No. 17 Women’s Lacrosse Edged By No. 10 Maryland
No. 17 Princeton did its best to rally at No. 10 Maryland, outscoring the Terps, XXXX, in the fourth quarter but a dominant second quarter from the hosts was too much for Princeton to overcome in a 15-11 loss at SECU Stadium.
Kari Buonanno, Jami MacDonald and Kate Mulham each had two goals for Princeton. Buonanno and MacDonald each had an assist for three-point nights. All total, eight different Tigers had at least one point.
Canadian Fakin’!
Jami MacDonald goes behind-the-back for a #scTop10 caliber goal!@NCAALAX | @USALacrosseMag | @ILWomen pic.twitter.com/za8itLc2cl
— Princeton Women’s Lax (@princetonwlax) March 30, 2023
Libby May had six goals for Maryland, while Eloise Clevenger had a seven-point game with three goals and four assists.
Emily Sterling made 15 saves in goal for Maryland, while Amelia Hughes had 12 for Princeton.
The team stats were pretty even – each team won 15 draw controls, each team had 15 turnovers. Maryland had the slightest of edges in shots on goal, 27-26.
Hannah Leubecker struck first for Maryland, scoring 1:03 into the game.
Kari Buonanno would answer for the Tigers 1:01 later, charging down the right side and bouncing a shot through the goalie’s five-hole.
Maryland would settle in a bit from there, netting the next four goals to build a 5-1 lead. Libby May had the next two before Shaylan Ahearn and Leubecker scored less than a minute apart.
Princeton countered with a flurry of its own before the end of the first quarter. Kate Mulham ended Maryland’s run with her eighth goal of the year with 2:58 left in the opening period.
Jami MacDonald followed with a highlight-reel goal 0:54 later, taking a Buonanno pass and whipping a behind-the-back shot home.
After Maryland briefly regained a three-goal lead, Grace Tauckus took a MacDonald pass and fired home her 12th goal of the season with 11 seconds left in the first quarter.
The Terps wrestled control back to start the second quarter, scoring five goals in a row to build an 11-4 lead 4:36 into the second frame.
Leubecker and May each had a goal inside the first minute of the second quarter, and Kori Edmondson followed with two of her own in a span of 0:37 to give the Terps a 10-4 lead less than five minutes into the second quarter.
Jami MacDonald would net her second of the night in spectacular fashion to end the Maryland run, finishing a highlight-reel sequence for the Tigers with 8;22 left in the half. Amelia Hughes started the play with a point-blank save at one end, sending Princeton in transition. Quick passing down the field led to McKenzie Blake feeding Ellie Mueller at the left post, and Mueller sending a quick lob to MacDonald who cashed in.
Scoring slowed down in the third quarter, each team scoring twice for no change in the Maryland lead.
The Tigers scored a pair of free position goals early in the period – Ellie Mueller and Nina Montes each finding the back of the cage to cut Maryland’s lead to 12-7 before the Terps answered with a Libby May goal with 6:11 left in the period and an Eloise Clevenger goal with 1:53 remaining in the quarter.
The Tigers clawed back into the game a bit early in the fourth quarter, with goals from Kate Mulham, Samantha DeVito before the midway mark cutting Maryland’s lead to 15-10.
McKenzie Blake charged through the middle of Maryland’s defense to tack on another Princeton goal with 5:26 to play, further slicing into the Terps’ lead and bringing the deficit to four.
That was as close as the Tigers would get as neither team scored the rest of the way.
Princeton is off this weekend, returning to action at Saint Joseph’s on April 5 at 4 p.m. in Philadelphia.
