Maryland
Penn State
#1 Terps Set for B1G Semi Meeting With #25 Penn State
5/2/2019 10:30:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
THE MATCHUP
Friday, May 3 -- vs. #25 Penn State
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The top-ranked Maryland women's lacrosse team will open up its postseason run at the Big Ten Tournament, facing No. 25 Penn State in the Semifinals at Homewood Field at 5:00 p.m. on Friday evening. The game will be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network with Dean Linke and Sheehan Stanwick Burch on the call.
HOW WE GOT HERE
• The No. 2 Maryland women's lacrosse team capped off a perfect regular season with a 19-12 win over No. 23 Johns Hopkins to win their fifth-straight Big Ten Outright Regular Season Championship.
• The No. 2 Maryland women's lacrosse team (16-0) outscored No. 24 Georgetown (8-7) 13-0 in the second half to come back and defeat the Hoyas, 17-8 on Wednesday evening.
• The No. 2 Maryland women's lacrosse team (15-0, 5-0 B1G) fought back and battled the weather and a midgame venue change to defeat No. 5 Northwestern 17-13 last Thursday and clinch at least a share of the Big Ten Regular Season title for the fifth year in a row.
MEET THE TERPS
• The Terps are led by the midfield corps of senior Jen Giles, transfer Erica Evans and sophomore Grace Griffin. Giles leads the Terps with 50 goals, 21 assists, 71 points and is second with 26 groundballs. Evans is second on the team with 41 goals and third with 51 points. Griffin leads the team with 13 caused turnovers while also totaling 31 goals and seven assists.
• Maryland is once again backlined by junior Megan Taylor, who has had an incredible start to 2019, leading the country with a .574 save percentage at 156 saves to 1116 goals allowed. Taylor was named the B1G Defensive Player of the Week six weeks in a row and earned three IWLCA National Player of the Week honors.
• The attack is spearheaded by junior Kali Hartshorn and senior Caroline Steele. Hartshorn is second on the team with 52 points (38G, 14A) and leads the team with 114 draw controls. Steele is averaging 2.77 goals per game and is shooting 42.9 percent.
• Senior Julia Braig and junior Lizzie Colson guide the Maryland defense. Braig is leads the team with 13 caused turnovers while Colson is leads the team in groundballs (28) and is second with 12 caused turnovers and 87 draw controls.
MARYLAND LEADERS
GOALS - Jen Giles (50)
ASSISTS - Jen Giles (21)
POINTS - Jen Giles (71)
DRAW CONTROLS - Kali Hartshorn (114)
GROUNDBALLS - Lizzie Colson (28)
CAUSED TURNOVERS - Julia Braig, Grace Griffin, Shelby Mercer (13)
SAVES - Megan Taylor (156)
BIG TEN DOMINANCE
• The Terps have dominated the Big Ten since entering the conference back in 2015, having never lost a regular season game, standing at 28-0 and winning the Regular Season Title in each season. This year was no different as Maryland finished 6-0.
• Maryland has also won each of the past three Big Ten Tournaments, defeating Northwestern in the 2016 and 2017 Championships and Penn State last season. All-time against Big Ten opponents since entering the conference, Maryland is 34-1, with its only loss in the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals to Ohio State in 2015.
REESE BECOMES MARYLAND'S ALL-TIME WINNINGEST COACH
• In Maryland's No. 8 Virginia, head coach Cathy Reese became the program's all-time winningest coach, breaking her former college coach and eight-time National Champion, Cindy Timchal's record.
• Reese, in her 13th season at the helm of the program is now 265-21 as the head coach of Maryland and has won four National Championships.
MARYLAND DAIRY INTRODUCES CATHY REESE'S VICTORY SWIRL
• The Maryland Dairy, located in the Stamp Student Union has made an ice cream for head coach Cathy Reese, "Cathy Reese's Victory Swirl" debuted it at their shop on Monday.
• The ice cream, which Reese picked out herself, includes vanilla ice cream, reeses peanut butter cups, reeses pieces and a chocolate fudge swirl.
AWARD TIME FOR MEGAN TAYLOR
• Senior Megan Taylor has won a handful of awards over the past weeks, garnering Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors in each of the past six weeks and IWLCA National Player of the Week honors on March 13 and 20 and April 10.
• Taylor now leads the NCAA with a .574 save percentage, having saved 156 shots to only allowing 116 goals. The senior also is third in the country with a 7.68 goals against average. Taylor and Maryland have the second best scoring defense in the country, only allowing 7.24 goals per game.
• With her 600th career save a few weeks back against Ohio State, Taylor is also the current NCAA save leader, having the most in her career of any goalkeeper in the country. Taylor is only 21 goals away from 700 career saves.
EVANS NAMED BIG TEN OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
• Graduate student Erica Evans was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, the conference announced Tuesday.
• Evans tallied season-best six goals and an assist, a season-high seven point performance to lead No. 2 Maryland to a 19-12 win over #23 Johns Hopkins to clinch the outright Big Ten title on Saturday night. Evans scored on all six of her shots in the game, shooting 1.000 percent and was a perfect 2-for-2 on free position, scoring three goals in each of the first and second halves and assisting on a Brindi Griffin goal in the first half.
FOUR TERPS NAMED TEWAARATON NOMINEES
• Four members of the No. 2 Maryland women's lacrosse team, the most in the country, were named to the 25-player Tewaaraton Award nominee list, as announced by the foundation Thursday.
• Seniors Julia Braig, Jen Giles and Megan Taylor as well as junior Kali Hartshorn were all selected as nominees, tied with Boston College for the most from any school on the 25-player list.
• Taylor has now been selected as a Tewaaraton nominee for the third season in a row. It's the second appearance for Braig and the first for Giles and Hartshorn.
FIVE TERPS SELECTED IN WPLL DRAFT
• The Maryland women's lacrosse team had a nation-best five players selected in the 2019 Women's Professional Lacrosse League Collegiate Draft on Thursday night.
• Erica Evans and Jen Giles were selected fifth and sixth overall by the Pride, Julia Braig was picked 18th overall by the Command, Megan Taylor was the 21st pick by the Fight and Caroline Steele was selected 25th overall, joining Evans and Giles on the Pride.
• Evans and Giles were the first and second midfielders selected in the draft, Taylor was the only goalkeeper selected and Braig was the second defender off the board.
• With the selections of Evans, Giles, Braig, Taylor and Steele, there are now 20 Terps in the WPLL, the most in the country. Northwestern and North Carolina have the next most with 12 apiece.
SCOUTING THE NITTANY LIONS
• No. 25 Penn State is 8-8 this season and was 3-3 in Big Ten play.
• Maryland is 42-14-1 all-time against Penn State.
• Maryland defeated Penn State, 17-6, earlier this season in State College, led by six points (one goal, five assists) from Brindi Griffin and five points (four goals, one assist) from Grace Griffin.
