May 9, 2003
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
The second-ranked University of Maryland women's lacrosse team takes on Dartmouth College in NCAA quarterfinal action this Sunday at Noon at Ludwig Field. The winner will head to Syracuse, N.Y., for next weekend's Final Four which will kick off with semifinal action on Friday, May 16th at the Carrier Dome.
Maryland advanced to the quarterfinals with a dominant 26-6 win over Temple on Thursday. In the victory, the Terps set NCAA tournament records for goals (26) and shots (52) in a game.
No. 7 Dartmouth made its way to the round of eight with a 9-7 victory over Boston University in Hanover, N.H., on Thursday. The Big Green's hard-fought win over the Terriers helps them make their way to the tourney's quarterfinals for the fourth time in school history.
Terps In the Tourney
Winners of 10 national titles and nine NCAA titles, Maryland is the most successful program in the history of the NCAA tournament. Last year's exit in the quarterfinals marked the end of a seven-year run that saw the Terrapins post the third-longest national championship streak in the history of women's NCAA athletics.
The Terps enter today's game with a 44-14 record all-time in postseason tournaments (USWLA, AIAW and NCAA) with just two losses in the last nine years (last year and in the 1994 NCAA finals).
Maryland has won 22 of its last 23 NCAA tournament games and heads into this year's competition with a 33-9 record in NCAA postseason play.
Series Notes -- Maryland vs. Dartmouth
Maryland owns a 10-0 record in its history of play versus Dartmouth. The two teams met earlier this season in Hanover with the Terps coming away with a decisive 9-2 win.
Eight of the 10 Terrapin wins in the series have had a seven-goal margin or better.
The Big Green's closest call came in 2001, when they gave the eventual national champions their toughest game of the regular season. Again, at Hanover, it took five goals from current Maryland assistant Jen Adams in the game's final 20 minutes for the Terps to erase a five-goal deficit and eventually come away with a 12-11 win.
Maryland and Dartmouth have never met in the postseason.
TerpNOTES
Thursday's first round Terrapin win was a record setting day, both from a team and an individual perspective. On the team side, the Terrapins broke the NCAA tournament record for goals (26) recently set by Princeton which posted 25 in opening round action a year ago against LeMoyne on its way to the national title.
The Terps also set an NCAA tournament record for shots with 52, surpassing the mark of 48 by Delaware in 1984 while the 20-goal margin of victory was also the second-most ever in an NCAA game (Princeton beat LeMoyne by 22 last year).
Among the single-game season highs for Maryland as a team on Thursday were its team totals in shots (52), ground balls (40) and draw controls (24, tied the season high).
From an individual standpoint, junior standout Kelly Coppedge made her way into the Terrapin all-time record books. With her four goals and one assist against the Owls, Coppedge moved ahead of current assistant Cathy Nelson and into 11th on the Terp career chart with 142 goals. With two more goals, Coppedge will be in sole possession on 10th.
Coppedge will also be a player to watch from an individual standpoint against Dartmouth as she now sits just five points from the 200 plateau for her career. Should she hit 200, she will also move ahead of Betsy Elder (1991-1994) and into 10th on the Maryland career chart. Coppedge is the only current Terp on either list.
Maryland's top two scorers -- Coppedge and senior Sonia Judd -- have not let up down the stretch. In fact, they've only gotten stronger. In the last eight games, the duo combined for 55 goals (an average of 6.9 per game) with Coppedge scoring 34 and Judd adding 21.
With their offensive onslaught against Temple, the Terrapins leave themselves heading into quarterfinal action with a feat few teams can match. The Terps can now claim that they have doubled up their opponents this season -- literally -- as they have outscored their opposition through 20 games by the score of 262-131.
In holding Virginia Tech to one goal two weeks ago, the Terrapins accomplished a defensive feat that it had not in some time. The last time that a Maryland opponent was held to a goal or less 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 had held a team to as few goals as it did Va Tech.
Head coach Cindy Timchal now needs just four 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 296-65 while her record in 13 years at Maryland stands at an amazing 220-25.
With the regular-season ending loss to Loyola, Timchal's assault on 300 will have to wait until 2004. If the best case scenario were to take place for the Terps (i.e. they are able to win out in the NCAAs) she would remain one win shy of the mark.
Scouting the Big Green
The Dartmouth College women's lacrosse team is led by Amy Patton, who is in her 11th season with the Big Green. Under the former Maryland All-American's guidance, Dartmouth has posted a 122-48 record.
The Big Green enter the Maryland game with an 11-4 record on the season and finished their Ivy League record with a 6-1 mark. They qualified for this year's tournament by way of an at-large bid.
Though it struggled towards the end of the season with consecutive losses to Princeton and North Carolina, Dartmouth has since come on with two straight impressive wins. The Big Green ended its regular season by beating Duke 9-7 in Durham and then went on to beat a feisty Boston University team in first round action.
Dartmouth averages 10.7 goals per game and is allowing 7.3 per game this season. Their best half has been the first where they outscore the opposition 95-56.
Junior Lana Smith of St. Mary's High School in Annapolis is the team's leading scorer in '03. Smith has posted 35 goals to go along with 25 assists giving her 16 points more than her nearest teammate in the scoring column.
Freshman Devon Wills has played the majority of the time in goal for the Big Green. Wills, an athletic keeper from Colorado, has put up a respectable .543 save percentage and a 7.20 goals against average in her first season.
