‘Championship mindset’ fueling this year’s Terps
Team on rebound after sting of subpar season
If the 2021 campaign blew by mercifully quick for the Maryland women’s lacrosse program, this season has been a breath of fresh air.
The Terps have risen from No. 9 in the Inside Lacrosse preseason poll to No. 4 thanks to a 5-0 start that includes victories over then-No. 11 Virginia and then-No. 7 Florida. It’s a far cry from last spring’s journey that ended with the program’s loss to Duke in the second round of the NCAA tournament — its earliest exit since 2006.
“I think last year was just a whole different story,” said graduate student midfielder Grace Griffin, a Sykesville resident and Liberty graduate. “There were a lot of external factors. I think we’re older and more experienced, and everyone is just playing together. I think there’s less fear. I think we’re just out there doing what we want to do and playing our best. How supportive we are of each other is really making a difference.”
Last season’s lack of success hasn’t cowed the players and coaches. If anything, there’s an air of defiance emanating from them when asked if they regained their swagger.
“I don’t know if we’re back because we haven’t really gone anywhere,” coach Cathy Reese said. “I know we love to make a story out of it, that we didn’t make one Final Four in the last 13 years, and that’s it. In 2020, there wasn’t one. But regardless, every year is a new journey, and every year is a new challenge.”
When the 2019 squad captured the NCAA championship for the fourth time in six years and the fifth time in a decade, the consensus was that Maryland would once again contend for the title the following season. But the 2020 team dropped three of its first four games — all to ranked opponents — before spring sports was canceled March 12 by the coronavirus pandemic.
The following year, the Terps labored to a 10-7 overall record and a 6-5 mark in the Big Ten. They made it to the conference tournament final and defeated High Point in the first round of the NCAA postseason before falling to Duke, but were swept by Northwestern in three meetings, lost to Penn State twice and dropped a game to Rutgers.
“I would consider it an off year,” ESPN analyst Sheehan Stanwick Burch said via text. “Not because they didn’t make the Final Four, but more because they lost to Penn State twice and Rutgers once and Northwestern three times. That surprised me that they weren’t dominant in the Big Ten.”
As disappointing or frustrating as 2021 might have been, Griffin, who has totaled five goals, four assists, five ground balls, and three caused turnovers thus far, credited the year as a learning tool.
“I think no matter what happened — good or bad — it taught us lessons and made us who we are today,” she said. “So I wouldn’t take anything back from last year.”
This spring’s resurgence can be traced back to the fall, according to Reese, when the team was able to participate in regular fall ball sessions. Since then, the players have been allowed to ditch position-only practices, locker room-use rotations, and multiple-bus road trips to lift, eat, and travel together.
“Our team thrives on chemistry, it always has,” Reese said. “We as coaches believe that everyone’s value and role is important on the team, and we believe what we do off the field translates to what we do on the field. So this group is having a lot of fun. They’re not only back in in-person classes, which probably isn’t the most fun on top of everything that I’m talking about, but being able to build those relationships that translate into your on-field play is something we’re seeing.”
Maryland has also benefitted from the addition of new faces, including a trio of transfers. Graduate student attacker Aurora Cordingley, formerly of Johns Hopkins, entered this week tied with Duke graduate student attacker Catriona Barry for the national lead in points per game (7.0).
Sophomore midfielder Shannon Smith, formerly of North Carolina and a Phoenix resident and Roland Park graduate, is tied for third on the Terps in both points (14) and draw controls (10). Graduate student defender Abby Bosco, formerly of Penn, leads the team in ground balls (14), is tied for second in caused turnovers (five), and was named on Tuesday the Big Ten’s Co-Defensive Player of the Week.
Freshman midfielder Jordyn Lipkin has compiled eight points, seven ground balls, six caused turnovers, and five draw controls and was named the conference’s Freshman of the Week also on Tuesday. And the team might have been stronger if junior Clancy Rheude, the America East’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2021, had not torn her ACL and been ruled out for the season last month.
Cordingley said the new players have quickly adopted the Maryland standard.
“I think it’s expected that you come in and work hard,” she said. “We focus on us to get to that end result of winning. Obviously last year, COVID was a struggle for everyone. But I think now that the girls last year had that experience, they put it behind them, and we just know that feeling of loss, and none of us
like that feeling. So I think the standard has gone back to that championship mindset of getting back to championship weekend. I think that is what has been carrying us so far this year.”
Stanwick Burch, who was part of the broadcast crew that covered Maryland’s 17-13 win at Virginia on Feb. 18, said the team has looked impressive.
“The transfer portal once again has benefitted Maryland,” she wrote. “What a great pickup Aurora Cordingley was. Her presence has really helped the rest of the offense shine by taking some pressure off of them. Abby Bosco and her leadership on the defensive end and help with the draw has been great. [Junior goalkeeper] Emily Sterling has been strong in the cage. They look good in all position groups.”
Reese is not the type to encourage open discussions about national championships, preferring to concentrate on Sunday’s game against Villanova (2-5). But she did not shy away from her belief that the Terps could return to the Final Four again.
“If we can play the kind of lacrosse where Maryland is totally selfless and everything that we’re doing is for our team, we’re going to see a lot of great things,” she said. “We want to be the best 2022 team we can be. Is it possible that we could be a very successful team? Yeah, we’ve got a lot of pieces here. We just want to keep pushing forward and keep getting better and keep looking to take the next step together as a team.”
Griffin said she and her teammates are eager to prove that last season was an anomaly.
“That’s never the goal, to end the way we did, and I think that just kind of drives us more,” she said. “It reminds us why every single day, we want to work hard to get better and be in a better spot than we were last year.”