lead, the Terps hope their defensive unit can keep it that way.
“We got a little comfortable with the lead we had,” Stukenberg said. “Hats off to Penn for making us pay. I think that’s a good lesson to learn moving forward. We have to stick it out.”
