Todd Carton–Recap of Maryland’s 10-8 Win and Further Analysis of the Greatness of Taylor Cummings
Athletics can sometimes be a cruel endeavor.
Two teams took the field at the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex in College Park Wednesday night. The home team was undefeated and ranked first in the land while the visitors carried an 8-5 record into the game and had lost twice in double overtime.
The visitors had an outstanding game plan and executed it to near perfection for 38 minutes. The visitors played inspired, aggressive lacrosse from the opening draw while the home team often looked listless and uncertain.
Two teams left the field at the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex in College Park Wednesday night. The home team was still undefeated and the visitors had fallen to 8-6.
Maryland won the opening draw but quickly turned the ball over and the strategy of the visiting Johns Hopkins Blue Jays became apparent. On each possession, they would hold the ball for an extended time and work patiently for a good shot. After some uninspired play from both squads, the Blue Jays were rewarded with a 1-0 lead. Maryland soon tied the score on a goal by Megan Whittle.
The teams traded a pair of goals with Hopkins jumping ahead and Maryland gaining the equalizers to knot the score at three but JHU closed the half on a 3-0 run and, for the first time this season, Maryland trailed at halftime.
It took nearly six minutes but Maryland scored first in the second half to cut the deficit to 6-4. Hopkins answered quickly and the Terps again trailed by three. Then talent began to take over. Taylor Cummings started dominating the draw, the Terps attacked aggressively on both ends of the field and goalie Megan Taylor made several outstanding saves. They needed five minutes but with just over 17 minutes to play, Maryland had tied the score.
Once again though, JHU answered and edged back in front with 13 minutes to play. Trailing 8-7, Kacie Longo, Taylor Hensh and, on her only score of the night with 2:59 to play, Taylor Cummings took the Terrapins on a three goal run that sealed Maryland’s eleventh win of the season.
Sometimes, talent and athleticism trumps effort and passion and sometimes, athletics can be a cruel endeavor.
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Tuesday afternoon, the B1G announced its Players of the Week Awards for men’s and women’s lacrosse. For the second time this season, Maryland’s Greg Danseglio was named the conference Defensive Player of the Week. On the women’s side, the Terps’ Taylor Cummings swept the honors for Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week the first time this had been accomplished in the short history of B1G women’s lacrosse.
In Maryland’s two wins last week 17-4 over conference rival Northwestern and 17-9 over previously unbeaten Cornell, the Offensive Cummings scored eight goals and added three assists. In the critical part of the game that’s neither strictly offense nor defense, Maryland’s star midfielder gathered up 16 draw controls. Meanwhile, the Defensive Cummings totaled nine ground balls and seven caused turnovers. To put this in some perspective, her two game total of nine ground balls would be ninth best on the team through their first ten games and only four teammates would have more than her seven caused turnovers.
Here’s some additional perspective on how Taylor Cummings dominates the game (stats are before Wednesday’s win over Johns Hopkins):
I looked at the WLAX stats on NCAA.com. For some reason they don’t have the stat for ground balls per game so I looked at the per game average lists for goals, draw controls and caused turnovers. Here are the players who are in the top 30 on any two of those lists:
Loren Day – Campbell (gpg 1st, dc 28th)
Michaela Michael – USC (gpg 3rd, dc 9th)
Madison Cyr – Penn State (gpg 22nd, ct 13th)
Courtney Fortunato – Notre Dame (gpg 26th, ct 20th)
Caitlin Delaney – Sacred Heart (gpg 27th, ct 3rd)
Here’s the list of player in the top 30 for all three stats:
Taylor Cummings – Maryland (gpg 28th, dc 7th, ct 4th)
I think if I could add ground balls Cummings would likely be in the top ten there. I looked at Barbara Sullivan’s ground ball stats. (She’s a defender for Notre Dame who was a Tewaaraton finalist last year.) She averages 2.85 per game. On the rest of the top six teams, Marie McCool leads UNC at 2.5, no one for Syracuse or Louisville averages over 2 and USC has one player who is right at two. Cummings is at 3.1.
