COLLEGE PARK, MD — After losing in its home opener against Syracuse this past Saturday, Maryland women’s lacrosse was determined to put an underwhelming season opener in the past.

“It’s only game one of the season and we have a long season ahead,” midfielder Kori Edmondson said after the Syracuse loss. 

Determined to look positively at the rest of its season, Maryland had an opportunity to make amends on Tuesday. The Terps did just that against Georgetown, celebrating their first win of the 2025 season with a 9-7 win over the Hoyas at Maryland’s Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex. 

New faces all across the Maryland roster put their names on Tuesday’s statsheet; three freshmen crucially scored in the narrow victory. 

With this year being her first as the Georgetown head coach, Caitlyn Phipps came into Tuesday’s matchup with far deeper ties to College Park. She spent four years playing as a Terp and an additional 13 seasons as the assistant coach. 

Phipps spent all 17 of those campaigns under Maryland head coach Cathy Reese. Despite her familiarity with Reese’s strategies, the Hoyas head coach was unable to pull out a win against her tonight, although Phipps came rather close. 

In the first 38 seconds of the game, Maryland freshman Emma Abbazia scored her first collegiate goal and the first goal of the game, setting the tone for the Terps. 

“We just went in there wanting to compete and prove ourselves,” redshirt junior Kennedy Major said.

Both teams played an aggressive and competitive first half, but Maryland capitalized more often than not. The Terps won all 12 draw controls and narrowly finished with more shots, as Georgetown trailed 7-3 at halftime.

It may have seemed like it was a defensive game through the first two quarters with both teams running out the shot clock more than once. But the third quarter was a defensive stalemate on both ends of the field. 

It wasn’t until almost 10 minutes into the second half that sophomore Lauren Lapointe scored the eighth goal of the game. 

Georgetown also started piecing together its own momentum in the third quarter. 

Nearing the end of the third, the Hoyas won the opening draw possession — their first one of the game. They promptly scored with two and half minutes remaining in the frame, cutting Maryland’s lead to 8-4. 

Going into the fourth quarter Georgetown had significant momentum — so much so that it scored three more goals in about six and a half minutes. With their lead dwindled to just one, the Terps weren’t nearly as comfortable as they had been in the first half. 

“We were sloppy with our stick work and we needed to clean that up,” Reese said. 

Maryland was given a green card when Georgetown’s Mikaila Kitchen had to limp off the field after being injured by a Terps player. This should have been the final turning point for Georgetown, now that it held a numerical advantage and was just a goal away from equalizing.

But the Hoyas weren’t able to come up with another goal. 

An unexpectedly long review following Kitchen’s injury ceased their momentum and allowed Maryland to score one last goal. With the two-goal deficit, Georgetown’s comeback became more challenging.

After minutes of frantic Georgetown possession, Maryland’s Sophie Halus made a decisive defensive play by checking the ball out of Maley Starr’s stick. Halus’ heroics gave Maryland possession. At that point, Georgetown didn’t have enough time to score the two goals that would’ve tied the game. 

By the end of the night, three freshmen had combined for four of Maryland’s goals — an impressive showing after just one Maryland freshman scored during the Syracuse defeat.

“The freshmen are a really strong group of athletes and a strong group of players,” Reese said. 

Maryland returns to The Plex to play Saint Joseph’s this Saturday at 3 p.m.