Penn women’s lacrosse knows that Maryland has faster players.
So, as the Quakers (4-3) travel down to College Park, Md., to take on the top-ranked Terrapins (12-0) on Saturday, it’s clear to Penn what must be done.
“We have to play a clean game for 60 minutes,” coach Karin Brower Corbett said. “We’ve spent this week of practice focusing on that.”
The Quakers know that the cards are stacked against them, as the Terrapins haven’t lost at College Park since last March.
While Maryland served as a daunting foe for the Red and Blue, Penn won’t be shell-shocked.
“I don’t think the team gets intimidated,” Corbett said. “I think they get excited to play good teams. It’s an opportunity to see how you do, how you stack up.”
The Quakers have a good reason to be riding high themselves, having won their last four games. In that time, the offense has appeared to right its scoring ship after struggling at first to start the season.
“We definitely have a lot more confidence in ourselves,” senior attack Caroline Bunting said. “Our attack is clicking a lot more. Obviously, coming off of wins, ones where we’ve had to battle back gives us a lot of confidence that we can battle against these top 10 teams.”
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In each game during the win streak, a different group of players has stepped up in crunch time, and last weekend against Cornell was no different.
Senior midfield Meredith Cain notched a hat trick, while junior midfield Shannon Mangini scored five goals, including the game-winner in overtime.
Despite the roll that the offense seems to be on, there are still signs of trouble — namely, turnovers.
“This week of practice has been eye-opening,” Bunting said. “We’ve had to confront a lot of our errors.”
In each of the last two contests, the Quakers have jumped out to big leads only to allow their opponents to climb back into the game after taking their feet off the gas and making poor decisions on the field.
“We’ve thrown away leads,” Corbett said. “And we’ve had great first halves and then we’ve just thrown it away ourselves.”
Of the 162 turnovers that opponents have had against Maryland, the Terrapins forced 99 of them. They have seven players with 10 or more goals, compared to the Quakers’ two.
“We’ve been going over communication on fast breaks, because Maryland is one of the best fastbreak teams in the country,” Corbett said. “If we turn the ball over, we’re going to find ourselves in a lot of fastbreaks.”
In the last two games, the Red and Blue have had a combined 35 turnovers. Penn’s season average is 13.1.
If the Quakers expect to keep the game close, they’ll have to play clean.
“I have no doubt I’ll get 60 minutes of effort from my team,” Corbett said. “But I really hope they can play cleaner and understand the importance of taking care of the ball.”
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