Women's lax turning up the defensive pressure

In the past 10 years, the Terrapin women's lacrosse team has only held Virginia and Duke — two of its top competitors and biggest ACC rivals — to five or fewer goals in a game once.

Entering the fourth week of their season, the Terps have done that twice in consecutive weekends.

Friday night, the team displayed its defensive supremacy against a Cavaliers' team that scored more than 11 goals in each of its other four games this season. Today, the No. 2 Terps (4-0, 2-0 ACC) hope to continue that defensive presence at George Mason (2-2).

"We have more aggression and poise," defender Karissa Taylor said. "We're not scared, and we also take a lot of chances, which takes us out of our comfort zone."

The Terps held Virginia to three shots and no goals in the second half. The Cavaliers, who average  28.2 shots per game, finished Friday's contest with a mere 11 shots.

Terp defenders constantly forced Virginia to pass the ball away, while yelling out commands to each other. Whenever a Virginia player drove in close to the goal, several Terps surrounded her and often forced a turnover by attacking the ball carrier.

"Our focus this year is to be much more disciplined and help each other out," coach Cathy Reese said. "We tried some new things against Virginia and Duke, and we're going to continue that."

The Terps have done all this without the presence of defender Katie Gallagher, who started all but one game the past two seasons. The senior has sat out the past two contests due to a hamstring injury.

Instead of substituting another defender into the starting lineup, Reese decided to play talented freshman midfielder Katie Schwarzmann. Whenever opposing teams have possession, the Terps rotate one midfielder into the defense to keep the pressure up.

It's up to three defenders then to protect goalie Brittany Dipper: seniors Taylor and Abby Caso and junior Brittany Poist.

"[Gallagher] is a huge part of our team," Poist said. "She's there still to support us and yell from the sideline. But we all know the game plan, and we all play as a team. So we can adjust for things like this."

The defensive wall has also helped the offense, as players look to push the ball down the field. Several times against Virginia, Poist came up with a ground ball and sprinted down the field, passing several Cavalier players and giving the Terps an advantage.

The Patriots, who have won two straight, have only scored more than 10 goals once this season and don't provide the offensive firepower the likes of Virginia and Duke do. But Reese is still looking forward to today's match as another opportunity to see a new offense and continue to iron out the details.

"We know they are going to come out fighting and try to take us out of our game," Reese said. "We still have some things we want to work on, and we're not where we want to be. But we're going in the right direction."

On defense, though, there's not too much that Reese can pick apart.

ceckard@umdbk.com