No. 1 Maryland women’s lacrosse suffers 11-10 loss to No. 4 Northwestern
COLLEGE PARK — As well as Maryland women’s lacrosse has played this spring, supremacy in the Big Ten continues to run through Northwestern. The No. 4 Wildcats, winners of the past three conference tournaments, used an 8-5 second half to upend the No.
1 Terps, 11-10, on Thursday night before an announced 2,804 at SECU Stadium. Maryland (13-1, 5-1 Big Ten) was off to its best start since the 2019 squad opened with 18 victories in a row and was the only team in the country without a setback. But the Terps wilted after halftime against Northwestern (10-3, 4-1), which won its fifth consecutive game.
“Everybody had a play they wish they could have done differently or taken back,” coach Cathy Reese said after talking to her players in the locker room. “All of it’s within our control. One-goal games are always one more save, one more goal, one better shot, one less penalty, one more draw control.
But for me, I’m not going to really harp on that or look at that. It’s just looking at our game as a whole and saying, ‘What can we do better? ’” The game between two programs that have taken home nine of the league’s last 10 tournament crowns was a case study in the difference in halves.
In the first half, Maryland dominated draw controls (7-2) and shots (17-11) and built a 5-2 advantage before taking a 5-3 lead into halftime. The second half belonged to the Wildcats. They turned the tables on ground balls (8-3), turnovers (3-8) and shots (20-10) to collect their ninth victory in the past 10 meetings in this series and sixth in a row.