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Those of you who read my preview of the Maryland women's lacrosse schedule may remember my remark that this Terrapin program doesn't rebuild, it reloads. Well, Inside Lacrosse recently provided some evidence of that. Their preseason All-America squad includes five Terps - two on the first team, one on the second team and two on the third team. Duke also placed five players collectively on the three squads though only one on the first team. Defending champion North Carolina has four players mentioned and no other school placed more than three.
The only senior among Maryland's five All-Americans is Beth Glaros, a midfielder from Ellicott City who made the third team. In 2013, Glaros was fifth on the team in goals scored and netted an impressive fifty-three percent of her shot attempts. Joining Glaros on the third team is sophomore defender Alice Mercer. Mercer will look to build on a solid freshman season in which she picked up 24 ground balls and won 13 draw controls.
The Terrapins' representative on the second team is Megan Douty. Another strong member on Maryland's back line, the New Jersey junior started all twenty-three games in 2013 and picked up twenty-nine ground balls while causing eleven turnovers.
Midfielder Brooke Griffin is one of two Terps named as a first team All-American. In 2013, only Alex Aust and Katie Schwarzmann recorded more goals than the redshirt junior from Edgewater. Griffin has a knack for scoring important goals tying Schwarzmann with a team leading five game winners last season. Sitting atop the list is another midfielder, sophomore Taylor Cummings. Cummings, who came to Maryland after graduating from McDonough High in Owings Mills, was fourth on the team scoring 43 goals as a freshman. Her greatest value, however, may have come in the circle where she won 94 draw controls. Inside Lacrosse also tabbed her as one of six players on its preseason Player of the Year watch list. Cummings is the only underclassman to earn this distinction.