With less than four minutes left in the contest, the No. 3 Maryland women’s lacrosse clung to a one-goal lead over No. 21 Penn State after Rocquette Allen snuck a shot top shelf for her fifth goal of the game.
But as Penn State charged down the field with under a minute to go, Jordyn Lipkin forced a crucial turnover, poking the ball loose from Lilly Spilker’s stick. Maddy Sterling then scooped up the ground ball, winding down the clock to save Maryland’s undefeated 2026 campaign.
“We know how to play
defense. We played it for 59 full minutes of the game,” said Sterling. “Our attackers do a great job re-defending, and Jordan did a great job. She got there, and I saw the ball, and I was like, this is perfect. Let’s go.”
In its tightest conference bout yet, Maryland fought all the way to the end, maintaining a narrow lead over Penn State to secure a 14-13 victory in SECU Stadium.
Maryland’s shot diet had a very different look early on. Penn State’s backline pressed up to the edge of the fan, forcing a number of shots from distance. While a snipe from Kori Edmondson gave the Terps an early lead, three errant shots allowed the Nittany Lions to gain possession and take an early one-goal lead.
In the eighth minute of play, a brilliant move from Jordyn Lipkin left her wide open in front of the crease. The attacker received a pass from Kristen Shanahan and snuck the ball five-hole to tie the game.
Lipkin was the only repeat scorer in the opening 20 minutes, as four different Terps tallied the opening five goals.
Head coach Cathy Reese has heavily relied on Edmondson to make her presence known throughout the field. When the senior received a green card with 12 minutes left in the half, Kelly MacKinney took advantage of her absence, scoring less than a minute later.
But just 44 seconds later, Edmondson charged into the arc and delivered a dart to extend Maryland’s lead back to two.
The Terps’ defense couldn’t hit its usual first-half level, allowing 6 goals through the first two frames. Coming into Sunday, Maryland hadn’t allowed more than five first-half scores since its game against Princeton in late February.
For the second game in a row, Lauren LaPointe led the Terps with four goals going into halftime — she scored all four in the second quarter. The junior only missed one shot the entire frame, also recording a turnover on a re-defend opportunity.
Coming out for the third quarter, No. 3 Maryland women’s lacrosse held a three-goal lead over No. 21 Penn State. But after back-to-back goals from MacKinney and Payton Wainman, their lead looked extremely vulnerable.
But following that, an unmarked Shanahan received a pass from LaPointe, drove into the 8-meter and faked a shot before delivering a low blow to regain a two-goal cushion with nine minutes left in the quarter. Erika Ho and Keeley Block then traded blows to preserve the deficit.
Maryland outshot the Nittany Lions consistently throughout the matchup, largely because of the Terps’ unconventional man-to-man defense significantly limiting shot chances. However, Penn State picked its chances well, shooting 77% of its chances on goal.
This severely hindered JJ Suriano in the cage, who recorded a .350 save percentage with just seven saves — considerably lower than her 13-save performance the week before.
Maryland’s saving grace on defense came in the form of ground balls, an area which has given it trouble all season. The Terps came into Sunday averaging 13 ground balls per game but beat that mark by two; the Nittany Lions only corralled eight.
Kayla Gilmore was beaten 4-3 on draw controls in the first quarter but later regained her composure. The sophomore faceoff specialist came alive in the final 45 minutes as Maryland secured 16-of-22 draw controls during that period.
Three things to know
1. Top of the mountain. With its win on Sunday, Maryland stands alone as the only undefeated team left in Division 1 lacrosse. This will likely cause a shuffle in IWLCA ranking on Monday, after Stanford and North Carolina both dropped games in the past week.
2. Suriano’s slow day. Maryland’s defense gave up its second-highest goal total today, its most since a non-conference game against St. Josephs. Reese remained committed to her star goalkeeper throughout the contest and is confident she will return to form against Rutgers.
“She’ll rebound. We’ll be ready for her to go on Saturday…,” Reese said. “We’ll play some even better defense in front of her and try to limit our cards so we’re not sitting in the penalty box and not playing man down defense two games in a row.”
3. A win is a win. While the close game was not her first choice of outcome, Reese expressed pride in her team’s resilience throughout the contest.
