No. 1 Northwestern dominates No. 2 Maryland in Terps’ 17-9 loss

Izzy Scane and Madison Taylor bombarded Maryland and dominated one of the country’s best defensive units. The duo scored a combined 12 goals to secure a massive victory. 

No. 2 Maryland women’s lacrosse suffered a crushing 17-9 defeat to No. 2 Northwestern in a sold-out match at The Plex. 

“It’s tough to win games in the Big Ten,” Reese said. “This conference is at the top of our sport and so we’ve got to bring it every day and there’s no time for hesitation out there.” 

Taylor scored six goals in a brilliant performance. Scane also netted six scores to reach 59 goals on the year, the most in the nation. 

The Terps couldn’t find any rhythm offensively, committing a season-high 23 turnovers. Eloise Clevenger is one of the nation’s best offensive attackers and the driving force behind Maryland’s offense but Northwestern shut her down and forced uncharacteristic mistakes. The physical Wildcats’ defense committed 27 fouls. 

​​”They switched defenses on us and we became a little hesitant and turned the ball over way too many times,” Reese said. “We just had a lot of empty possessions.”

The Terps’ offense had to score to keep up with the Wildcats’ offense. Maryland came out with that energy. Chrissy Thomas and Libby May netted goals to keep pace with Northwestern. 

The Terps found success early with breaking the outer ring of defense and firing shots past the keeper. Kori Edmondson and Hannah Leubecker added a pair of scores to give Maryland a 4-3 lead. 

But the Terps offense stalled in the second quarter, an ongoing struggle. Maryland endured an 18-minute drought until Hannah Leubecker scored off a free position with under five minutes left in the first half. The scrappy Wildcats’ defense forced 12 first-half turnovers.   

“I felt like we were just kind of watching each other a little bit,” Reese said. “Northwestern is tough, they’re physical, they put a lot of pressure on you and we just kind of watched our teammates a little bit too much today rather than helping each other out.”

The frustration carried over in the second half. The Northwestern defense hounded the Maryland offense and the Terps couldn’t find any space to operate. The Terps suffered another scoring drought for most of the third quarter. Libby May scored with under three minutes left but the Wildcats had grown the lead to nine by that point. 

Clevenger finally found the back of the net with two fourth-quarter goals but the match was out of hand by that point. Her second goal was a behind-the-back score but the moment of brilliance was lost in a disappointing final result. 

Northwestern faced a seemingly tough battle against the physical Maryland defense led by its star goalkeeper, Emily Sterling. But the high-scoring duo of Scane and Taylor couldn’t be stopped. 

Scane netted a first half hat trick and Taylor added two goals. The Wildcats used the Terps’ scoring drought to go on a 4-0 run and push the lead to 7-4. Erin Coykendall scored after Leubecker’s goal to put Northwestern up by three at the half. 

Maryland faced 20 shots in the first half and only generated nine itself. Sterling’s nine saves were the only thing keeping the Wildcats from scoring even more. 

Northwestern continued its run in the  second half. Scane scored and Taylor added two more on the Wildcats’ first three possessions to extend the lead to six. The typically stout Terps’ offense looked completely flat, unable to offer much resistance to the rolling Northwestern offense. 

Emerson Bohlig, Taylor, and Samantha Smith all scored to cap off seven unanswered Wildcats goals, denying a Maryland comeback.