Women's lax looking to perfect the finer points

This week in practice, the Terrapin women's lacrosse team ran a drill simulating the transition from defense to offense.

Often, goalkeeper Brittany Dipper would throw an outlet pass to a streaking defender who would push the ball upfield. But once, Dipper hesitated and turned the ball back over to the offense, which scored immediately.

That seemingly minor sequence is something the No. 2 Terps hope to avoid when ACC-rival No. 12 Virginia comes to College Park tonight.

While a 13-goal drubbing of Duke last Saturday made the Terps (3-0, 1-0 ACC) appear unstoppable, coach Cathy Reese found some cause for concern.

"By the score, maybe it looked like everything went right, but we have a lot of things we need to work on from that game," Reese said. "We've made some adjustments and tried to tighten up in some areas where we've struggled."

Transition play is one of the main concerns for Reese and her team. The Terps turned the ball over 17 times against the Blue Devils, more than they averaged in their previous two matches.

"We were kind of beaming it at each other instead of taking care of the ball," Reese said. "We tend to play a very fast-paced game of lacrosse, and sometimes we get too fast for ourselves and we push it so hard from one end of the field to the other that we make passes that may not necessarily be there."

Coming off their most dominant victory of the season, the Terps are focused on sustaining their high intensity and avoiding a letdown against the Cavaliers. Last weekend, Virginia upset then-No. 6 Syracuse to vault back into the top 10 after an opening weekend home loss to Loyola.

The Cavaliers (2-1, 0-0) are hoping for their second straight win against a top-10 team, in what will be the 50th all-time meeting between the two teams.

"Virginia and Maryland have always had a great rivalry, even back into my day when both were consistently in the Final Four," Reese said. "But at this point its not about Virginia, it's about us. We need to make sure we don't beat ourselves."

Midfielder Caitlyn McFadden agreed: "We don't worry about them. We know that if we play the full 60 minutes, that we'll come up on top."

Against Duke last Saturday, the Terps routinely found wide-open players near the goal. The Blue Devils constantly double-teamed McFadden and attacker Karri Ellen Johnson and made others beat them.

But against the Cavaliers, it may be a different story.

"In previous years they haven't doubled too much because they know we can exploit it," midfielder Amanda Spinnenweber said. "But if they do, that's great because we can score off that."

Playing at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex for the first time this season, Reese and the Terps are gearing up for what they believe should be a classic battle between the two rivals.

"They play a very different style of lacrosse than we do," Reese said, "so it will be a great match on Friday."

ceckard@umdbk.com