There will be a change in the Maryland women’s lacrosse team’s mindset when it plays its first NCAA Tournament game Sunday.
In the No. 1 Terps’ two wins over Rutgers and Northwestern en route to the first Big Ten championship in program history, coach Cathy Reese said her team played on its heels.
After holding the Scarlet Knights to only three goals in the first half of the semifinal game, the Terps allowed them to score six times in the second half. A second-half rally propelled the Terps to a win over the Wildcats, but the teams entered the intermission tied at six.
The Terps are planning to change their mentality in the postseason. They are going to be aggressive and hot from the start.
“There’s a shift in mentality when it’s one and done,” defender Alice Mercer said. “It emphasizes every single little moment in the game. That puts more importance on our philosophy of winning every moment.”
Throughout the regular season — the Terps ended the year without a loss — a young core helped them put games away late.
Reese’s squad returned only five starters from last season’s championship team, but the team’s youth has responded. Freshman midfielder Caroline Steele is fourth on the team with 31 goals. Freshman Jen Giles has scored 22 times.
Defender Julia Braig, meanwhile, has scooped up 14 ground balls. In goal, freshman Megan Taylor earned the Big Ten’s Goaltender of the Year award.
“They haven’t played like freshmen,” midfielder Taylor Cummings said. “They’ve come out with a lot of confidence, and we don’t expect that to change come playoff time. Obviously, there’s a lot of pressure with the one and done.”
But even with the nation’s second-ranked recruiting class contributing, the Terps have had to cope with pressure.
Against Johns Hopkins, they were forced to come back from a three-goal deficit at halftime. Facing Ohio State at home, it took the best scoring offense in country about 14 minutes to get on the board. On the road against Penn State, the Terps were challenged until they scored the go-ahead goal in the final minutes.
While Maryland topped both the Blue Jays and Virginia, who will compete Friday for a chance to face the Terps at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex this weekend, they aren’t taking anything for granted.
“We need to come out on fire,” Reese said. “We have what it takes. We need to step on the field and finish it out.”
Each year, the Terps play for the feeling of storming the field after winning a championship. This season, they want to do it specifically for a senior class led by Cummings and Mercer.
But that isn’t on their minds ahead of their second-round matchup.
“Everyone on this team wants the championship for the seniors,” midfielder Zoe Stukenberg said. “We know this is their last chance. We don’t help [the seniors] achieve that final goal by thinking about the championship right now.”
