About seven minutes into the second half of the Maryland women’s lacrosse team’s contest against Northwestern on March 31, attacker Megan Whittle drove past a Wildcats defender and deposited the ball into the upper-left corner of the net.
Upon propping the No. 1 Terps’ lead to 8-3, Whittle jumped three times in celebration. Attacker Carolina Wannen greeted her with a hug.
Then, with Britney Spears’ “Oops!…I Did It Again” blaring over the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex speakers, Whittle took her position for the ensuing draw. Moments before action restarted, Whittle started to lip sync the lyrics, moving her shoulder from side to side with every beat.
The sequence, coming after the second of Whittle’s four goals that night, showed coach Cathy Reese how the sophomore’s confidence had grown.
Now the Terps (16-0, 4-0 Big Ten) are preparing to face No. 13 Penn State Thursday night for their final regular season match. Whittle enters the contest as the team’s leading scorer for the second straight season, and Reese said her confidence has factored into that production.
“She’s more confident, but she’s smarter,” Reese said. “She can score. She can dodge. She can attack. She, with experience, is doing a really great job. She’s being a really smart player this year.”
As a freshman, Whittle felt like she needed to “apologize for her amazing goal scoring ability,” midfielder Zoe Stukenberg said. On a team stacked with veterans, Whittle didn’t want to step on anybody’s toes.
Still, she ended the Terps’ second consecutive national championship season with 67 goals, the fourth-most in the country. She was also the Big Ten Freshman of the Week six times.
“Every time we watch her play, I’m so thankful she’s on our team because I surely don’t know how you would stop her,” Stukenberg said.
Before this campaign began, Reese challenged Whittle to become a leader on a team that only returned five starters. The Terps graduated 11 seniors last spring and have relied on several freshmen this season.
While the Glenwood native prefers to lead by example, Whittle said becoming vocal during games hasn’t been as challenging as she anticipated because her veteran teammates helped her acclimate throughout last season.
In the past, Whittle said she had been hesitant to speak up, but “this year, there’s no fear.”
“We have a lot of younger girls starting right away, and last year, that was me,” Whittle said. “I’m more of a quiet leader I would say. If I have to score to get everyone excited, that’s awesome.”
So far, she’s done that.
Whittle leads the Terps in both goals (56) and total points (58) and has scored five goals in a game three different times this season. Syracuse, which double and triple-teamed Whittle and midfielder Taylor Cummings in the Terps’ 14-9 win on March 12, was the only team to hold Whittle to one goal this year.
Whittle tallied her 100th goal of her Terps career on April 2 against Cornell. Stukenberg achieved the same milestone a few weeks later, but “I’ve been here for three years, and she did it in like a minute,” Stukenberg said.
While Whittle’s assist numbers don’t match her goal-scoring statistics — Reese said the McDonogh product often draws double-teamed coverage, hindering the passing lanes — Stukenberg said Whittle has involved her teammates in a different way.
Whittle’s success “rubs off,” the midfielder said, and her confidence is contagious.
“She has blossomed into a leader,” Stukenberg said. “She’s confident she’s going to do what she needs to do to score goals and our team’s going to do what our team needs to do to win games.”
