COLLEGE PARK — On Sunday, Maryland women’s lacrosse put James Madison in a spin cycle by scoring the game’s first eight goals en route to a comfortable 10-goal win.
On Thursday, it was the Terps who were taken to the cleaners.
Florida opened the game with nine consecutive goals, and host Maryland could not decipher goalkeeper Elyse Finnelle to limp to a 15-9 loss in an NCAA Tournament quarterfinal before an announced 966 at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex.
Senior attacker Maggi Hall, a Bel Air native and graduate, enjoyed game highs in both goals (six) and points (seven) to spur the Gators (20-2) to only their second Final Four berth in program history and first since 2012. At that time, they were the overall No. 1 seed but fell to No. 4 seed Syracuse, 14-13, one game short of the championship final.
Florida will meet the winner of a quarterfinal between No. 1 seed Northwestern (16-2) and No. 8 seed Penn (15-4) on May 24 at 3 p.m. at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina. The American Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament champion collected its 20th straight victory — the longest active streak in Division I — and has not dropped a game since Feb. 17, when it got walloped by North Carolina, 19-10.
“They’re built different,” said Gators coach Amanda O’Leary, an assistant on former Terps coach Cindy Timchal’s staff in 1989, 1992 and 1993. “They just came out with a goal from the beginning of the season, and they wanted to accomplish that goal. There was nothing that was going to stand in their way. The Final Four was their goal, and they did it. I’m not going to ask questions. I’m just going to ride with it. I’m along for the journey.”
Graduate student attacker Hannah Leubecker, a Forest Hill native, compiled two goals and two assists for the Terps (14-6), the No. 4 seed in the tournament who was denied its second trip to the national semifinals in the past three years and 33rd overall.
“It was too much, too late,” coach Cathy Reese said. “It was a tough deficit to get out of, especially against a team that has as good of shooters as Florida does. They have a good group of shooters, and they attack the cage hard, and they create opportunities for their team and each other, and we just didn’t finish our opportunities today.”
Maryland had scored 17 goals in each of its first two games of the NCAA Tournament, including that 17-7 rout of James Madison in Sunday’s second-round matchup. The Terps had entered Thursday outscoring opponents 85-41 in the first quarters this spring.
But it was the Gators who pounced early and often. They scored three times in the first 3:12, forcing Reese to use a timeout in an attempt to curb the momentum. Still, Florida remained relentless, finding the net six more times, including three goals in a 1:53 stretch.
“Maryland is such a strong team,” said Florida senior attacker Danielle Pavinelli, who chipped in two goals and two assists. “So we knew we had to get out to a quick start. We really just worked the offense, and the defense was opening up for us. We weren’t rushing, we weren’t really forcing shots. We were just letting it come to us.”
Leubecker’s first goal of the game with 1:08 left in the first quarter ensured that Maryland would not get shut out in the opening frame, but the damage was already done.
The Gators scored only once in the second quarter but limited the Terps to a single goal, too. Maryland thought it had scored a second time, but the goal by senior attacker Victoria Hensh was waived off after an official ruled the Woodstock native and Marriotts Ridge graduate had stepped in the crease before scoring.
Reese said the message to the players after the 9-0 deficit was to remain patient and take advantage of their chances.
“You’ve just got to make plays one play at a time, and we just didn’t make enough of them,” she said. “So that was a tough hole to dig ourselves out of. Florida came out shooting lights-out from the beginning of the game. When we did have the ball, we didn’t put it away maybe because of some unfortunate turnovers for whatever reason. We just wanted to chip away one at a time and make plays when we could, but unfortunately, we just didn’t make enough of them.”
Maryland’s offense had trouble finding openings against Finnelle, a Deale native and Southern-AA graduate who totaled a game-high 10 saves. During one extended defensive possession in the second quarter, the redshirt sophomore goalie turned back consecutive shots by senior attacker Chrissy Thomas, senior midfielder Shaylan Ahearn (Glenelg Country) and Leubecker to close out the first half with seven stops.
“Just knowing that as a defensive unit, we have to create opportunities for the offense,” Finnelle said. “So just making sure that we take every play one play at a time. We can just capitalize on the ball being down on our end so that we can get it back on the offensive end to score more goals.”
Florida’s defense shut out the Terps for spells of 14:56 and 13:52. Graduate student defender Maria Pansini, a Princeton transfer, induced senior attacker Eloise Clevenger, a Woodstock native and Marriotts Ridge graduate who entered the game as Maryland’s leader in both assists (52) and points (83), into as many turnovers (one) as she had goals (one on six shots).
Thursday’s game was a stark contrast from the Gators’ 13-12 overtime win in College Park on Feb. 24. In that matchup, the Terps let a 7-2 advantage at halftime slip away, and Florida used that comeback to begin its current 20-game run after a 0-2 start.
O’Leary noted that critics had written off Florida after the first two losses. That criticism wasn’t lost on Finnelle and her teammates.
“We knew there was something to prove this year,” she said. “That was kind of our motto. It was anybody’s game, but we’ve been saying it all year that we had something to prove to the people out there.”
