After taking care of Syracuse in the Carrier Dome last weekend, Maryland women’s lacrosse came back to its home state for a matchup against Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Unlike last time out, the Terrapins had no trouble getting out to lead, scoring within the first three minutes and never relinquished, winning 15-5.
The Terps received contributions across the board from a bevy of scorers, with four players pouring in multi-goal games. Caroline Steele led the team for the second week in a row, this time with four goals, pushing her season total to 20. Jen Giles, Megan Whittle, and Taylor Hensh each had three goals, as the team had no problems spreading the wealth. In past games one or two stood out above the rest, but all four of the leaders found a way to give equal contributions in the dominating victory.
Just over two minutes into the game, Steele found her way inside to rip a shot past Johns Hopkins goalie Haley Crosson. That set the tone for the entire day, as Maryland scored the first five goals en route to a blowout win.
The scores came from the usual suspects: Whittle, Giles, Hensh, and then Whittle again. It seems that no matter the situation, Cathy Reese can count on these four to take over games at will, and that’s a big reason why they are the captains of this team.
The Blue Jays scored consecutive goals to cut Maryland’s lead to three, but another large run put this game out of reach early. Four goals in a six-minute span put the Terps ahead 9-2. Thanks to their defense, the game wouldn’t get close again. Johns Hopkins hoped that a quick score by Mackenzie Heldberg would give them some momentum heading into the break, but Steele killed that hope by getting her second goal of the day.
The second half started off like the first half of the Syracuse game, as neither team scored in the first 10 minutes. At the 19:10 mark, though, Steele put Maryland on the board. The Blue Jays scored just over 90 seconds later, but a three-goal run for the Terps quickly followed. CeCe Finney’s goal made the score 14-5, but Hensh would answer with the game’s final score.
Maryland has a tough matchup coming rather quickly, with a trip to Philadelphia on tap for Wednesday scheduled with the No. 9 Penn Quakers at 7 p.m. ET.
Three things to know
1. The defense played lights out. In addition to only allowing five goals, Maryland only permitted the Blue Jays to take 12 shots, the lowest total since the season opener. They didn’t just stop Hopkins from getting good looks on cage, they stopped them from getting any looks whatsoever.
2. And so did Megan Taylor. She wasn’t under a lot of pressure thanks to the aforementioned defensive performance (as well as being granted a large lead early), but the reigning National Goaltender of the Year is starting to play at that level once again. With seven saves against just five goals, the junior posted a terrific .583 save percentage.
3. Carrying the momentum is crucial. A borderline top-20 team, Johns Hopkins is certainly no walkover. But after a win over No. 8 Syracuse and matchups with Penn and No. 3 James Madison on the horizon, keeping this hot streak going is absolutely critical to the Terps’ success going forward.