Terps captains gather together to celebrate with the Big Ten regular-season trophy after a 13-10 victory over Penn State at the Field Hockey and Lacrosse complex on April 23, 2014.
The Terrapins women’s lacrosse team encountered unfamiliar territory midway through the second half of its game against Penn State on Thursday night. The Nittany Lions had scored four unanswered points out of the break to trim the Terps’ lead to 8-7.
With Penn State threatening to end the Terps’ quest for an undefeated regular season, midfielder Taylor Cummings caught a feed from attacker Kristen Lamon behind the net and deposited the ball into Penn State’s cage.
Cummings’ score helped the No. 1 Terps regain their momentum in a 13-10 over the No. 8 Nittany Lions to win the program’s first Big Ten regular-season title with a 17-0 regular season.
“It was just a collective agreement that, ‘All right, they’re done. Like they’ve had their run, and now it’s our turn to have our run,’” Cummings said.
Cummings carried the scoring load with four goals. She also led the Terps (17-0, 5-0 Big Ten) with four ground balls, four caused turnovers and 10 draw controls.
Lamon and midfielder Zoe Stukenberg added three scores of their own to help pace the Terps. The duo and Cummings combined for two scores apiece to propel their squad to a 6-0 lead in the game’s opening 10 minutes.
Both of Cummings’ first-half goals came in the opening minute, including an unassisted shot 10 seconds after the opening draw.
“The offense was moving really well,” Lamon said. “We were finding the open player much easier when we worked the ball fast and moved the ball fast.”
Still, Penn State (12-4, 4-1) closed the half on a 3-1 run despite being outshot 18-9 and winning just 1 of 12 draws.
The Nittany Lions struck first in the second half with a shot in the bottom-left corner from midfielder Katie O’Donnell. The freshman’s goal sparked three more Penn State scores in less than a four minute span that cut the Terps’ once six-goal lead to one.
“Today we got a little ahead of ourselves,” coach Cathy Reese said. “We would make a big play and try to keep it going, but yet if it wasn’t there, we ended up turning it over.”
Cummings regained her form in the draw circle, though, and combined with midfielder Kelly McPartland and Stukenberg for four goals to build the Terps’ lead back up.
The Nittany Lions added three more points off two scores from attacker Steph Lazo, the Big Ten’s reigning Offensive Player of the Week, and one from midfielder Jenna Mosketti. They couldn’t pull the game within one, however.
Terps reserve midfielder Taylor Hensh capped the scoring when she weaved through the circle and scored on a pass from McPartland. The freshman’s goal enabled the Terps to use a conservative passing attack to run out the final six minutes on the game and their regular season.
Despite a second-half scare, the Terps celebrated their undefeated campaign on the field and raised the Big Ten regular-season championship trophy after the horn sounded.
“What’s really special about this team is we can bounce back, and we can face adversity, and we can move forward,” Cummings said. “We just really came together and had a team talk, and then we were able to kind of give ourselves a little breathing room.”
