No. 1 Maryland women’s lacrosse prides itself on its attacking depth. The Terps have had 14 different goal scorers throughout this season.
But Saturday’s game against Rutgers was arguably the team’s most balanced offensive performance. Eight players netted multiple goals — the first time that has happened this year. Maryland did so with only 29 shots on target.
Behind the Terps’ complete attack and Lauren LaPointe’s seventh four-goal outing, Rutgers had no answers. Maryland throttled the Scarlet Knights, scoring a season-high 18 goals in its 18-11 victory to keep its unbeaten season alive.
“I think 15 [goals have] been, like our Kryptonite,” Kori Edmondson said, “I think we saw where we were and we were like let’s keep pushing.”
On Senior Day, the Terps’ experienced players shone. Kristen Shanahan and Jordyn Lipkin each finished with two goals and three assists. The duo contributed to over half of the team’s scoring production to fuel Maryland’s offensive rout.
Graduate student Keeley Block and senior Edmondson added their own multi-score performances. In total, the Terps’ senior class combined for eight goals and six assists.
“It’s just a really special group, and I think my favorite part about it right now is just the chemistry that these guys have created,” head coach Cathy Reese said.
While JJ Suriano had one of her worst showings against Penn State with only a 35% save percentage, she was a key component to the win today. Suriano finished with a 52.6% save percentage and 10 stops.
“JJ’s a rock star,” Reese said. “She just locked in and took care of business. And some of the times, the goals were scored, we kind of left her on an island.”
Maryland has produced solid first halves in every game this season, only to have the other team slowly chip away at their lead throughout the third and fourth quarters. Despite still holding onto their advantages, Maryland needed a comfortable win.
“We came out with a really good energy, it’s probably the best energy I’ve seen from this team all season,” said Reese.
Saturday’s game was a prime opportunity to do so. Rutgers entered just 1-4 in ranked games. While Maryland lost the third quarter, the Scarlet Knights never got within six goals.
That dominance was evident early on. In the first quarter alone, six different players scored to give the Terps a 6-2 lead.
Rutgers scored two minutes into the first quarter from senior midfielder Ava Chiarella, her eighth goal of this season.
With just under ten minutes in the first quarter, junior midfielder Lexi Dupcak earned the Terps their lead back, and soon after, Shanahan had a powerhouse shot from the eight-meter arc, continuing the Terps first half momentum.
LaPointe scored 20 seconds into the game with a crease roll and shot right into the top left corner.
Sophomore midfielder Emma Abbazia, LaPointe, and Edmondson earned their second goals of the game in the second quarter, with LaPointe earning a hat trick by the end of the first half.
Rutgers only scored once in the second quarter. Less than one minute into the period, Annalise Messina found the back of the net.
“I think in each game you have certain matches, but I think we all just played well as a unit,” graduate defender Kennedy Major said
Rutgers was a force on draw controls, corralling 13 out of 23 draw controls by the start of the fourth quarter. But gaining possession simply wasn’t enough to get them a win.
Lipkin and Edmondson continued the pattern with solid goals from clean dodges into the shooting area.
Maryland scored in the fifth minute of the second quarter with a goal from Block.
The goal from Block began the Terps ‘ second-quarter momentum with junior attacker Maisy Clevenger scoring soon after Block with an assist from Shanahan.
Junior attacker Alex Popham scored for Rutgers early in the second half, and Rutgers struck soon after with another goal from Hilary Elsner.
Late in the fourth quarter, they put graduate goalie Carly Peterson in with the game out of reach.
Maryland will play No. 6 Northwestern on Thursday in SECU Stadium at 6 p.m.
