The defending national champion Maryland women’s lacrosse team is looking for a three-peat this season.
Led by senior midfielder Taylor Cummings, the Terps were voted No. 1 in the preseason IWLCA coaches’ poll. Maryland has been No. 1 in the media poll since April 15, 2014. The Terps spent all of last season at the top of both polls.
For the second straight year, Maryland was unanimously voted to win the Big Ten Championship by the conference coaches. They won the inaugural regular season title last year.
Maryland returns five starters – Cummings, Alice Mercer, Megan Whittle, Zoe Stukenberg and Nadine Hadnagy who were all named preseason All-Americans by Inside Lacrosse.
Cathy Reese is entering her 10th season as head coach of the Terps. She said she’s excited for this season, but that the team has a lot of work after graduating several starters.
“So far, so good,” she said. “We’re definitely going to have some hiccups this season, but we have a lot of potential and a lot of room to grow. If you look at last year’s team, if you look at my defense that played together for three years even, four years some of them and to really be rebuilding in that area, we’re filling in a lot of spots.”
In her time as a player, assistant and coach at University of Maryland, Reese has won 10 national titles. She’s no stranger to adversity or rebuilding. During her senior year, the team had to find a new identity and at first it was a struggle.
“We had won three national championships- my freshman, sophomore and junior year. Going into my senior year, we graduated a ton of people and I didn’t have a lot in the class below me,” Reese said. “We went into our opening weekend and played down at Carolina and down at Duke and we went 0-2. Keep in mind, that the three years prior we lost one game total. So, that was that opening weekend and I was a captain and it was a lot tears and emotions and stress and learning and growing as a person.”
Maryland has won 13 national titles. Last season they overcame the largest halftime deficit in championship history to capture the championship and second consecutive title. Cummings was named the tournament’s most outstanding player after posting five goals, six assists, 12 draw controls and two caused turnovers in the Final Four.
With few returning starters, the Terps will look to the two time Tewaaraton, Honda and IWLCA National Midfielder of the Year awards for leadership. Cummings, an Ellicott City native, recorded her best season in 2015 leading Maryland in assists (37), points (100), ground balls (41), draw controls (143) and caused turnovers (36).
“I think when you don’t return as many starter as we have in the past, our leadership is definitely an area that we need,” Cummings said. “The five of us really come back with a lot of experience and we all excel in different areas which I think is going to really help our team in all aspects.”
The challenge of filling so many starting positions is easier with a top ranked freshman class. Inside Lacrosse ranked the newest Terps No. 2. Seven new Terps were named among the magazine’s Top 50 Freshmen rankings – No. 15 Jen Giles, No. 16 Caroline Steeler and No. 20 Shelby Mercer.
Maryland is 95-2 in College Park under Reese. The goals are lofty, they hope to extend that streak and ultimately, go undefeated all the way to the national title game, but anything less seems insignificant for the two-time reigning national champions.
The season officially begins Saturday when the Terps host William & Mary at 12 p.m. in College Park, Md.
