April 12, 2002
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
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Terrapins Continue Road Swing This Week
- The University of Maryland women's lacrosse team continues its string of road games this week as it headed to Williamsburg, Va., on Wednesday to take on William & Mary before finishing the week with a televised game versus Johns Hopkins in Baltimore on Saturday.
- This week's games mark the second and third games of what could potentially be a seven-game road swing for the Terps (should Maryland win its first game at the ACC Tournament in Raleigh, N.C., it would be seven, if it loses in the semifinals, it would be six).
- The Terrapins snapped a three-game losing streak -- its first since 1976 -- with their 21-11 win over the College of William & Mary. In the win, the Terps got their best team performance from an offensive standpoint all year and now looks to continue its run against Hopkins, a team it had similar success against a year ago.
- The last game the Terps played at historic Homewood Field was last year's NCAA championship final, a thrilling 14-13 double overtime win over Georgetown.
- Maryland entered 2002 as the seven-time defending national champion and the winningest team in the history of women's lacrosse. The Terps were a perfect 23-0 a year ago, winning the ACC and national title in the process while winning more games than any team ever in a single season.
Scoring Rampage
- In Wednesday's win over the College of William & Mary, Maryland put up its best offensive numbers of the 2002 season. The 21 goals were its most this year (most since last year's first round NCAA tournament win over Monmouth) and the Terps' first time breaking the 20-goal plateau in '02.
- Against the Tribe, the Terrapins stumbled out of the gate falling behind, 5-3, in the game's first 15 minutes. But after calling a timeout, Maryland went on a scoring run that saw it tally the final 12 goals of the first half and two more at the start of the second for a run of 14 unanswered goals.
- The run of 14 unanswered goals on Wednesday was the Terps' longest run since April 13th of last year, when it posted 17-straight against Johns Hopkins at Byrd Stadium. The barrage started with a Jen Adams goal at 29:29 and ended with a Sonia Judd goal with :44 left in the game. It was a string that included five goals by Adams (and, for the game, a Maryland record 12 points), 17 goals, 11 assists and a scoring change in the game that went from 7-5 Terps to the eventual final of 24-5.
- For the game, Maryland scored on 21 of the 34 shots it took as a team (.618 shooting percentage). In addition, the Terps' two leading scorers - Courtney Hobbs and Kelly Coppedge - took a combined 12 shots and scored on 11 (Hobbs was 6-of-7, Coppedge 5-of-5).
Timchal One win from 200 at Maryland
- Head coach Cindy Timchal is in her 12th season at the helm of the Maryland women's lacrosse program in 2001. In her 11-plus years, she has established one of the most dominant teams in all of collegiate athletics as the Terrapins are 199-18 (.917) under her guidance, have earned 11 NCAA Tournament bids and have taken the crown eight times.
- With a win on Saturday over Johns Hopkins, Timchal will have won 200 games in her career at Maryland, an average of almost 17 wins per season. By comparison, in the 17 years prior to Timchal's arrival, only three times had a Maryland team won more than 15 games in any season.
- Timchal was selected as the '01 ACC Coach of the Year, her third time earning the honor. She has been chosen as National Coach of the Year twice and has coached 36 Terrapins to All-American status.
- Now in her 21st season of coaching collegiate athletics overall, Timchal got her start at Northwestern where she led the Wildcats to the NCAA tournament five times in nine years. Her overall record (Maryland and Northwestern) currently stands at 275-58 (.826).
- With the Terps' win in the 2001 title game, Timchal became the winningest coach in the history of women's collegiate lacrosse. With the Terrapins' win over Princeton in the semifinals, she tied the record of William Smith's Pat Genovese, who led all coaches with 267 wins. With Maryland's win in the title game, Timchal moved to 268 wins for her career.
- Timchal is assisted by Gary Gait and Cathy Nelson. Gait is one of the most innovative minds in all of lacrosse coaching and widely held as one of the sports greatest players of all time. A 1991 graduate of Syracuse and three-time All-American, he still plays professionally and on the World Cup circuit. Nelson was an outstanding player in her own right as she was a two-time All-American at Maryland and the tournament MVP in the Terps' run to the 1998 national title.
Timchal's Year-by-Year at Maryland
1991 NCAA Runners-up 14-3
1992 NCAA Champions 14-1
1993 NCAA Semifinalists 12-2
1994 NCAA Runners-Up 13-1
1995 NCAA Champions 17-0
1996 NCAA Champions 19-0
1997 NCAA Champions 21-1
1998 NCAA Champions 18-3
1999 NCAA Champions 21-0
2000 NCAA Champions 21-1
2001 NCAA Champions 23-0
2002 7-6
11+ Seasons @ Md. 199-18 (.917)
By the Skin of their Teeth
- Maryland has lost six games this season, its most since 1989, but there have been plenty of positives to point to in spite of that fact.
- In their six losses, the Terps have lost by a combined 10 goals with a four-goal loss to No. 1 Georgetown being the largest margin of defeat. That's one two-goal, four one-goal losses and one four-goal loss with all but two of the defeats coming at the hands of Top 10 opposition.
- That the Terrapins have been unable to pull out some close games may just be a simple sign of their age. In recent games, Maryland has started six underclassmen (four freshman and two sophomores) while another six have seen action in the games. By comparison, only three underclassmen (Kelly Coppedge, Sonia Judd, Alexis Venechanos) earned starts at any point a year ago and a total of just five saw playing time in more than 10 games.
Shooting Stars
- Second-year players Kelly Coppedge and Annie Collins have made the most of their scoring opportunities in 2002.
- Coppedge, a sophomore from Annapolis, has converted 59 percent of the shots she has taken this year (38-of-64) for a team-high 38 goals.
- Collins, a redshirt freshman who missed last year with a knee injury, is seventh on the team in scoring but her 15 goals have come on just 24 shots, leaving her with a .625 shooting percentage.
Non-Conference Success
- Maryland's loss to Ohio State marked its first against non-conference competition since 1997, a span of 78-straight games.
- The Terps will look to rekindle their strong play against non-conference foes this week. In all of Cindy Timchal's 11-plus seasons at Maryland, the Terrapins have lost just eight times to non-ACC schools. Three of those losses have come this season.
New Look Terps
- After losing eight starters to graduation from last year's NCAA championship team, pundits knew that Maryland would have some fresh faces in the lineup. A look at who has played as the team crosses the season's midpoint would suggest that the Terps' best games are ahead of them.
- Through 11 games, Maryland has had all nine freshman see action with four (Annie Collins, Kristie Leggio, Greta Sommers, Acacia Walker) appearing as permanent fixtures in the starting lineup.
- By comparison, only one Terp freshman (Kelly Coppedge) started at any point last season and only one other (Molly Lambert) saw action in 10 games or more.
- Of Maryland's top seven scorers this year, four are underclassmen.
Scoring Streaks
- Recently departed All-Americans Jen Adams and Quinn Carney finished their careers with amazing scoring streaks, streaks that lasted almost the length of their collegiate careers. Adams scored in each of her last 78 games as a Terp while Carney finished her career with a 73-game streak.
- This season, All-American candidate Courtney Hobbs has the longest running streak as she has scored at least a point in each of the last 40 games. Her last game without a point came against Loyola on April 29, 2000.
- Kelly Coppedge had the only other significant streak this season, a 13-game run that was snapped when she went without a point at James Madison.
Hobbs Up for the Tewaaraton
- Prior to the 2002 season, 12 nominees were named for this year's Tewaaraton Trophy, an award which recognizes each the best male and female in collegiate lacrosse. The first annual award was presented a year ago to Maryland's Jen Adams. This season, the Terrapins are hoping to have another native Australian capture the award as senior Courtney Hobbs was named one of the 12 nominees.
- Hobbs, a senior from West Lakes, South Australia, is the leading returning scorer on this year's Terrapin team. Hobbs will be a featured player in the offensive attack and should post career numbers with more touches this season.
World Cup Terps
- The 2001 International Federation of Women's Lacrosse Associations' World Cup was played in High Wycombe, England, but that didn't stop the event from having a distinctive Maryland stamp.
- At the championships, which were won by the United States, a total of 14 former and current Terrapin lacrosse players represented their respective countries. The U.S. team featured eight Terps among its 16 players including Kelly Amonte-Hiller (1996), Erin Brown (1990), Quinn Carney (2001), Randall Flynn (1997), Christie Jenkins (2000), Kristin Sommar (2000), Michele Uhlfelder (1991) and Jess Wilk (1990). In addition, five members of the Australian national team can claim they played at Maryland. Among them were current Terp Courtney Hobbs and former players Jen Adams (2001), Trish Adams, Sarah Forbes (1997) and Sascha Newmarch (1998). Finally, the newest member of this year's team, Laura Warren, was a starting attacker for the Welsh team.
10th Anniversary for Timchal
- Last year marked the 20-year anniversary of Maryland's first-ever national championship, the AIAW title of 1981. (The AIAW was the forerunner to the NCAA for competition in women's collegiate athletics). This season marks another milestone, especially for head coach Cindy Timchal, as the 2002 season marks the 10-year anniversary of the Terps' first national title under Timchal.
- The 1992 Terrapins went 14-1 and started a run of championships that is nearly unparalleled in sports. Since the NCAA win in '92, Maryland has run off eight championships in 10 years, missing only in the 1992 and 1993 seasons.
- Maryland has won the national championship in eight-of-11 of Timchal's years at the helm and finished worse than second only once (NCAA semifinalists in 1993).
Captains
- The captains of this year's Maryland team are seniors Meredith Egan and Courtney Hobbs. The pair were chosen after a vote was conducted by their teammates as representatives of this year's squad.
Scouting the Blue Jays
- The Terps square off with Johns Hopkins in Maryland's lone televised game of the 2001 regular season on Saturday. The Blue Jays are 7-4 after 11 games but enter this week having won seven of eight and most recently beat #13 Ohio State.
- Hopkins' head coach is Janine Tucker (Loyola, '89) who is 108-36 in eight years with the program. In her career, she has played Maryland just twice (0-2) as the series between the two schools was just revived two years ago.
- One thing to look for with the Blue Jays is the halftime score. Through 11 games, JHU is 7-0 when leading or tied at the half, 0-4 when trailing.
- Jamie Larrimore and Heidi Pearce have paced the Blue Jays in scoring this season. Larrimore has scored a team-high 39 points (29 goals, 10 assists) while Pearce is the leading goal-scorer with 33, an average of three per game.
- Series Info: Maryland and Johns Hopkins, despite being less than 30 minutes apart, have only played three times in their history. The Terps have won all three games in impressive fashion as they have won 25-5 (2001), 16-3 (2000), 17-1 (1979). In last season's game, Maryland led only 8-5 at the half before rattling off 16 unanswered goals in the second half.
Seventh Heaven
- Last year's NCAA Tournament signified Maryland's successful run at a seventh straight NCAA title and the school's 10th national championship overall. The Terrapins' current streak of championships began in 1995 and their overall list of titles includes the 1981 (AIAW), '86 and '92 seasons as well.
- The Terrapins seven consecutive titles is the longest string of any Division I women's team in the nation. Their seventh title matched the feat of John Wooden's UCLA Bruins from 1967-73. The longest current Division I streak is held by the Arkansas men's track team which has run off 12 consecutive NCAA Championships.
- The Terps' trip to last year's Final Four was their 12th-in-a-row. In addition, they have now played in the championship game 11 out of the last 12 years.
- Starting defender Megan Kelly has four NCAA championships and six ACC championships under her belt in her three-year career as a Terp. The Maryland native moonlights on the Terrapin field hockey team that won the 1998, '99 and 2001 ACC championships and was crowned the 1999 NCAA champions. Kelly was also part of the Terp squad that won the 1999, 2000 and 2001 NCAA women's lacrosse championships, as well as the 1999, 2000 and 2001 ACC women's lacrosse championships.
2001 Perfection
- With their season-ending wins at Dartmouth and Harvard, the Terrapins finished the 2001 regular season undefeated, marking just the sixth time in school history that a UM team finished its regular season without a blemish. In addition to the '95, '96 and '99 teams, the 1980 and 1994 teams went undefeated before losing the final games of their respective seasons. The 1984 team went without a loss in the regular season, but had a tie along the way before losing in the NCAA finals.
- After running the table in the NCAA Tournament, the Terps successfully nailed down their second undefeated season (including the NCAAs) in the last three years. That feat was accomplished for just the fourth time in school history joining the teams from 1995, 1996 and 1999.
