The Maryland women’s lacrosse team held possession with about three minutes left against North Carolina on Saturday, leading 15-14.
Instead of pushing for another goal, the Terps passed the ball back and forth in an effort to shave time off the clock. But due to a new 60-second shot clock rule, Maryland gave the ball back to North Carolina with less than a minute to go.
The Tar Heels (3-1) drove down the field and scored on Maryland goalkeeper Megan Taylor with 22 seconds left on a pass to the left side up the net, where midfielder Ela Hazar slammed in a game-tying close-range effort. North Carolina capped its 16-15 victory in overtime with a finish by midfielder Marie McCool.
“The ball went in and we got together as a team real quick and just said next practice we’re going to bring it and remember this feeling and let it fuel our fire,” goalkeeper Megan Taylor said.
Maryland (2-1) hadn’t dropped a regular season game since April 5, 2014 against North Carolina. Its last loss overall came to the Tar Heels in the 2016 national title game.
However, coach Cathy Reese said the loss doesn’t raise concerns about the rest of the season.
“I think it’s different if we got beat by 15 goals,” she said. “The world’s not ending everyone. I know we haven’t lost in a whole lot of time, it gives the media something to talk about. … We came up short this week to a really talented Carolina team and that’s kind of the end of story.”
The Terps have a history of not performing well against the Tar Heels in overtime. The last time the two teams met in overtime was in the 2013 NCAA title game, when North Carolina won, 13-12, in the third overtime period.
While execution was a problem all-around in Saturday’s game, the Terps particularly struggled with ball control. They turned the ball over 15 times.
And with those turnovers came more scoring opportunities for North Carolina. While only 22 of the Tar Heels shots made it on net, they took 46 total efforts to Maryland’s 29.
But Cathy Reese is proud of her team’s effort.
“We were in a situation where we fought it out. We fought it out and we came out short,” Reese said. “It was a great game, very competitive, good competition and now we are in a position where we have the opportunity to reevaluate and just learn from this.”