With what ended up being another close game for No. 3 Maryland women’s lacrosse, it needed some strong players to take charge. In particular, experienced offensive players.
For the Terps, those players were Kori Edmondson and Keeley Block.
“When [Edmondson] can get the ball and get space and get her hands free, she’s really hard to stop. And so, she came out strong today. She led the way for us,” head coach Cathy Reese said.“Keeley played really well, shot really well on the offensive end, too, which was huge.
Edmondson and Block scored half of the Terps’ 16 goals en route to their 16-12 victory over No. 14 Princeton.
“We have a lot of experience now, a lot of us are upperclassmen, grad students… we step onto the field, we’re calm, we know what we’re gonna do,” Maddy Sterling said. “ We know our game plan and we’re gonna execute it.”
It looked like the Terps were going to display a far different game than the past two after a successful first quarter, but all that changed after going four and two in the second period, with Princeton outscoring Maryland.
The Terps weren’t up by more than six after the first half.
Lauren LaPointe was key to the fourth-quarter with three points: two goals and one assist.
Maryland scored the first goal of three out of the four quarters. Kristen Shanahan scored two of those. The second half of the game was more back and forth, with two goals back-to-back in the first few minutes of the third quarter.
“Let’s go back out in the second half, and let’s get back to how we started. “Foot on the gas, keep attacking, attack, dodging north south, you know, keep your head up, and move it when we have it, and go for it,” Reese explained what she said to the team during halftime.
Shanahan put one in the net less than a minute into the second half, but soon after, Morrisroe scored.
Princeton’s goalie Amelia Hughes performed well with 10 saves to JJ Suriano’s four by the end of the third quarter
Princeton scored the first goal of the game just 30 seconds in with a shot from sophomore midfielder Maggie Bacigalupo.
Only a couple of minutes later, Princeton struck again, with Bacigalupo assisted by Jami MacDonald, scoring and earning a two-goal lead.
The Terps didn’t remain scoreless for long. Keeley Block scored her 100th career goal to get the team back on track, and soon after, Kori Edmondson scored a goal, tying up Maryland and Princeton with nine minutes left in the first quarter.
“It doesn’t matter if Kori’s putting up five goals or zero goals. Like, she’s making a difference on the field, no matter what. Her energy is there. She’s bringing everybody up, supporting everyone,” said Sterling.
Edmondson didn’t wait long before scoring another goal, getting the Terps in the lead off a free position shot after getting fouled in the head.
Edmondson earned a hat trick in the first quarter, getting the Terps a solid lead after a goal from Lexi Dupcak.
“[Edmondson] is just a worker. She works so hard in between the 30s, whether it’s on the draw, offensively, defensively, like, our middies are on the horsepower of our team,” added Sterling.
The first quarter was Maryland’s quarter, outscoring and outshooting Princeton as well as dominating the draw control.
The Terps had seven goals and 13 shots. On the draw, they earned eight compared to the Tigers’ three.
In the second quarter, the Tigers began to chip away and score more goals until Maryland’s six-goal lead became a two-goal lead.
Bacigalupo was key to the tear that Princeton went on in the second period; she scored half of the four goals for the Tigers.
Along with her junior attacker, Meg Morrisroe, and junior midfielder Ella Sloan scored two goals before the end of the first half.
Despite dominating the draw controls, the Terps weren’t scoring on a lot of their offensive opportunities. With about 21 of the 29 draw controls, 42 shots but only 16 goals.
Maryland still has some learning to do when it comes to its offensive strengths and weaknesses.
