On Sunday, Mar. 13, the Villanova women’s lacrosse traveled to College Park, Maryland, to face the University of Maryland. The No. 4 Terrapins defeated the Wildcats, 17-9, dropping Villanova’s record to 2-6 overall. 

Coming off of a 14-3 victory over La Salle on Wednesday, the Wildcats were looking to keep this momentum going since the three goals that La Salle scored were the fewest Villanova has allowed in a game since 2011. However, the Wildcats had to wait a day as both teams agreed to move the game from Saturday to Sunday due to inclement weather. 

The leading scorer for the Wildcats was senior midfielder Caroline Curnal, who had a hat trick. The leading scorers for the Terrapins were Aurora Cordingley with six, Grace Griffin with four and Hannah Leubecker with three. 

The game was moved to the Jones-Hill House, which marked the first indoor home game in program history for the undefeated Terrapins. After two minutes of the first quarter, the Terrapins secured their first goal scored by Griffin with an assist from Eloise Clevenger. Less than a minute later, Clevenger scored a goal with help from teammate Aurora Cordingley. 

As a response to the two-goal deficit, Curnal scored the Wildcats’ first goal of the game a minute later. About 50 seconds later, senior midfielder Alexa Tsahalis found a connection with freshman attacker Sydney Pappas, who got it past the Terrapin goalkeeper Emily Sterling to tie the game up at two. The Terrapins were quick to end this streak for the Wildcats as Griffin scored her second goal of the game. 

The scoring stalled for a little while, until the Terrapins ended the first quarter with two more goals. At 4:32, Clevenger secured her second goal and then, with a minute remaining, Cordingley scored her first goal of the game, ending the first quarter with a score of 5-2. 

In the second quarter, the Terrapins continued to dominate, and within the first two minutes, the Wildcats let up two more goals. Cordingley scored her second goal at 14:03 with an assist from Leubecker, who a minute later scored the second goal unassisted. 

The Wildcats tried to hang on as Curnal scored at 11:44 to keep her team within four, but that was the last goal scored by the Wildcats in the first half. 

Within 40 seconds of Curnal’s goal, Leubecker claimed her hat trick unassisted. In addition, Cordingley and Griffin also claimed their hat tricks. Cordingley scored off of an assist from Clevenger, and with 19 seconds left, Griffin was assisted by Cordingley to send the game into halftime with the score 10-3. 

In the second half, the Terrapins increased their lead. Within the first few seconds, Villanova senior attacker Olivia Piccirilli scored an unassisted goal. However, the Terrapins quickly recovered with a fourth goal by Cordingley. The game then continued to go back and forth.

Curnal gained her hat trick soon after Cordingley scored, but the Terrapins turned around and assisted Libby May in a goal. With a minute and a half to go, freshman attacker Sami Carey got an assist from Curnal, but with five seconds to go, May got another assist from Cordingley and kept the lead of seven going into the last quarter. 

At the start of the fourth quarter, the Wildcats scored first with Pappas assisting sophomore midfielder Jenna Pastore as she scored on a woman-up opportunity. This was the last goal of the game for the Wildcats.

For the Terrapins, Cordingley secured two more goals, giving her a total of six in the game. Griffin and Leubecker also added one more goal along with Victoria Hensh and Shannon Smith. 

The Wildcats will face Lafayette College on Wednesday, Mar. 16. The last time the Wildcats faced the Leopards was on Mar. 22, 2017, a game they won, 13-11. Opening draw is set for 2 p.m. in Easton at Fischer Stadium.