Midfielder Taylor Cummings plays tight defense in the Terps’ 17-5 win against Rutgers at the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex on April 4, 2015.
In its past two games, the Terrapins women’s lacrosse team has faced Georgetown and Rutgers, teams that held a combined 3-20 record after the Terps’ two victories.
The No. 1 Terps cruised to a 12-3 win over the Hoyas on April 1 in Washington and beat the Scarlet Knights, 17-5, at home Saturday afternoon.
Coach Cathy Reese’s squad was able to focus on experimenting with different offensive sets and strategies in those matchups after building early leads.
But when the Terps take the turf at the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex tonight to face No. 15 Princeton, they will put their season-long winning streak on the line against a Tigers squad that possesses postseason tournament experience.
“We’re really excited to just get out and compete again,” midfielder Taylor Cummings said. “It’s always fun to play a ranked opponent — it’s always fun to play anyone — but [defender Alice Mercer] and I have some friends on Princeton, so it’ll be nice to see them too.”
One of Mercer’s friends, Erin Slifer, ranks second on Princeton with 21 goals this year and leads the Tigers (8-2) with 12 assists and 17 ground-ball pickups.
Slifer teams up with midfielder Olivia Hompe, who has netted 27 goals for the Tigers this season, to create a stout offensive attack. Mercer said she and the Terps (12-0) are looking forward to facing an explosive offense tonight.
“We can be tighter on cutters and just play good one-on-one D,” Mercer said, “and just all the little things that we work on every day in practice — the ground balls and clearing the ball out and taking care of it. All of that coming together in one is what’s going to help us.”
Since 2007, the Terps have won nine straight games against the Tigers. En route to last season’s national title, the Terps escaped one of their toughest regular-season matchups with a 8-7 win over Princeton in April.
Cummings, midfielder Kelly McPartland and attacker Brooke Griffin led the Terps in scoring with two goals apiece to help them erase a two-goal halftime deficit.
McPartland scored the game’s deciding goal on a free-position shot with less than two minutes remaining.
Reese expects tonight’s match to be similar to the one a year ago because she said the Tigers, who have played in the NCAA tournament seven out of the past nine seasons, have been a tough opponent for the Terps each year.
“They’re always a good game,” said Reese, who played for the Terps in the 1990s. “[The] Maryland-Princeton game, back to even my time as a player, was such a huge rivalry for us, and they always have a good team every year that’s really strong and disciplined and executes well.”
And though the Terps have toppled six top-15 teams so far, tonight’s contest against Princeton will be a change of pace from the ones this past week.
“We’re focusing on Maryland when we go out,” Mercer said, “and we’re focusing on our offense and how we’re going to execute our plays and how we’re going to talk on defense and have each other’s backs.
“We’re not really worried about what the other team is doing, and I think that that’s what helps us come up, and we’re ready to play for every game.”