Maryland senior attack Megan Whittle controls the ball during the Terrapins’ 20-5 win against Ohio State on April 15 at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. Credit: Ethan Clewell | Lantern Reporter
The Ohio State women’s lacrosse team could not withstand a downpour — of both rain and Maryland goals — and fell 20-5 to the Terrapins in its final home game of the season Sunday.
Maryland (14-1, 4-0 Big Ten) took an early lead with three unanswered points in the first seven minutes of the game.
It took five shot attempts before the Buckeyes (5-9, 1-4 Big Ten) scored in the first half. Junior attack McKayla Conti brought the score to 3-1 after a feed from sophomore midfield Liza Hernandez.
Hernandez closed the Terrapins lead to one goal when she scored, picking up her second point of the game with the help of junior attack Sara Dickinson.
The Terrapins then went on a 7-0 run led by Maryland sophomore attack Kali Hartshorn, who picked up six draw controls and scored two goals during the rally.
Hartshorn extended Maryland’s lead to eight with a pair of goals before the end of the first half.
Hernandez completed a hat trick with her third goal on a free-position shot after a foul by Maryland junior defender Shelby Mercer. But Terrapin junior midfield Jen Giles quickly followed up with a goal.
“For the most part I think we did a pretty decent job. We kind of hung around a little bit in that first 20 minutes of the half,” head coach Alexis Venechanos said. “I didn’t like how we cleared the ball. I thought we had some good stops and just threw the ball away.”
Ohio State senior attack Lauren Sherry closed out the half 11-4 with her fifth goal of the season.
At the start of the second half, Hernandez took advantage of a turnover by Maryland senior attack Megan Whittle and scored to cut Maryland’s lead to six. That was the final Buckeye goal of the game.
“Liza is a gutsy, phenomenal player,” Venechanos said. “She has a lot of courage to take those shots. She’s been working really hard so I’m glad she’s had a little bit of a breakout game.”
The Terrapins capped off the game with 9-0 run to put away the Buckeyes and remain undefeated in the Big Ten.
“I thought we had some opportunities we didn’t capitalize on,” Venechanos said. “I like the team’s focus [and] I like our ability to want to stick to the game plan, now we just gotta work on the execution.”
Hartshorn finished the game with 11 draw controls out of Maryland’s 18 total. Ohio State picked up nine draw controls and sophomore goalie Jill Rizzo had nine saves compared to the Terrapins’ seven.
The Buckeyes will travel to Baltimore to face Johns Hopkins in their final game of the season at 5 p.m. Friday.
