April 30, 2003
Final Stats
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
The University of Maryland women's lacrosse team suffered its worse defeat of the 2003 campaign in falling to No. 6 Princeton, 13-6, at Ludwig Field. The loss -- just the Terps' second of the season -- drops Maryland to 16-2 (3-0 ACC) while the Tigers move to 11-4 with the upset.
Princeton was solid from start to finish, employing a strategy used frequently against the Terrapins over the years, a methodical, ball-control offense and solid defense. But the Tigers succeeded where others have not, mixing a relatively mistake-free offense with success on draws. Princeton won 13-of-21 draws in the game, marking just the third time this year that a team has won more draws that the Terps (the Terps are 1-2 this year in those games).
Second-ranked Maryland actually opened scoring in the game as sophomore Annie Collins ran in an unassisted goal at 11:27. Princeton answered less than a minute later but sophomore Jessica Dorney put the Terrapins back on top with an unassisted goal of her own at 13:17.
Scoring remained slow for the first 20 minutes and Maryland maintained its 2-1 lead, but the Tiger offense came alive when the clock hit 10:00 in the first half. Whitney Miller got things started with a pair of goals that kicked off a four-goal Tiger run with Lindsey Biles scoring the other two in a four minute stretch. Terp junior Kelly Coppedge found the net on an unassisted goal with 2:38 left in the half and freshman Delia Cox followed with another goal :30 later on a feed from senior Julie Shank and the two teams would head to the half with a goal separating them (5-4 Princeton).
When Coppedge was able to finish after a pass from Acacia Walker at 30:31, the Terps looked like they were back on track with the score knotted at five. Three minutes later, Princeton would start a run that would dampen the Maryland hopes.
Leigh Slonaker scored three goals in a five-goal Tiger run that moved the score from 5-5 to 10-5 in Princeton's favor and just nine minutes remained on the clock. Coppedge would net her third goal of the game with 5:25 left, but the Tigers continued to win draws and play keep away while drawing the Terrapin defense away from the net which gave Princeton opportunities to tack on three more for the final seven-goal margin.
The Terps were led by Coppedge's three goals while Collins, Cox and Dorney each added a goal. Senior Alexis Venechanos also finished with seven saves and it was just the second complete game this year that she had less saves than goals allowed.
Maryland wraps up its regular season on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. as it will host No. 1 Loyola at Ludwig Field.
