Sitting with her team on the Ludwig Field bleachers during yesterday’s first-round action, Terrapin women’s lacrosse assistant coach Quinn Carney paused as she tried to remember the last time the Terps hosted the ACC Tournament.
Carney smiled. It had been a while — a whole decade, in fact. The last time the ACC descended upon College Park for the conference’s postseason championship, Carney, a second-year assistant coach with the Terps, was a junior midfielder in the program she now coaches. With then-assistant coach Cathy Reese on the sidelines, Carney recorded one goal and three assists to help lead the Terps to their second straight conference title.
Ten years later, Carney, Reese and the No. 3 Terps (14-1, 4-1 ACC) have that same opportunity. Today, they’ll open their championship defense with a late afternoon rematch with No. 4 Virginia.
Reese and Carney have already felt the luxury of staying home. Yesterday, Reese, now the head coach, left her office in Comcast Center to make a cross-campus walk to Ludwig Field, where she met up with some of her team to watch the first-round matchups. Fans from all over the East Coast dotted the stadium as others tailgated in the parking lot celebrating, team flags and banners flying overhead.
“Ludwig looks great,” Carney said. “I really love it here, and I’m so excited to be back.”
The path to the title may end up being the same as 10 years ago, when the Terps defeated Virginia and then North Carolina. Tonight, the Terps face the No. 3 seed Cavaliers (13-3, 4-1 ACC). If they win, the team advances to play in the championship against the winner of tomorrow’s North Carolina-Duke game.
Though hosting cuts down on the team’s travel, the Terps face other challenges. Distractions that don’t normally travel with the team to out-of-state tournament destinations remain in College Park.
Still, the Terps are treating the weekend at home like any other game weekend. The team has historically stayed in a hotel to remain focused during the tournament, but this year, the Terps are staying at their own places.
“We’re trying to keep the normal routine as close as possible,” Reese said. “We just want our kids comfortable.”
They should be equally at ease against the Cavaliers. When Virginia played the Terps on March 5, the Cavaliers slowed down the game enough to only take one shot in the first 10 minutes of the half before the Terps ran away late, winning 11-5.
Yesterday, Virginia wasn’t nearly as conservative. In its 18-6 victory against Virginia Tech, Virginia pressured the Hokies into turnovers, which they turned into quick goals.
“Virginia is so disciplined,” Reese said. “They’re smart, patient and they look for their opening. For us playing against a team like that, we need to be smart and take care of the ball and our possessions.”
Reese is relishing the opportunity to play on her home field. As head coach, Reese is 35-1 all-time in College Park, with the lone loss coming against Duke in the NCAA Tournament in 2008. Overall, the Terps are 175-11 since 1990, including 11 perfect seasons.
But Reese doesn’t feel any extra pressure to win the title because of the home-field advantage.
“We always put pressure on ourselves,” Reese said. “We’re looking at one game at a time and that’s all we know.”
ceckard@umdbk.com
