The No. 1 Maryland Terrapins (10-0) hope to extend this season's success against soon-to-be Big Ten rival Johns Hopkins Blue Jays (8-5) Wednesday in College Park, Md.
Three Terps recorded hat tricks in Maryland's victory over Cornell last Saturday - senior midfielder Taylor Cummings, junior attacker Caroline Wannen, and sophomore attacker Megan Whittle. Defensively, the Terps are focusing on staying true to their defense, being physical and causing turnovers.
"Defensively, I want to make sure that we're staying true to who we are in our game and playing our style of defense," said Maryland head coach Cathy Reese. "
Maryland is 12-0 all-time versus Johns Hopkins. Last season, the Terps defeated the Blue Jays 17-9 in Baltimore. Cummings scored four goals and Brooke Griffin recorded five goals.
Johns Hopkins is coming off a 9-4 loss to No. 18 Towson. Caroline Federico has started all 13 games in goal and holds a 7.49 goals-against average and a .510 save percentage.
Maryland's freshman goalie has also had tremendous success in the net. Megan Taylor was named the Inside Lacrosse National Rookie of the Week. Against Northwestern last week, Taylor made a season-high 11 saves and allowed just four goals.
"Having her back there and just seeing how comfortable and confident she is has really helped our defense come together and obviously she's holding our defense together most of the time, so she's a huge part of our defense," said junior defender Morgan Torggler.
The Blue Jays are entering the Big Ten next season and the Terps are hopeful the relationship will turn into a great rivalry between the two programs.
"For us, we've had a couple years off of not playing Hopkins, now we're a year away before they become members of the Big Ten Women's Lacrosse Conference," Reese said. "We're just excited to have the opportunity to compete and to really renew this rivalry on our side."
The opening draw is set for 7 p.m. BTN Plus is live streaming the game here.
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