Depth helps Terps neutralize Blue Jays
Five players score multiple goals, defense strong as Maryland dominates on both ends of field in rout of Johns Hopkins
All eyes were on Aurora Cordingly in her return to Homewood Field. The Maryland women’s lacrosse team proved it is more than just a single player.
Five players, including Cordingley, scored multiple goals, and the defense did not surrender a goal in the final 21:44 of regulation to power the No. 8 Terps to a 17-6 thumping of No. 20 Johns Hopkins on Saturday afternoon before an announced 1,100.
Junior attacker Libby May (Hereford) scored a game-high four goals, and sophomore attacker Eloise Clevenger (Marriotts Ridge), sophomore midfielder Shannon Smith (Roland Park), junior attacker Hannah Leubecker and Cordingley each scored twice. Maryland (10-1, 2-0 Big Ten) outscored the Blue Jays 9-1 in the second half.
“Our offense is so versatile, and we have so many different goal scorers,” said May, a Sparks resident who has recorded a hat trick in her last three starts and four of her last five. “I think what we always preach is remaining so confident in yourself and the people around you. Any single person on our field can score. That’s what’s so great about our team. It just shows in the numbers.”
Smith, a Phoenix resident, showed off her depth by amassing one assist, two ground balls, two caused turnovers, and career-high
nine draw controls. Clevenger, a Woodstock resident, added an assist, a ground ball and a caused turnover.
Their performances helped offset a somewhat quiet showing from Cordingley, who played against the Blue Jays for the first time since leaving them for the Terps in the offseason. Cordingley, whose 182 points at
Johns Hopkins rank ninth in the school’s Division I era and are tied for 17th all-time, did not score a goal in seven-on-seven situations, earning both of her tallies on free-position opportunities with 1.6 seconds left in the third quarter and 11:09 in the fourth.
Cordingley, who entered the game leading the country in points per game at 6.3 and tied for second nationally in assists per game at 3.0, finished the game without an assist, one turnover and two ground balls.
Cordingley was not made available after the game, but Terps coach Cathy Reese said the amount of attention on her was heavy.
“I think it’s just a tough time,” she said. “To be a fifth year and still have friends on the team that you’re competing with that are your best friends and went to college with you for four years and to play at the field where you spent your career, I just think it’s a lot emotionally. So I was pleased with how she stepped up. They tried to deny her the ball and made it real difficult to get it to her, but she never stopped working, and she never stopped creating opportunities for her teammates. I think that’s ultimately what made us really successful today.”
Added May: “It’s very obvious there was some big hype around today because Aurora did play for four years at Hopkins. But she is such a team player that no matter who she is against, she’s just going to play Maryland lacrosse and play so hard for her teammates.”
One factor in Cordingley’s outing was the play of Jeanne Kachris. The Blue Jays graduate student defender scooped up two ground balls and blanketed her former roommate in seven-on-seven situations.
“I just kept her in front of me,” Kachris said. “She has very great change-of-direction, and I just tried to keep up. So I anticipated that she would keep changing direction, and I kind of just tried to keep her between my shoulders.”
Maryland’s defense was even more thorough. After senior attacker Claire Mills converted a pass from junior midfielder Bailey Cheetham to draw Johns Hopkins within 9-6 with 6:44 left in the third quarter, the Terps allowed just nine shots and pounced on four turnovers to cement the
PENN STATE@NO. 8 MARYLAND
Thursday, 6:30 p.m. TV: Big Ten Network
NO. 20 JOHNS HOPKINS@TOWSON Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.
victory.
Junior goalkeeper Emily Sterling, a Bel Air resident and John Carroll graduate, made a season-high 12 saves, and graduate student midfielder Grace Griffin, a Sykesville resident and Liberty graduate, caused two turnovers and picked up two ground balls. Griffin played primarily defense to compensate for the season-ending right ACL tear starting graduate student defender Torie Barretta sustained in Wednesday’s 15-3 rout at Georgetown.
“She is a phenomenal defender, and her presence on the field is definitely going to be missed,” graduate student Abby Bosco, who scored her first career goal as a defender in the fourth quarter, said of Barretta. “But we’ve got to step up and we’ve got to play for her. We’ve got to continue to move in the direction that we’re moving, and she’s going to continue to be such a big presence.”
Graduate student goalie Kathleen Garvey made a game-high 13 saves, junior attacker Maeve Barker scored twice, and junior midfielder Madison McPherson, a Baltimore resident, totaled one goal and four draw controls for the Blue Jays (6-6, 0-3). But they remain 0-23 against Maryland in the all-time series, and coach Janine Tucker said the team missed some chances in the second half to catch the Terps.
“I think their defense made some nice plays. I think they forced us into some things that we maybe didn’t want to do,” she said. “But I also don’t think we valued the ball or the shot opportunities as much as we needed to. That’s a really nice defensive unit that they have, but I think we could have capitalized better on some of the offensive opportunities that we got for ourselves, and we didn’t.”