Before the Big Ten tournament begins next week, the Maryland women’s lacrosse team faces one final regular season test.
Coming off a victory over No. 5 Penn State last week, Maryland (16-0, 5-0 Big Ten) plays at Evanston, Illinois, on Thursday against No. 15 Northwestern. The two NCAA women’s lacrosse powerhouse programs — who’ve combined to win eight of the last 10 national championships — will square off as the Terps put the finishing touches on their play.
“That’s what we do as coaches,” coach Cathy Reese said. “We try to find things to get better at from the last game where we were.”
The No. 1 Terps escaped with their slimmest victory this season against Penn State. Despite the win, Reese saw ways the team could progress entering the final section of the campaign, starting against the Wildcats (9-7, 4-1 Big Ten).
The 11th-year coach stressed finishing as an area in need of improvement. Although the Terps notched 16 goals against the Nittany Lions, Reese felt they could have converted more of their 42 shots. She said the Terps have done a good job creating opportunities, but they aren’t taking advantage of their opportunities.
“We just want to work on putting it all together,” attacker Caroline Wannen said. “Every game we’re just working toward putting a full game together on defense, scoring, on draws, on everything.”
The Terps surrendered a season-high 14 goals to Penn State. Defender Nadine Hadnagy said the defense played awesome at times, but can’t play well only in spurts against the Wildcats, who Reese added is a physical, tough team that poses a “big challenge.”
Maryland also hopes to be fresh from its first full week off between games since playing Johns Hopkins on March 19.
The schedule forced the Terps to play five of their final nine games away, with several road games coming in the middle of the week. Their final contest in Evanston, Illinois, is the farthest the Terps have to travel this season, but the week of rest can negate that.
Maryland plans to use the extra time to prepare for its opponent, Hadnagy added.
“This couldn’t have happened for us at a better time,” Reese said. “It’s tough to play two midweek games on the road, that’s a challenge that we have to face. It’s nice to be able to have some downtime too and rest our bodies.”
The Terps won a share of the Big Ten regular season championship April 20 in State College, Pennsylvania. The contest with the Wildcats gives them a chance to earn the top spot outright with a victory and cap off a third-straight undefeated regular season.
“The end of the season is always fun because we have stuff to play for, like the Big Ten regular season championship or the Big Ten tournament,” Hadnagy said. “At this point in the season, we should be playing close to our peak lacrosse.”
