THE MATCHUP
Sunday, May 5 -- vs. #25 Northwestern
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. --  The top-ranked Maryland women's lacrosse team will play for the Big Ten Tournament for the fourth year in a row, facing No. 5 Northwestern on Sunday at noon. The game will be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network with Dean Linke and Sheehan Stanwick Burch on the call. 

HOW WE GOT HERE
• Led by five goals from graduate student Erica Evans and strong defensive play, causing 13 turnovers, the No. 1 Maryland women's lacrosse team blew past No. 25 Penn State, 15-8 in the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals, Friday night. 
• 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.

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, 22 assists, 71 points and is second with 28 groundballs. Evans is second on the team with 46 goals and 56 points. Griffin is third on the team with 14 caused turnovers while also totaling 34 goals and eight assists. 
• Maryland is once again backlined by senior Megan Taylor, who has had an incredible start to 2019, leading the country with a .580  save percentage at 170 saves to 123 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 and only needs seven more saves to reach 700 for her career.
• The attack is spearheaded by junior Kali Hartshorn and senior Caroline Steele. Hartshorn is third on the team with 52 points (40G, 14A) and leads the team with 121 draw controls. Steele has 37 goals and eight assists on the season.
• Senior Julia Braig and junior Lizzie Colson guide the Maryland defense. Braig is leads the team with 16 caused turnovers while Colson is leads the team with 32 groundballs, is second with 92 draw controls and third with 14 caused turnovers.

MARYLAND LEADERS
GOALS - Jen Giles (50)
ASSISTS - Jen Giles (22)
POINTS - Jen Giles (72)
DRAW CONTROLS - Kali Hartshorn (121)
GROUNDBALLS - Lizzie Colson (32)
CAUSED TURNOVERS - Julia Braig (16)
SAVES - Megan Taylor (170)

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 35-1, 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 266-21 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 .580 save percentage, having saved 170 shots to only allowing 123 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 seven 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 18^th overall by the Command, Megan Taylor was the 21^st pick by the Fight and Caroline Steele was selected 25^th 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 WILDCATS
• No. 5 Northwestern is 13-4 on the season and defeated No. 7 Michigan, 19-9 in the Semifinals on Friday night.
• Maryland is 16-6 all-time against Northwestern
• Maryland defeated Northwestern, 17-13 earlier this season in Evanston. Maryland came back from two three goal deficits, first at 3-0 and then 7-4 to ultimately win the game. Senior Caroline Steele led Maryland offensively with five goals and one assist while graduate student Erica Evans tallied four goals in the effort.