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Big Week For Women's Lacrosse Starts Wednesday Against Princeton

Big Week For Women's Lacrosse Starts Wednesday Against Princeton

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April 29, 2003

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The University of Maryland women's lacrosse team closes its regular season out in style this week as it will play host to two of the more formidable teams in the country. On Wednesday, the Terrapins will square off with defending national champion and current No. 6 Princeton in a 7:00 p.m. showdown at Ludwig Field. On Saturday, the regular season comes to a close in the most impressive way imaginable -- with the No. 2 Terps playing host to local rival and current No. 1 Loyola. Opening draw for is set for 1:00 p.m.

  • Maryland enters the week riding a five-game winning streak and being a week removed from clinching the sixth Atlantic Coast Conference title in school history. 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 Terps - who head into this week 16-1 (3-0 ACC) - remain the nation's No. 2 team in the latest Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches' Association (IWLCA) poll. Maryland garnered 133 points in the latest poll while No. 1 Loyola had 140 and all seven first-place votes.
  • Princeton heads into Wednesday's competition having won nine of its last 10 games with its lone stumble coming against Yale on April 12. The Tigers opened the season losing three of their first four -- including a triple overtime loss to Loyola -- and currently stand at 10-4.
  • At 14-0, Loyola is Division I's lone unbeaten team as the season draws to a close. Before squaring off with the Terps in both team's season finale, the Greyhounds will have taken on Virginia at home on Tuesday. Should it win out this week, this year's Loyola will become the first in school history to finish a regular season undefeated.

    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 five games -- which included two wins at the ACC tournament -- Maryland has outscored its opposition 82-22, or by an average of 16-4.
  • During the stretch of the last five 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 41 goals in those games and outscored William & Mary (13-6), Johns Hopkins (10-4), North Carolina (8-5) and Virginia Tech (7-1) by themselves.
  • In holding Virginia Tech to one goal in the first meeting between the two schools, the Terrapins accomplished a defensive feat that it had not in some time. The last time that a Maryland opponent was held to as few as one goal was March 28, 1998, as Old Dominion was beaten by the same score the Hokies were, 18-1. That is a span of 117 games since Maryland has held a team to as few goals as it did Va Tech.
  • Head coach Cindy Timchal now needs just five 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 295-63 while her record in 13 years at Maryland stands at an amazing 219-23.
  • 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 week as the ACC's leader in assists. The talented sophomore has posted 27 this season for an average of 1.59 per game. In fact, Maryland holds the top spot in all three scoring categories this week as Kelly Coppedge leads the league in points (4.53 pg) and goals (3.41 pg). Walker is also fifth in the league in draw controls with 1.81 per game.

    ACC-olades

  • The Terps came home from the ACC tournament toting some hardware two weeks ago, 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, 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.
  • With two games remaining in the regular season, the Terrapins are allowing an NCAA-best 6.06 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, having forced 191 turnovers through 17 games (an average of 11.2 caused turnovers per game), but the most marked improvement of 2003 has come from the Terrapins' goalies.
  • Senior Alexis Venechanos leads the ACC and is third in the NCAA in save percentage (.603) and has been instrumental to the Terrapins' success on the defensive end. She is also second nationally in goals against average (6.03).

    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 219-23 (.905) 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 2003 ACC Coach of the Year, her fourth 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 more than three games only once (2002), and her list of accomplishments includes 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	                 	16-1
	12+ Seasons @ Md.       	219-23 (.905)

    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 80-2 mark in odd years since '97.

    Terps Lauded

  • A year ago, Maryland was able to garner ACC Player of the Week recognition twice in the entire season. With the 2003 ACC season now complete, the honor has taken on a Maryland flare as six of the eight times it was awarded, it went to a Terp.
  • With junior Kelly Coppedge being named the conference's player of the week for her play prior to the ACC tourney, Maryland took the honor for the sixth time with Coppedge taking it three times on her own. The other honorees during the season included 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 20 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 62 points (40 goals, 22 assists). With a minimum of three 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. She was also named to the ACC all-tournament team for her play in Charlottesville.
  • Judd entered this week third in the ACC in assists (1.29), fifth in points per game (3.65 avg.) and fifth in goals (2.35 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. This year's ACC Player of the Year, she currently leads the league and is third nationally in scoring with 4.53 points per game (77 total) and was named ACC Player of the week three times this season.
  • With two games remaining in the regular season, Coppedge is also first in the ACC in goals (3.4 gpg), fourth in assists (1.12 apg) and eighth in caused turnovers (1.53 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 fifth in the ACC in ground balls with 3.1 per game while leading all Terp freshmen in scoring.
  • Through 17 games, Cox has scored 28 goals and passed out three assists for 31 points, fourth-most on the team overall. She is also second on the team and sixth in the league in draw controls with 29.

    Shooting Stars

  • As a team, the Terps have an outstanding .469 shooting percentage this season (compared to their opposition's .344), 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 (473-299), an average of 27.8 shots per game compared to the opposition's 17.6.

    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 Tigers

  • The Princeton women's lacrosse program is spearheaded Chris Sailer who is in her 16th year. A 1981 grad of Harvard, Sailer has posted a 209-68 mark in her tenure, including last season's national title.
  • Princeton and Maryland have had five common opponents at this point in the season (Virginia, Duke, Penn State, Georgetown and Dartmouth). Princeton has posted a 3-2 record in those five games while Maryland is 5-0.
  • The Tigers have been led in scoring this season by junior Theresa Sherry. The Baltimore native has posted 32 goals on just 60 shots while also adding four assists.
  • Sophomore Sarah Kolodner has gotten the bulk of the minutes in goal and has been solid, allowing an average of just 6.6 goals per game while posting a .535 save percentage.
  • Series record: Princeton won last year's meeting, 13-9, in New Jersey, but the Terps hold the edge in the all-time series, 16-4. The Tigers' last win before 2002 came in the 1994 NCAA Finals.

    Scouting The Greyhounds

  • Loyola's inspiration this year -- and one of the most amazing stories in the sport of women's lacrosse -- has been its head coach, Diane Geppi-Aikens. Geppi-Aikens, who has a 194-69 record in her 14 years, has undergone three full craniotomy brain surgeries in the last eight years as she has battled to remove a recurring brain tumor. In that span, she has not missed a single game and was justifiably named this year's NCAA Inspiration Award winner.
  • On the field, the greyhounds are having no problems getting out of the gate as they have outscored opponents 100-38 in the first half this season.
  • Senior Suzanne Eyler is the team's leading scorer with 47 points while junior Kim Lawton and freshman Cindy Nicolaus have split time in goal almost right down the middle (420 minutes to 427) while posting a strong .624 combined save percentage and allowing 6.09 goals per game.
  • Series record: The Terps and Greyhounds split last year with Loyola winning in the regular season and Maryland in the NCAAs. The Terrapins, however, hold a major advantage in the all-time series, 21-2.