Women's Lacrosse ACCtion: Saturday, February 28

Feb. 28, 2009

No. 5 Terps Women's Lacrosse Tops No. 2 Duke, 15-13

After falling to Duke in two of its mere three losses last season, the No. 5 Maryland women's lacrosse team got a little redemption Saturday, downing the second-ranked Blue Devils, 15-13, in ACC action at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex.

Maryland (3-0, 1-0 ACC) immediately benefited from regaining the services of sophomore Laura Merrifield, who has been sidelined with an injury the first two contests of the 2009 season. The attacker scored one of her career-high five goals to tie the game at 1-1 after Caroline Cryer put Duke on the board with 30 seconds elapsed in the game.

Duke was able to put up two more scores before Maryland went on one of its two four-goal runs courtesy of scores from Karri Ellen Johnson, Brittany Jones, and a pair from Amanda Spinnenweber. Duke responded with goals from Sarah Bullard and Cryer to put the score even at 5-5 before Merrifield picked up her second score off an assist from behind the goal from Sarah Mollison to allow the Terps to momentarily regain the lead.

Duke (4-1, 0-1 ACC) answered with its biggest scoring run of the game with two goals from Cryer and another from Davis to give the Blue Devils an 8-6 lead with 1:30 left in the half. The Terps were able to spark its offense heading into the locker room with another goal from Mollison to Merrifield and a final score with 19 seconds remaining as Brandi Jones won the draw control and marched all the way down the field for the goal, tying the game at 8-8.

Hokies pick up first win against Patriots

The Virginia Tech women’s lacrosse team earned its first victory of the season, 10-8, against George Mason on a rain-soaked Saturday afternoon at Thompson Field. The Hokies are now 1-4 (0-1 ACC) on the season. George Mason falls to 0-2 with the loss.

The match started out as a defensive battle with steady rain proving to be a difficult obstacle for both squads. The Patriots broke the 0-0 stalemate after seven minutes of play to take the 1-0 lead.

Virginia Tech’s Caitlyn Wier (So., Cockeysville, Md. ) evened the score three minutes later with her second goal of the season. The two teams continued to battle and Morgan Widlake (Fr., Catonsville, Md.) pulled through for the Hokies with her first career goal to hand Tech the 2-1 advantage with 7:24 left in the opening half.