Diamondback Online - The University of Maryland's Independent Daily Student Newspaper

A torn-up and waterlogged field usually leads to an ugly game, but the Terrapin women's lacrosse team put out its most complete effort of the season yesterday, despite the conditions.

The No. 3 Terps' free-wheeling offense overcame poor field conditions because of three lacrosse games and heavy rain in Chapel Hill, N.C. Meanwhile, the Terps stingy defense suffocated the Buckeyes en route to a 21-6 win, the team's largest margin of victory this season.

"Everyone played and it was a complete team effort," senior midfielder Dana Dobbie said. "It's good to finally have that complete game."

It was a near-perfect performance. The Terps (11-1) were sharp in all phases of the game for a full 60 minutes, despite replacing starters with seldom-used reserves by the second half, with the lead well in hand.

The offense exploded and the Terps held Ohio State (7-5) to a season-low six goals. The Terps exploded out to a 14-3 halftime lead and never looked back.

"I thought we played well," coach Cathy Reese said. "We were smart on offense. We took great shows. We came up with a ton of draw controls at center field, which made a huge difference in the game. Defensively, we were smart. We took care of things that we needed to."

The first-half onslaught was led by Dobbie, who scored five of her six goals in the half. Dobbie also guided the Terps to a 16-2 draw-control advantage, which fueled the Terps offense.

The Terps offense had four players with at least three goals. Dobbie's six led all scorers, while junior attacker Kate Faas scored four goals. Senior attacker Lauren Cohen and senior midfielder Kelly Kasper each had a hat trick.

The Terps defense also came up big against the Buckeyes. The Terps forced 19 turnovers and allowed just six goals, their second-fewest goals allowed of the season. They prevented second-chance opportunities and were able to quickly transition throughout the field. "On defense, we do our job, and we know the offense will get their job done," senior defender Katie Pumphrey said. "We each pick up when the other one needs a little pick-up in the game."

With an 11-goal lead by the half, Reese began to clear the bench. This has backfired in the past, but it didn't against the Buckeyes. The reserves came in and kept the pressure on. The Terps scored seven second-half goals while reserve goalies Sarah Sommaripa and Lynn Cooper gave up just three goals combined.

"I would like to think we get better every game," Reese said. "It was a good showing; there are things that we still need to work on. It was great to have a performance like this after the tough game on Friday."

While the Terps played a complete game against the Buckeyes, they were far from perfect in their first game of the weekend. The Terps defeated Penn State 12-11 on Friday in a sloppy triple-overtime thriller that tested the team's mettle.

"This taught us a lot about ourselves," Pumphrey said Friday. "We are coming into a hard stretch in our season. A game like this is good for us to realize stuff isn't going to go our way. But we can step up and make other things happen so the game can end up in our favor."

The Nittany Lions were able to control the tempo of the game, which kept the Terps off balance. The Lions played the Terps tight throughout and never trailed by more than two goals. The Terps made a 4-0 run in the second half, which gave them an 11-10 lead with less than two minutes to play. But the Terps could not capitalize as the Nittany Lions forced overtime.

The Terps' sloppy play may have been the result of an idle week. The Terps have said that they play their best when they can keep playing games back-to-back with short layoffs.

"I think that having that much time off was tough," Reese said. "We came out flat, but Penn State is also solid and made us step it up."

The Terps defense kept them alive in overtime as it did not allow the Nittany Lions to get a shot off.

"They saved our butts pretty much," Kasper said. "They held the ball in the first overtime for all three minutes and they didn't even get a shot off. Our defense played incredible, it is thanks to them [that we won]."

The Terps squeaked by on the strength of a goal by Kasper in sudden-death triple-overtime to put away the Nittany Lions.

"That team wasn't Maryland lacrosse, and we know that," Dobbie said. "That's behind us, everyone has one of those over the season, that was ours, and now it's done."

The pair of wins pushes the Terps' winning streak to eight games with just three remaining before the ACC tournament, including another trip to Chapel Hill next week to take on the Tar Heels.

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