While some of Maryland's younger players, especially junior Tewaaraton Award winner Taylor Cummings and freshman leading scorer Megan Whittle, have often stolen the spotlight in the drive to Friday's NCAA Division I tournament semifinals, the No. 1 and defending champion Terps rely heavily on the top eight of their 11 seniors.
Attackers Brooke Griffin (a redshirt senior), Erin Collins and Kristen Lamon, midfielder Kelly McPartland and defenders Megan Douty, Shanna Brady and Casey Pepperman have already played in two national championship games and have never finished a season short of the NCAA semifinals.
"We've been fortunate to compete for a championship with this group and I have a lot of seniors on this year's team that have started for me since they were freshmen," Maryland coach Cathy Reese said. "So this has been, obviously, a fun four years to go through with them and really looking to them for their leadership as we go into this weekend."
One of Maryland's key additions this season was also a fourth-year player — Alex Fitzpatrick, a graduate student who transferred from Lehigh. Fitzpatrick nicely filled the Terps' void in the goal and has allowed just 6.91 goals per game, ranking fourth in Division I, and posted a .464 save percentage.
"Alex has done a great job," Reese said. "Our goalie graduated from last year, so it's one of the positions we really needed to fill. … Initially, it's a tough spot to come into because you're playing behind a D that has been playing together for a while, but she's done a really nice job transitioning in. She's a great communicator on defense. She's able to make saves to kind of let us transition the ball to the offensive end. I've been really pleased with her performance this year."
Second time's a charm
With a record of 16-7, this is the first time Syracuse has lost seven games in a season since 2011 and the only time in the past nine years the Orange has missed the NCAA tournament. Don't let that record fool you.
The fourth-seeded Orange already has avenged four of those losses in the playoffs and has a chance to avenge a fifth, its 10-7 loss to No. 1 Maryland on March 7.
Syracuse started making up ground in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament when the Orange upset three Top 4 teams, including two NCAA semifinalists, to win the title. It slipped by No. 4 Boston College, 14-13, in double overtime, then beat No. 3 Duke, 14-10, and won the title, 9-8, in double overtime against No. 2 North Carolina.
In the NCAA quarterfinal, the Orange beat No. 13 Loyola, 10-7, after losing to the Greyhounds, 9-8, two weeks earlier in the regular-season finale.
Syracuse coach Gary Gait, a former assistant coach at Maryland, said playing the Terps, who ended his team's season the past two years in the final four, is a little different.
"Everybody's had a hard time with Maryland, not just us," said Gait, whose program has just one win over the Terps in 18 tries. "Over the past couple years, Maryland has been the dominant team in the women's lacrosse and that's certainly continued this year.
"We played them early in the season, coming off graduating eight starters and replacing those eight starters has been a yearlong process and developing the chemistry amongst this new group has also been a process. We're looking forward to getting back and playing them again. It's always fun when you get the chance to play against the best and certainly Maryland's the best."
Back again
Maryland and Syracuse are on runs of multiple trips to the NCAA semifinals and are in elite company in tournament history. The Terps are back for a seventh straight time, while the Orange is back for the fourth straight year.
Only seven teams have been to the tournament four or more consecutive years, including Duke, Northwestern, Princeton, Penn State and Virginia. Since the tournament expanded in 1997, only Maryland, Syracuse, Duke, Northwestern and Princeton have been to the semifinals four or more straight times.
Maryland, Northwestern and Princeton have won multiple NCAA championships, but Syracuse and Duke are still looking for their first titles.
Maryland NCAA tournament records
Maryland continues to add to a variety of NCAA women's lacrosse tournament records, including its 23rd appearance in the semifinals.
The Terps also hold records for most tournament appearances (31), most tournament wins (58), most championship game appearances (19) and most championships (11). Their string of seven straight championships between 1995 and 2001 is also an NCAA record.
Maryland has won 12 national championships, including one in 1981 before the NCAA took over the tournament.
Quick hits
Maryland has the top scoring offense (14.55 goals per game) and the best scoring defense (7.2) in the final four. … Cummings ranks first in points with 89 with Syracuse's Kayla Treanor second with 86. Whittle has the most goals (64). … Syracuse leads in draw controls (342) and Kailah Kempney is the individual leader (178). … Duke is first in shooting percentage (47.6 percent). … North Carolina leads in caused turnovers (178). … This year's final four teams have made 45 combined trips to the semifinals. ... Every final four except one of the past 25 years has included at least one of this year's semifinal teams.
twitter.com/kdunnsun