CHESTER, PA. — As a junior at McDonogh, Casey Pepperman did not make the girls lacrosse varsity.
That stung, but it also motivated her, and Pepperman is now a pivotal component in one of the stingiest defenses in women's college lacrosse, starting for top-seeded Maryland as the Terps go for their second straight national championship. They face No. 2 seed North Carolina on Sunday night at PPL Park.
In 2010, a talented senior class at McDonogh left few openings for new varsity players, but that didn't make it easier on Pepperman.
"Obviously, my junior year was kind of heartbreaking, because I felt like I worked really hard," she said. "After I got over it, it was kind of the best motivation I ever had. I was at a point where I didn't know if I would be able to keep playing, play in college, but I looked at it as an opportunity to show [McDonogh coach] Chris Robinson the next year that I could be a really good player for him and make a huge difference."
A year later, Pepperman was an All-Metro defender. Now a senior at Maryland, she's a unanimous All-Big Ten Conference defender.
Pepperman, who spent her freshman year at Louisville before realizing she wanted to be closer to home, fit perfectly into a Terps defense built on speedy, athletic players who work well together.
Along with Megan Douty, Shanna Brady, Alice Mercer (Century), Nadine Hadnagy and goalie Alex Fitzpatrick, Maryland has held opponents to 7.24 goals per game, the fifth-best scoring defense in Division I and the best among the NCAA semifinalists.
The Terps (20-1) don't do anything fancy or trendy. They just play a basic man-to-man help defense that relies on quick feet and quick slides.
"They're just really talented overall," said Syracuse attacker Kayla Treanor, whose team averaged 28 shots entering Friday's 10-8 semifinal loss to Maryland, in which the Orange managed just 16. "They slide pretty early, they communicate well and they're just good athletes."
To former Terps All-America defender Courtney Connor, it's that simple.
"I'm a huge fan of just your basic, straight-up 'D,' because I don't think it's done enough," said Connor, a women's lacrosse analyst for ESPN and the Big Ten Network.
"I think other teams play other styles of defense when they don't have strong one-on-one defenders, players with good body position and discipline. I think you're able to stop a lot with it as long as you stay disciplined. For the whole team — not just the four defensive players, but even the middies — playing solid one-one-one 'D,' not swinging and sliding early is the key."
It takes time to develop the chemistry necessary to play that way, and the Terps have honed their defense this spring with every line defender back from last season.
"We joke around that we can read each other's minds," Pepperman said with a laugh. "We have each other's backs and communicate on the slides. [Assistant coach Lauri] Kenis really emphasizes not doing anything tricky and just playing solid, basic defense. As opposed to making the plays happen, we wait for the other team to make a mistake and really capitalize on that."
Douty, a senior and 2014 Tewaaraton Award finalist, said speed throughout the unit is especially important for its style of play.
"We send help when they enter the 8[-meter arc] and we crash, and we have the speed and athletic ability to get back and recover," Douty said. "We don't try to do anything too fancy to create 50-50 balls or caused turnovers, but we do manage, with our athletic ability, to get back, and that can cause some turnovers."
Maryland's 7.2 caused turnovers per game don't rank among the top 50 in Division I, but its opponents turn the ball over almost 12 times per game.
When players do make it through the defense, Fitzpatrick can turn critical stops into game-changing moments, as she did in the semifinal against Syracuse. She made all four of her saves in the middle of the second half as the Orange attempted to rally from two goals down at halftime. Her saves sparked three straight Terps goals and the team's biggest lead of the game, 10-6, with 19 minutes left.
After graduating last spring from Lehigh, where she had a 50 percent save rate en route to first-team All-Patriot League honors in 2014, Fitzpatrick realized during her first job interview that she wasn't ready for the working world.
Choosing to go to graduate school instead, she had a year of eligibility left after redshirting in 2012 with a torn ACL. "Small-world connections," she said, brought her to Maryland coach Cathy Reese's attention, and she has allowed just 6.91 goals per game this spring, fourth best in Division I.
"Alex has done a great job," Reese said. "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."
Fitzpatrick, who has a .464 save percentage, said Maryland plays a style of defense similar to Lehigh's. She felt at home right away.
"The minute I stepped on the field, everyone accepted me and made me feel like I'd been on the team the last four years," she said. "They do a great job of playing off each other and kind of reading each others' minds in a way where they know where each other is on the field. For me, I just try to get on that wavelength as best I can and try to support them for whatever they need."
Even now, Terps defenders say their game is still a work in progress that they hope to refine in Sunday's rematch of the 2013 final, which the Tar Heels won in triple overtime. Compared with Syracuse, which ran much of its offense through Treanor and Halle Majorana (Maryland), North Carolina is extremely balanced. Ten Tar Heels scored in their 16-7 semifinal win over No. 3 seed Duke.
"We're always looking to improve and work on things we didn't do well in the last game," Pepperman said. "UNC is really balanced and just looking to go hard all over the field, no matter who has the ball. We really need to continue our emphasis on sliding and having the help to create chaos in there for them."