Despite being the top-ranked program in the country as recently as Sunday, No. 3 Maryland women’s lacrosse suffered a complete team collapse in one of its worst losses in recent memory.
With the Terps shooting 13.3% on the night and failing to stop No. 11 Michigan’s ferocious attack, they suffered their second biggest loss since 2021. After a 13-0 start to the season, Maryland lost its second straight game, a crushing 15-4 loss on Thursday in Ann Arbor.
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Michigan’s prized attacker Emma Bradbury opened the scoring 42 seconds into the game before scoring stopped for the next eight minutes. Neither team managed to score on five shot attempts during that stretch.
Then Maryland’s offense exploded for a pair of goals. Kristen Shanahan scored the Terps’ first, a point-blank shot with seven minutes left in the first quarter, before Lauren LaPointe tied her goal a minute later.
But those were the only two goals he got in the period. Head coach Cathy Reese has emphasized a 50% shooting percentage for all of her players, but Maryland came up short on Thursday, scoring twice on seven total attempts in the first quarter.
These misses allowed Michigan to go on a 6-0 run with just seven shots in a six-minute span. The Wolverines completely dismantled JJ Suriano, who posted a 27.2% save percentage in the first half in one of his worst performances of the year as shot after shot slipped off the junior’s outstretched stick.
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Coming off her best offensive performance to date, Kayla Gilmore struggled to control possession in the circle during this stretch. Michigan claimed three of five tie controls during this period and kept that aspect of the game competitive: Maryland won 11 of 20 ties.
After the destructive run, Shanahan stopped the bleeding with another highlight-reel shot. The graduate student curled around the crease and was checked on the ground, but still found nylon sitting three feet outside the cage with 10 minutes left in the half.
This was the bright spot of the first half for the Terps, however, as a full-field collapse settled the game. The back line only caused one turnover in 30 minutes and lost the first half ground ball battle, 5-2. Meanwhile, Maryland couldn’t find the frame and only shot 6 of 14 attempts on goal. They struggled to recover and fell to a five-goal deficit.
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The Wolverines’ offensive dominance was largely due to a flawed Terp man-to-man concept. Michigan’s attackers employed isolation tactics, putting immense pressure on individual Maryland defenders to perform.
This allowed the Wolverines to continue their momentum in the third quarter, scoring two goals in 13 seconds four minutes into halftime.
The two recent Terp recruits put up a lot of fight in Thursday’s scrimmage. Kori Edmondson scored just one point and was a major factor behind the offensive stagnation, committing three of Maryland’s 14 turnovers. Maddy Sterling also stumbled in her role, struggling to mark Bradbury all night and the attacker scored four goals.
The Wolverines exploded once again in the third quarter, going on a 5-1 run with an accurate shooting percentage of 55.5%. Maryland outshot Michigan 10-9 in the frame, but the Terps only made four of those shots in the frame and scored just once: on a LaPointe shot with seven minutes left in the period.
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With Calli Norris securing a hat trick just two minutes into the fourth quarter, the referees instituted a running clock while Reese shrugged on the bench. After a fast and painful fourth quarter, Maryland left the field in a bad mood following the first loss to Michigan in program history.
Three things you should know
1. I couldn’t find the network. Despite having one of the strongest offenses in the country and scoring double-digit goals on almost one occasion this season, the Terps failed to put the ball in the goal. A nine-save performance by Michigan’s Elizabeth Johnson combined with mediocre shooting and passing caused Maryland to tie its lowest single-game goal total since 1982.
2. The bye of the first round escapes us. The Terps have led the Big Ten standings since the conference’s inception, but back-to-back losses have eliminated them from contention in the lead race. Even a win Saturday at Ohio State will likely leave Maryland in second place in the Big Ten heading into the conference tournament.
3. Mental lapses. Reese said the vibe in the locker room was still positive after the close loss to Northwestern and that the team was focused on correcting strategic and on-field mistakes. But after Thursday’s monumental loss, the Terps may struggle to stay positive and patch exposed holes for a quick turnaround in two days.