With the Terrapin women’s lacrosse game with Syracuse hours away, here are some Final Four statistics and musings to chew on this morning.
- The last time the Terps lost in the Final Four was last season against North Carolina. They lost 8-7 and the Tar Heels went on to get pummeled by Northwestern in the National Championship.
- The Wildcats, currently the No. 2 seed and set to face North Carolina in the second Final Four game, has won five consecutive national championships. Only the Terps, with seven straight between 1995-2001, have a better stretch in NCAA history.
- The last time the Terps were a No. 1 seed: 2001. That year was also the last season that the team has won a national title. They went undefeated that year but needed two overtimes to take down Georgetown in the National Championship game.
- Since that year, the Terps have not held supremacy in women’s lacrosse and seemingly handed the torch off to former-Terps’ player and current-Northwestern head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller. Here are the Terps’ end result in those seasons since.
2002: Quarterfinals (Cindy Timchal)
2003: Semifinals (Timchal)
2004: Quarterfinals (Timchal)
2005: First Round (Timchal)
2006: First Round (Timchal)
2007: Quarterfinals (Cathy Reese)
2008: Quarterfinals (Reese)
2009: Semifinals (Reese)
- Northwestern has never had to face the Terps in a national title game. Will this be the first season?
- In each of the past four seasons, the Terps have ended the season by tallying seven or fewer goals in a losing effort every time.
- Cathy Reese has won ACC Coach of the Year in three of her four seasons at the helm. She has also won back-to-back ACC tournament championships. But in her time, she has never won a national title or even advanced to one.
- Caitlyn McFadden has won back-to-back ACC Player of the Year honors and named to the Tewaaraton finalist list. She is one of the most complete players in recent Terps’ history and has even competed on the US National team. Like Reese, McFadden has never won a national title or even advanced to one.
- The Terps will lose several valuable seniors after this season, as well as McFadden. They include defenders Karissa Taylor and Abby Caso, midfielders Amanda Spinnenweber and Brittany Jones and attacker Kate Faas. While Reese will never admit this is the season to win it all, next year’s team won’t have nearly the same depth that it does this year.
I’ll be back with a preview of the game later in the afternoon. For all your Terrapin women’s lacrosse news check back here and on Diamondbackonline.com
Chris Eckard is the Diamondback’s Terrapin women’s lacrosse reporter. He can be reached at ceckard@umdbk.com