After entering Saturday’s regular season finale on a two-game winning streak, Ohio State’s women’s lacrosse team wasn’t able to extend their winning run, falling to Maryland 13-9. Now the Buckeyes enter the Big Ten Tournament having posted a 9-7 record on the season, going 3-5 in Big Ten games.
Ohio State won’t have to wait long to gain some revenge on Maryland for Saturday’s loss, as they’ll play the Terrapins today in Ann Arbor.
The Buckeyes came out of the gates firing in Saturday’s showdown with
the third-ranked team in the country, as Kate Tyack gave Ohio State an early 1-0 lead with a goal less than three minutes into the first quarter.
Maryland would respond six minutes later to tie up the score, but the deadlock wouldn’t last long. Camryn Callaghan and Annie Hargraves netted goals to push Ohio State’s lead to 3-1 at the end of the first quarter.
Once the second quarter began the wheels started to fall off for the Buckeyes.
The Terrapins reeled off five straight goals to push their lead to 6-3. Kate Tyack’s goal with 2:49 left in the half provided brief halted Maryland’s momentum before the Terrapins would score two goals in the final two minutes of the second quarter, followed by two tallies from Lauren Lapointe to open up the third quarter.
Lapointe finished the game with a team-high four goals for Maryland.
Lapointe’s goals pushed Maryland’s lead to 10-4. Ohio State would outscore the Terrapins 5-3 the rest of the way but they wouldn’t really threaten the top-five team.
Zoe Coleman, Annie Hargraves, Maeve Simonds, and Lindsey Moneymaker would find the back of the net before Kate Tyack would close out the scoring for the Buckeyes, recording the 16th hat trick of her career. Keeley Block scored the final goal of the game for Maryland, which allowed her to join Lapointe as Terrapins who recorded hat tricks in the win over the Buckeyes.
Tyack’s three goals against Maryland allowed her to finish the regular season with 40 goals and a team-high 67 points. While Tyack leads the Buckeyes in points, she enters the Big Ten Tournament four goals behind Camryn Callaghan for the team lead. Zoe Coleman and Annie Hargraves have each netted at least 20 goals this season, while Maddy Paz, Brooke Vinson, and Kampbell Stone are the other double-digit scorers for Ohio State on the season.
Prior to the game against Ohio State on Saturday, Maryland had been struggling. The Terrapins had lost two games in a row, which were their first two losses on the season. Even with the win over the Buckeyes, Maryland fell one spot in the rankings and now ranked fourth in the country heading into the quarterfinal matchup with Ohio State.
Along with seeking their first conference tournament title since 2022, the Terrapins are on the hunt for their 15th national championship, which would be their first since 2019.
As Ohio State found out on Saturday, Maryland has one of the best offensive attacks in the country, as they outscored their opponents 215-157 during the regular season. With four goals against Ohio State, Lauren Lapointe pushed her season total to 54 goals.
Three other Terrapins have scored at least 30 goals this season. Kori Edmondson ranks second on the time with 36 goals, followed by Kristen Shanahan’s 34 goals, and Keeley Block’s third goal against the Buckeyes on Saturday gave her 30 goals on the year.
Minding the net for Maryland for the majority of the season has been JJ Suriano. The junior has started all 16 games for the Terrapins, posting a 14-2 record with a 9.75 goals against average, along with a .520 save percentage.
Starting opposite Suriano for Ohio State will likely be Jocelyn Torres, who is 7-7 on the year with a 10.43 goals against average, and a .402 save percentage.
Today’s game in Ann Arbor is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET and can be seen on B1G+. The winner of the tilt between the Buckeyes and Terrapins will move on to the semifinals on Friday to battle the winner of the quarterfinal game between Johns Hopkins and Rutgers, will will take place after the Ohio State/Maryland game.
