Attacker Caroline Wannen stood on the sideline for all 60 minutes in at least half of the Terrapins women’s lacrosse team’s games her first two seasons in College Park. On back-to-back national champion squads, playing time was hard to come by.
Once the junior takes the field Wednesday against Johns Hopkins, though, she will have played in 11 contests, matching her career high. With the No. 1 Terps only returning five starters this spring, Wannen was asked to step into a starting role. And 10 games into the campaign, she’s thrived.
In Saturday’s 17-9 victory over previously undefeated Cornell, Wannen matched her career high with seven points. It’s the second time she has recorded seven points this season.
“Every game it seems like someone else is stepping up,” Wannen said. “It kind of depends who’s open that night. But it’s nice that everyone can work together like that.”
After the Terps’ victory over No. 2 Florida on March 19, coach Cathy Reese said the coaching staff had challenged Wannen to drive to the goal more often.
While she was held scoreless in the three games after and recorded just one assist in that stretch, she dominated against Cornell. She scored three goals and tallied four assists to push her team-leading assists total to 14.
“We all know anybody on the offense can score and when the ball goes in the net, it doesn’t matter who’s doing it,” Wannen said. “We all believe in each other on offense and that really builds up our confidence.”
Reese said Wannen will continue to get better as she becomes more confident. Her performance against the Big Red likely helped.
Wannen was involved in an early Terps rally that followed Cornell’s first goal of the game. She assisted on attacker Megan Whittle’s game-tying goal and added back-to-back scores later in the half to push the Terps’ edge to 7-1.
“She was in the right spot,” Reese said. “She’s a really good shooter, great finisher and [had] good field vision.”
Wannen didn’t stop contributing in the second half. Just more than five minutes into the second, she scored for the third time. While Wannen has had success this season, her opportunities Saturday came against a Big Red defense ranked sixth in the nation entering the contest.
Her performance drew praise from the Terps defense, too, which tied a season high with nine goals allowed.
“It’s nice that we both pick up each other’s slack,” defender Nadine Hadnagy said. “They’re always there to get some goals and get the momentum going again.”
A season ago, it would’ve been one of Wannen’s teammates stepping up on offense. She tallied just one goal and no assists in her 11 appearances as a sophomore.
But she’s making the most of her opportunity as a starter.
“She continues to play the more confidence she gets,” Reese said, “[and] the better she’s going to be.”
