March 24, 2007
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The No. 4 Maryland women's lacrosse team used a balanced attack and 13 saves from junior Allie Buote to take down previously unbeaten No. 1 North Carolina, 8-6, on March 24 at Chevy Chase Bank Field at Byrd Stadium.
Buote was one off of her career high for saves that she established on Wednesday against No. 13 Johns Hopkins. Two of those saves came on wide open chances for the Tar Heels with under two minutes to go. Junior Dana Dobbie recorded two goals and an assist while freshman Caitlyn McFadden also notched a pair of goals. Junior Kelly Kasper had a goal and an assist.
The pace was slow from the opening whistle as both Maryland and North Carolina worked the offense diligently to find a quality shot. UNC finally reached the back of the cage at the 25:50 mark in the opening half when Chrissy Rude converted a free position opportunity. Kristen Taylor then won the ensuing draw and found Christina Juras for Carolina's second goal in nine seconds.
The Terps quickly responded as McFadden weaved her way through the Tar Heels defense to put Maryland on the board at the 25:09 mark. Junior Kelly Kasper then found a cutting Casey Magor down the middle to tie the game up, 2-2, with 24:28 still to go.
The two teams did not find the back of the net again until 10 minutes later when Kasper tallied an unassisted goal midway through the half to give Maryland its first lead of the game with 14:31 left.
The Heels came back and deadlocked the game again when Rude found Juras for a score four minutes later. Jenn Cook won the ensuing draw for the Heels but UNC eventually committed an unforced turnover to give Maryland the ball. The giveaway provided McFadden and the Terps with a fastbreak. McFadden cradled the ball for three-fourths of the field and beat the Carolina keeper to give the Terrapins a 4-3 edge heading into halftime.
Maryland opened the second half by scoring the first two goals to push its lead to 6-3, a lead it would never relinquish. Dobbie scored the first of her two second half goals just 50 seconds in and then senior Katie Doolittle found the top left corner at a difficult angle at 20:26.
Jenn Russell connected on a free position for the Tar Heels but the Terps tacked on two more goals to take its largest lead of the day, 8-4, with 13:12 left in the game. After the Russell goal, Dobbie won the next draw and set up senior Krista Pellizzi on a break for the goal just nine seconds after the UNC tally. Dobbie put the game away with Maryland's final goal. After she was fouled on the left side, Dobbie snuck a shot past an unsuspecting UNC goalie.
Kristen Taylor scored North Carolina's final two goals with a little over 11 minutes left, but the Maryland defense held and the offense effectively stalled in its third of the field to take the win. Buote came up with two important saves down the stretch as she kicked away a free position with 1:52 to go and then stopped a point-blank shot with 50 seconds left to keep the Heels at bay.
Taylor had two goals and an assist for North Carolina (8-1, 1-1 ACC) while Juras also had two goals. Rude notched a goal and an assist while Kristen Hordy was credited with eight saves in a losing effort.
Maryland (8-1, 3-1 ACC) returns to action on Wednesday, March 28 when it hosts Stanford at 3:00 p.m. at the Lacrosse & Field Hockey Complex. That game will also be televised live by CSTV.
