Women's lacrosse puts unblemished record on line against surging Towson team

Last season, with two minutes remaining in the first half of the Terrapin women's lacrosse team's game against Towson, the scoreboard at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex showed an 8-3 Tiger lead.

Towson's five-goal advantage was a particularly rare moment in time for an undefeated Terp side playing on its home turf, where it has lost only once in the past five years.

But there would be a comeback. It began with Terp midfielder Laura Merrifield scoring with 1:16 left in the first half to cut the deficit to four goals before intermission. After halftime, the then-No. 2 Terps scored five unanswered goals to take the lead, knocking off then-No. 7 Towson, 12-10.

Almost a year later, this year's top-ranked Terp team hasn't had any such troubles. In 10 matches this season — all wins — the Terps have not yet trailed at halftime or experienced a close call of any kind. Excluding a two-goal win against a stalling Syracuse side, the team has won by at least seven goals in each game, relying on a relentless defense to jumpstart its prolific offense.

The Terps (10-0) will look to continue their undefeated run tonight against Towson (4-4) at Unitas Stadium — the same site where nearly 10,000 spectators witnessed the team's 13-11 national championship victory against Northwestern last May.

The Tigers will trot out a lineup tonight far different from last year's, which lost the bulk of its offensive production to graduation. And while Towson's top three point scorers from last year have moved on, attacker Jess Dunn remains.

Dunn, a senior, scored 47 goals last year, including a team-high three against the Terps. This year, the Towson captain is averaging more than two goals a game, and her 18 points lead the team.

Facing the Terps' offense is always a formidable task for an opposing goalkeeper, and Mary Teeters will draw the job tonight. The Towson junior had 12 saves in last year's matchup.

"She's come up big for them so far this year, so that's going to be one of our focuses, making sure that we're getting good shots and good looks at cage," Reese said.

Towson began the year ranked No. 17 before quickly dropping following three consecutive losses. Recently, the Tigers have looked significantly sharper, winning four of their past five games to pull back to .500.

"They've gone on a little bit of a run here and they're coming off of a good winning stretch, and we know that this is going to be a hard-fought game on their home field," coach Cathy Reese said.

TERP NOTE: The Tigers' slow start can perhaps partly be attributed to a coaching change. Missy Doherty, a former Terp, left the program to take over at Penn State last year. Sonia LaMonica — another former Terp — was then picked to lead Towson in August, becoming one of the sport's most recent additions to the ever-expanding Terp coaching tree.

castello@umdbk.com