Maryland women’s lacrosse’s growth has paved the Terps’ recent success

Maryland women’s lacrosse enters its regular-season finale against No. 2 Northwestern with a 1-3 record against top 10 opponents. But the group that will travel to Evanston is not the same one that played in those previous four outings.

After an 8-7 defeat to No. 3 Denver in early March — the last top 10 team the Terps faced — they were 3-3 and fourth in the Big Ten in both scoring offense and scoring defense.

Maryland now ranks second in each category, and has won nine of its last 10 games since the loss to the Pioneers.

“I don’t know that we’ve had another year that we’ve grown as much as a team, as we have throughout the season,” coach Cathy Reese said after Maryland defeated Ohio State on April 8.

Despite a hiccup Thursday against No. 14 Penn State, the No. 12 Terps have turned into a dangerous foe entering the postseason.

They entered the year ranked No. 2, but had questions on both sides of the field that needed answering.

Maryland’s pressing issue on offense was replacing its 2022 leader in goals and assists, Aurora Cordingley. Cordingley graduated, leaving Reese a hole to fill.

Senior attackers Libby May and Hannah Leubecker stepped up as the offense’s top scorers from the start, while junior attacker Eloise Clevenger immediately stepped into the quarterback role Cordingley vacated behind the net. She’s Maryland’s leader in assists with 37.

But there wasn’t much of a shooting threat behind May and Leubecker, which was proven in the Terps’ 20-11 loss to No. 1 Syracuse in their second outing of the season. The Orange allocated more defensive resources to the pair — limiting them to two goals each.

Reese wanted the ball spread around among a plethora of capable scorers. But early on in the season, Maryland didn’t have the depth to do that.

“We’re gonna see a lot from everybody. It’s not going to be limited to one or two people,” Reese said after the Syracuse defeat. “… We need to step up individually.”

That was before Kori Edmondson became an offensive wrecking ball.

The freshman midfielder was the country’s top recruit in the Class of 2022, but scored just three times leading up to the Denver contest. Edmondson has since dodged and muscled her way to a hat trick in nine of 11 contests, cementing herself into the starting lineup.

Her physicality makes her a great offensive asset, but her intensity and energy are arguably her best strengths. And they rub off on the rest of her teammates, according to Reese.

“That energy is contagious,” Reese said. “[When Kori scores] one of my favorite things is the way she slams her stick on the ground and how emotional she gets.”

On the other side of the ball, the issue for the Terps wasn’t figuring out where the talent was. It was everywhere defensively.

Graduate student Abby Bosco is the reigning Big Ten Defender of the Year. Senior Emily Sterling is the reigning IWLCA National Goalkeeper of the Year. Two transfers — graduate student Marge Donovan and redshirt junior Clancy Rheude — won at least a share of their conference’s Defender of the Year at their old schools. And Maryland brought in five defensive top-10 recruits between 2021 and 2022 — four midfielders and defender Kennedy Major. 

But only Sterling, Bosco, senior Brianna Lamoureux, graduate student Maddie Sanchez and junior midfielder Shannon Smith regularly started together last season. The group needed time to gel.

“There’s been a lot of conversation about our defense being real veteran and [with] returners, but when you look at my group … we’ve got a lot of new faces in this mix,” Reese said after Maryland’s season-opener.

The Terps’ defense has steadily improved following Syracuse’s 20-goal output against them. But over their nine-game win streak, the unit found another level. Their caused-turnover numbers increased, double teams were executed perfectly and defensive shifts rarely looked out of sync.

“As a whole, we’re better at listening to each other, knowing each other’s tendencies and trusting each other more,” Donovan said. “I think that was our biggest thing.”

The Terps allowed just 7.9 goals a game during the win streak. They topped it off with an 18-7 victory over Ohio State, a performance Reese saw as their most complete effort of the year.

But they’re still far from perfect. Reese saw the 12-7 loss to Penn State on Thursday as a reminder for her group to keep its foot on the gas pedal. The Terps will need to play a complete outing on Saturday if they want to take down the 14-1 Wildcats.

“[Against Penn State] we were hesitant, afraid to make mistakes and we know that we [must] go into Saturday’s game [with] a different mindset,” Reese said. “We’ve got to be attacking all over the field, and so we’ll be ready to do that.”