The Terrapin women’s lacrosse team is about to get a second chance.

In the midst of another somewhat frustrating season in which they have struggled to beat highly-ranked opponents, the No. 4-ranked Terps are entering a part of their schedule that is almost identical to last year.

And the Terps start this year’s stretch in almost the same position they were in a year ago.

Last year, before the Terps started a eight-game stretch in mid-March, they were 0-2 against ranked teams, were coming off a huge win against Denver and were heading into unranked George Mason. They were 4-2 and ranked No. 9 at the time.

This year the Terps are 0-3 against ranked teams, are coming off a huge win against Brown and are about to face unranked Old Dominion. The Terps are 4-3.

It would not bode well if the Terps have the same results they had last year.

“Those are big games,” sophomore midfielder Kelly Kasper said. “Dartmouth and Penn State, they beat us last year, so we just want to come out and put it to them this year.”

But before those “big games” last season, the Terps took five overtimes to secure against a George Mason team they should have pounded. In total, they lost three games against ranked teams in the seven-game stretch.

Beginning Saturday, the Terps do not want to start with a scare against an unranked opponent and they want to see their 0-3 record against ranked opponents get better, not worse.

Their strategy is an old cliche.

“You have to look at one game at a time and we are focusing on Old Dominion right now,” senior midfielder Delia Cox said. “We have got to play them hard, if we don’t look at them, they can upset us and you can’t consider that.”

Kasper said the best way to not allow history repeat itself is to garner momentum with the next four games, which seem to be one right after the other. During spring break the Terps have four games in nine days, which contrasts their usual one or two games per week.

But the Terps see this as a chance to gain some positive momentum, something they’ve struggled with this season.

“If we start off playing good against Old Dominion, we’ll just keep going with that instead of, ‘Play good, wait a week and wait for another game,'” Kasper said.

While it seems as if the upcoming stretch could play a large part in deciding the Terps’ regular season, their mediocre play hasn’t hurt them thus far. The Terps are the only team in the top-5 with more than one loss. Part of the reason could be the Terps have disposed of less-talented teams this season.

The last thing they need to begin their this stretch of the schedule would be a drawn out game against an unranked team like they had last year.

Contact reporter Bryan Mann at bmanndbk@gmail.com.