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University of Maryland Athletics

Terps and Hokies Meet For the First Time This Weekend

Terps and Hokies Meet For the First Time This Weekend

April 24, 2003

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The University of Maryland women's lacrosse team returns home for the final three games of its regular season schedule and starts its run towards the postseason with its first-ever meeting with the Virginia Tech Hokies this Saturday at Ludwig Field. Opening draw for the game which will be a part of "Maryland Day" festivities on the College Park campus is slated for 1:00 p.m.

  • Maryland is fresh off of winning the sixth Atlantic Coast Conference title in school history, running with relative ease through North Carolina (13-5) and Virginia (11-6) in last weekend's ACC tournament. The Terrapins finished their ACC season with a perfect 5-0 record (3-0 in the regular season, 2-0 at the ACC tournament).
  • The Terrapins - who head into this week 15-1 (3-0 ACC) - remain the nation's No. 2 team in the latest Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches' Association (IWLCA) poll. After its impressive showing at the ACCs, however, Maryland gained 21 points and two first-place votes to pull within Loyola, which is now just four points ahead with 158 points in the top spot.
  • Virginia Tech comes to College Park with a 3-13 record on the season and an 0-6 mark in Big East play. The Hokies' last win was their most impressive of the season as they upset then No. 20 Northwestern on April 13th in Blacksburg.

    TerpNotes

  • Since dropping their only game of the 2003 campaign to James Madison on April 5th, the Terps have been an offensive juggernaut and have now posted the impressive numbers against top-flight competition. In those four games -- which included two wins in last week's ACC tournament and one against No. 4 Virginia -- Maryland has outscored its opposition 64-21, or by an average of 16-5.
  • During the stretch of the last four games, Maryland has had players who single-handedly outscored the Terps' opponents in all but one game. Junior Kelly Coppedge and senior Sonia Judd have scored a combined 34 goals in those games and outscored William & Mary (13-6), Johns Hopkins (10-4) and North Carolina (8-5) by themselves.
  • Senior Alexis Venechanos continued her outstanding play this season at last week's ACC tourney. The Yorktown, N.Y. native posted 24 saves in two games while allowing just 11 goals while earning tournament most valuable player honors. For the season, Venechanos now boasts a career-best .602 save percentage, a figure that ranks fourth in the NCAA.
  • Head coach Cindy Timchal now needs just six wins to hit the 300 plateau for her career (includes games at Maryland and Northwestern). When she hits the mark, she will become the first coach in collegiate women's lacrosse to have done so. Her career record currently stands at 294-63 while her record in 13 years at Maryland stands at an amazing 218-23.
  • It is possible that the Terps get Timchal to win No. 300 this season and if they did so, it would only mean good things for Maryland. If Timchal reaches her 300th win this year, it would mean that her Terrapins have either made their way to the national championship game (meaning they win all games between here and the national semifinal) or they have won the national championship (meaning they lost one regular season game in the next three but won out in the NCAAs).
  • Sophomore Acacia Walker enters this weekend as the ACC's leader in assists. The talented sophomore has posted 25 this season for an average of 1.56 per game. In fact, Maryland is all over the top of the assist rankings in the conference as Walker, Sonia Judd and Kelly Coppedge hold down each of the top three spots.

    ACC-olades

  • The Terps came home from Charlottesville toting some hardware last week, garnering plenty of team and individual attention.
  • Aside from the obvious -- the tournament championship -- several other awards were donned on Maryland players and coaches. First, on Thursday night at the league's annual banquet, junior Kelly Coppedge was named the conference's Player of the Year while head coach Cindy Timchal was named Coach of the Year. Coppedge became the first non-senior since Jen Adams to earn the award while Timchal was named Coach of the Year for the fifth time in her seven years in the conference.
  • Coppedge was joined by three other Terps as members of the All-ACC team, with all three being first-time selections. Seniors Sonia Judd, Julie Shank and Alexis Venechanos were all honored for their play this season.
  • When tournament time rolled around, Coppedge, Judd, Shank and sophomore Annie Collins were selected to the all-tournament team while Venechanos became the first goalie in league history to be named the tournament's most valuable player.

    "D" The Difference

  • This year's Maryland team has a completely different look this year in many respects, but the one area that stands out as improved over last season is the Terps' look on the defensive end.
  • Through 16 games, the Terrapins are allowing 6.23 goals per game and has allowed just two opponents -- Penn State and Georgetown -- 10-goals in a game.
  • The Terp defense -- spearheaded by starting defenders Molly Lambert, Julie Shank, Greta Sommers and Laura Warren -- is clearly improved, already forcing 179 turnovers through 16 games (an average of 11.2 caused turnovers per game), but the most marked improvement of 2003 has come from the Terrapins' goalies.
  • As mentioned previously, senior Alexis Venechanos leads the ACC in save percentage and goals against average and has been instrumental to the Terrapins' success on the defensive end.

    Head Coach Cindy Timchal

  • Head coach Cindy Timchal is in her 13th season at the helm of the Maryland women's lacrosse program. In her 12-plus years, she has established one of the most dominant teams in all of collegiate athletics as the Terrapins are 218-23 (.904) under her guidance, have earned 12 NCAA Tournament bids and have taken the crown eight times.
  • Timchal is one of the winningest coaches in the history of women's collegiate lacrosse. With the Terps' win over Princeton in the semifinals of the 2001 NCAA tournament, she tied the record of William Smith's Pat Genovese, who led all coaches with 267 wins. Despite a sub-par 2002 by Timchal's standards, she entered 2003 tied with Genovese on the all-time wins list with 279 while she is also in the all-time top five in games coached and winning percentage.
  • 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 players to All-American status 61 times in her career.
  • From the time of her arrival, Timchal has lost no more than three games in any one season, including a spectacular 21-0 season in 1999 and last year's 23-0 mark. She has led the Terps to the Final Four every year but one since coming to Maryland, reaching the title game an unbelievable 11 of the last 13 years.
  • Now in her 22nd 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 294-63 (.823).
  • Timchal is assisted by a pair of her most successful proteges, Cathy Nelson and Jen Adams. Nelson is now the veteran of Terp assistants as she enters her fifth year. She is joined by Adams who is in her first season as a full-time coach after spending a year as an undergraduate assistant. From Nelson's freshman year in 1995 to Adams' senior season in 2001, the duo were a part of each of Maryland's seven-straight national championship seasons.
    	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	NCAA Quarterfinalists	11-10
	2003	                    	15-1
	12+ Seasons @ Md.              	218-23 (.904)

    Terps Take ACC By Storm

  • Two wins over Virginia this season have signified Maryland's return to the top of the ACC.
  • The Terrapins' impressive 11-8 win over the Cavaliers in March ended their ACC regular season and did so without a blemish. After finishing last in the league with an 0-3 record a year ago, Maryland claimed the ACC regular season title, the top seed in the ACC tournament and a perfect conference record for the fourth time in its history.
  • With its win over Virginia in the ACC tourney on April 20, Maryland completed 2003 ACC play by wrapping up its fifth ACC tournament championship. In doing so, the Terps won all five games against ACC opposition this season.
  • Oddly enough, since 1997, the Terps have finished with a perfect regular season ACC record in each of its odd-numbered seasons. In 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2003 combined, the Terrapins own a 12-0 league mark, while in '98, 2000 and 2002, the team stood at 3-6. In addition, Maryland's record in those odd seasons has been astounding as it owns a 79-2 mark in odd years since '97.

    Terrapins Lauded

  • A year ago, Maryland was able to garner ACC Player of the Week recognition twice in the entire season. Now nearly two months into 2003, the honor has taken on a Maryland flare as six of the eight times it has been awarded, it has gone to a Terp.
  • With junior Kelly Coppedge being named the conference's player of the week for her play two weeks ago, Maryland has taken the honor in six of the seven weeks it has played this year with Coppedge taking it three times. The other honorees include freshman Delia Cox and seniors Sonia Judd and Alexis Venechanos.

    Scoring Streak

  • On the heels of Sonia Judd's scoring streak falling by the wayside against Georgetown earlier this year, the most notable streak in tact from last season now belongs to Kelly Coppedge who has scored in each of the last 19 games.

    Judd Closing It Out In Style

  • Native Australian Sonia Judd has played the best that she has any of her four years at Maryland this season, ranking second on the team in scoring with 60 points (38 goals, 22 assists). With a minimum of four games remaining in the Terps' season, Judd has already surpassed her previous career high of 53 points.
  • In addition to earning Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Week honors in week one, Judd surpassed the 100-point plateau for her career in Maryland's 10-8 win over UNC and was named one of Maryland's four All-ACC selections at the ACC lacrosse banquet.
  • Judd entered this week second in the ACC in assists (1.38), fifth in points per game (3.75 avg.) and fifth in goals (2.38 avg.).

    Coppedge ACC Player of the Year

  • It was announced earlier this year that Kelly Coppedge was nominated on the initial list of Tewaaraton Trophy nominees, an award which recognizes the top male and female in collegiate lacrosse. Judging by the way she has played up to this point in the season and her earning player of the year in one of the nation's elite women's lacrosse conferences, her candidacy is more than viable.
  • Coppedge, a junior from Annapolis, is the leading returning scorer on this year's Terrapin team as well as its lone returning All-American. She currently is second in the ACC and is fifth nationally in scoring with 4.4 points per game (71 total) and has been named ACC Player of the week three times this season.
  • Through 16 games, Coppedge is second in the ACC in scoring, first in goals (3.3 gpg), third in assists (1.13 apg) and seventh in caused turnovers (1.63 pg).
  • Coppedge's seven goals against Johns Hopkins two weeks ago currently ranks as tied for the best goal output in any single game in the NCAA this year.

    Super Rook

  • Freshman Delia Cox has been one of the league's top performers in just her first season at the collegiate level. The native of Newbury, Mass., is currently sixth in the ACC in ground balls with 3.1 per game while leading all Terp freshmen in scoring.
  • Through 16 games, Cox has scored 25 goals and passed out three assists for 28 points, fourth-most on the team overall.

    Shooting Stars

  • As a team, the Terps have a solid .463 shooting percentage this season (compared to their opposition's .351), but what is even more notable is how much more the Terrapins are firing away than their opposition.
  • Maryland has outshot its opponent in all but four games this year and overall, it is taking way more shots than its opponents (441-291), an average of 27.6 shots per game compared to the opposition's 18.2.

    Tri-Captains

  • The captains of this year's Maryland team are seniors Sonia Judd, Julie Shank and Alexis Venechanos. The trio were chosen after a vote was conducted by their teammates as representatives of this year's squad.

    Scouting The Hokies

  • The Virginia Tech women's lacrosse program is spearheaded by 1996 Maryland grad Tami Riley. A four-year letterwinner for the Terps, Riley is in her second season at Blacksburg and has posted a 9-23 mark in her one-plus seasons.
  • The Hokies have been outscored 201-130 this year and the disparity likely comes from their inability to hold the opponent's shots down. The Hokies opposition are outshooting them 458-378 this season while still holding a .439-.344 advantage in shooting percentage.

  • Katie Madden, a senior from Gaithersburg, Md., leads the team in scoring with 30 goals and 10 assists. Junior Jamie McGraw (Annapolis) has gotten the majority of minutes in goal but has split time with Carrie Hill while allowing an average of 12.48 goals per game.
  • Series record: This year's meeting is the first ever between the two schools.