The Terrapin women’s lacrosse team pulled out an 10-6 victory against the No. 3 seed Virginia in the second round of the ACC women’s lacrosse tournament here in College Park.

After a slow first half in which each teams finished tied at two, the Terps came out firing in the second half. They scored the first five goals of the half. The Cavaliers tried to mount a comeback, but Terps’ Caitlyn McFadden ended that with a free position goal with 12:41 remaining. Midfielder Laura Merrifield scored two goals in the final two minutes to seal the win.

Big keys to the second half for the Terps: Draw controls, defense against UVA clears and free position shot accuracy.

Much more to come after post-game interviews. The Terps face North Carolina in the ACC Championship on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Ludwig Field.

“I thought the first half was really sluggish and we weren’t working for each other,” Cathy Reese said. “We changed that in the second half and really took control offensively.”

Chris Eckard is the Diamondback’s Terrapin women’s lacrosse reporter. He can be reached at ceckard@umdbk.com

A small disclaimer about this post: It does not necessarily pertain to the Terrapin men’s lacrosse team, but if the Terps win tonight against North Carolina, they will face either Duke or Virginia in Sunday’s championship. Click the jump to read some halftime notes about game one of the ACC Tournament semifinals.

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Trying to keep the ACC Tournament as normal as possible, Terrapin women’s lacrosse coach Cathy Reese had her team meet together before the game. Instead of walking over to Ludwig Field, the Terps loaded the Maryland bus and drove to the field. They entered the field with about 40 minutes until game time. She wanted it to feel less like home.

No. 4 Virginia, who beat Virginia Tech 18-6 yesterday in the opening round, had already entered the stadium and were warming up. The Cavaliers (13-3, 4-1 ACC) lost to the No. 3 Terps (14-1, 4-1 ACC), 11-5 earlier this season.

Follow my live chat of this second round match-up between the Terps and Cavaliers. Ask any questions you want – how players are performing, who’s starting, what the conditions look like and any other ACC women’s lacrosse questions or comments.

Chat – Click Here

Here’s what midfielder Caitlyn McFadden had to say about Virginia and the ACC Tournament when I talked to her last night:

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The ACC announced earlier today the 2010 All-ACC team, which includes five Terrapin women’s lacrosse players: attackers Karri Ellen Johnson and Sarah Mollison, midfielders Caitlyn McFadden and Katie Schwarzmann and defender Karissa Taylor.

The Terps had more players receive the honor than any other team, matching last year’s total of five. North Carolina and Duke both had four, Virginia had three and Boston College had two.

Schwarzmann was the lone freshman named to the team after she found a spot in the Terps’ starting lineup this season. This year she has tallied 24 goals and 9 assists, with a team-high .600 shooting percentage. She has played in all 15 games, starting 13.

McFadden joins the team for the third consecutive year, after leading the Terps with 26 assists. Johnson, who boasts the nation’s sixth longest scoring streak as a sophomore, receives the honor for the second time. Mollison, who is tied for second on the team with both 28 goals and 19 assists, get’s her second nod as well.

Rounding out the list, defender Karissa Taylor receives her first All-ACC recognition. The senior has been the vocal captain of a defense that has allowed only 7.29 goals per game.

“It’s quite an honor with the talent of our conference,” coach Cathy Reese said. “There are so many talented players in the ACC and on our team. But I think the team would rather win an ACC Championship than win any of these awards.”

Chris Eckard is the Diamondback’s Terrapin women’s lacrosse beat reporter. He can be reached at ceckard@umdbk.com

All season, opponents have been victimizing the Terrapin baseball team with multiple-run innings, so it was hardly surprising that, after Terps’ starter Blair Delean carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning, Old Dominion scored three runs in each of the final three frames yesterday.

The difference: For one of the first times all season, the Terps’ offense had already scored enough runs of its own to make the Monarchs’ comeback meaningless.

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Pairings for this weekend’s ACC tennis Tournaments were announced this morning.  The Terrapin men’s and women’s tennis teams each face an uphill battle in their quest to salvage dreadful conference schedules, where they went 1-10 and 0-11, respectively.

The Terp men (13-12, 1-10 ACC), who had high hopes entering conference play after their 13-2 start was the best start to a season since 1986, earned the 11^th seed in the conference tournament. They will face off with 6^th seeded Wake Forest, who is ranked No. 23 in the nation.  The Demon Deacons (13-8, 7-4) handled the Terps with relative ease, 6-1, in yesterday’s season finale.

No. 15 Florida State stands in the way of the bottom-seeded Terp women’s season goal of winning their first-round match in the ACC Tournament.  The 5^th seeded Seminoles dismantled the Terps (5-13, 0-11), 7-0, on April 11. The Terps were able to win just one set in this lopsided affair.

While expectations are very low for the Terp women, there is still a glimmer of hope for the men.  Yesterday’s 6-1 loss to the Demon Deacons does not appear flattering, but the Terps were not completely overmatched, having lost in three separate three-set matches in singles play.

“Our inability to win three-set matches has really hurt us all season,” coach Kyle Spencer said as the team was driving back to College Park yesterday. “That was the difference in the match.”

If the Terps are able to change this pattern, an upset is not out of the realm of possibility for a team that dashed any chances at an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament with their losses to the Demon Deacons and No. 50 N.C. State last weekend.

No. 19 North Carolina awaits the winner of the Terps/Wake Forest meeting as the third seed, while the Terp women will have to contend with fourth-seeded No. 6 Duke if they can sneak past the Seminoles.

cwalsh@umdbk.com

The Terrapin baseball team and its bullpen received bad news recently as they learned that Adam Kolarek, a two-way player and one of the team’s most effective left-handed pitchers, will likely miss the rest of the season after injuring his ribs while warming up in the seventh inning of the Terps’ April 4 game against North Carolina.

According to coach Erik Bakich, Kolarek throwing in the bullpen, preparing to possibly enter in the late innings of a close game, when he felt he tweaked something in his stomach.

It turns out Kolarek strained an intercostal muscle, an injury that Bakich says takes three or four weeks to fully heal.

The injury puts the Terps in a bind as not only does Kolarek offer the team flexibility as a pinch-hitter and first baseman, but he pitched in almost every possible role at one point or another this season.

It’s particularly damaging because losing Kolarek leaves Bakich with very few reliable left-handers out of the bullpen.

In fact, not including starters Eric Potter and Matt Fullerton, stalwart John Dischert and little-used freshman Jimmy Reed are now the only two left-handed pitchers coming out of the bullpen.

In 23.2 innings this season, including five starts, Kolarek was 1-2 with a 5.70 ERA and 23 strikeouts. Opponents were hitting just .250 against him this season.

Mike Lemaire is the Terrapin baseball beat writer. He can be reached at lemaire@umdbk.com

After another slow start, the No. 4 Terps (7-2) find themselves losing to their instate foes, the No. 16 Blue Jays (5-5), at halftime of their Day of  Rivals match at M&T Bank Stadium. But thanks to clamping down on defense and controlling the ball more in the second quarter, they trail by just one goal.

Johns Hopkins scored three goals in the first 10:06 of the game in its home city before the Terps responded.

The last came just seconds after penalty time on the Terps had expired. Before they had a chance to reset their 6-on-6 defense, Hopkins midfielder Michael Kimmel came up on the left wing and sent a pass to attackman Steven Boyle waiting just behind the cage. Boyle took two steps up and caught Phipps off-guard for an open shot on goal.

Still, the Terps’ penalties haven’t hurt them as much as they could have. The Terps have four minutes of penalty time on six penalties, but so far the Blue Jays are 0-for-6 on man-up opportunities. (Well, really 1-for-6 if you count Boyle’s goal. But still, not as bad as it might have been.)

And after holding Hopkins to one in the second quarter and getting the last two goals of the first half, the Terps are not in bad position heading into the final 30 minutes. But they’ll need to get their offense to click more if they want to take the lead.

Follow the action minute-to-minute with staff writer Jakob Engelke on Twitter.

Kate Yanchulis is the Terrapin men’s lacrosse team beat writer for The Diamondback. She can be reached at kyanchulisdbk@gmail.com.