Maryland Women

With No. 1 Maryland leading the charge into this weekend's NCAA Division I women's tournament, here's a look at some of the numbers that stand out from the Terrapins' spectacular tournament history. The Terps are tops in these categories: championships (10), consecutive championships (seven), title-game appearances (17), years invited (26), games played (59) and games won (43). In addition, 10 years after she graduated, Jen Adams , now Loyola's coach, still holds records for most points in a game (10)

Alex Aust had seven points on four assists and three goals to lead No. 3 seed Maryland past No. 2 Duke, 12-3, in the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference women's lacrosse championship Saturday. The Terrapins (15-3) held the Blue Devils (10-6) to a tournament-record-low three goals. Katie Schwarzmann single-handedly outscored the Duke attack with four goals. Kim Wenger scored for the Blue Devils at 28:03, but Duke did not score its second goal until the 27:07 mark of the second period.

Katie Rutan, a 5-foot-8 shooting guard from Xavier, is transferring to Maryland, Terps coach Brenda Frese announced Thursday. Rutan played two seasons at Xavier, shooting nearly 40 percent from beyond the 3-point line. "Katie has a chance to bring something to our team that will fill a need — a pure shooter," Frese said. "She's the kind of player who loves to be in the gym getting shots up and always thinks she's going to make her next one. " She averaged nearly 8.0 points per game as a Musketeer and was an Atlantic-10 All-Rookie selection as a freshman.

Women make considerably less money than men in Maryland: 83 cents to the dollar, according to a study released last week. Windsor Mill resident Alison Assanah-Carroll was not surprised by the finding from the National Partnership for Women & Families, which showed that nearly a half-century after the federal Equal Pay Act was enacted, women are still paid less than men, not only in Maryland but nationwide. "It's not just a grave disparity, it's a travesty," said Assanah-Carroll, a former assistant regional census manager, who said that she earned less than her male counterparts even though she had better educational credentials and, in some cases, more experience.

There were many reasons Thursday night should have marked the end of the Maryland women's basketball team's program-record 42-game home winning streak. Maryland coach Brenda Frese's squad is young, turnover-prone and competing without its top player at full strength. That Minnesota was the foe visiting Comcast Center as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge only thickened the plot. Before Frese became an NCAA title-winning coach at Maryland, she had a one-year stay with the Golden Gophers, whom she directed to the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2002.

Since Coach Brenda Frese arrived nine years ago, Maryland has become the area's pre-eminent women's basketball team. One NCAA title, three appearances in the round of eight and a 16-5 record in the tournament validate that. Reminders of the 2006 national championship are ubiquitous at Comcast Center, from an oversized wall painting outside the team's locker room to the banner prominently displayed high above the stands. So are flags commemorating the school's many other titles and the luminaries who have played for one of the ACC's flagship programs.

The 23rd-ranked Maryland women's basketball team rolled past Massachusetts, 82-50, on Saturday afternoon in its final game of the Pirate Invitational. The Terrapins (5-1) dominated the paint, outscoring the Minutewomen (0-5) inside, 48-8. Freshman Alyssa Thomas led all scorers with 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the field for the Terps. She added seven rebounds, three assists and two steals. Sophomore Tianna Hawkins scored 14, as she was 7-for-8 from the field. The Terrapins led 11-9 with 15 minutes remaining in the first half; 20 seconds later, junior Lynetta Kizer made a layup and was fouled on the play.

Maryland is ranked No. 11 in the Associated Press preseason poll, released Saturday. The Terps have started the season ranked in each of the past seven years. Maryland will play eight games against preseason Top 25 teams, including four at home, starting with a 2 p.m. matchup Nov. 13 against No. 10 Georgetown. The Terrapins, who have four of their five starters back from last season's 24-8 team, are one of five Atlantic Coast Conference teams that are ranked. Miami begins the year at No. 7, Duke at No. 8, Florida State at No. 14 and North Carolina at No.20.

Junior Sarah Parks (Ellicott City) scored the game-winner with eight seconds left in overtime as the No. 14 Dartmouth women's lacrosse team ended No. 1 Maryland's 28-game winning-streak and dropped the Terrapins from the ranks of the unbeaten Sunday. Dartmouth (11-3, 6-1 Ivy League) had no letdown from its leagiue-championship-clinching win over Harvard Friday night, withstanding two second-half deficits to hand Maryland (18-1), the defending national champion, its first loss in more than a year.

For many women's lacrosse teams, losing their leading scorer heading toward postseason play would be devastating. For No. 1 Maryland, playing without injured All-American Karri Ellen Johnson has altered the Terrapins' style a bit, but hasn't changed the results. Johnson suffered a concussion in the Towson game on March 29. Although she finished that game, she has been sidelined ever since. Still, the defending national champions have won four games without her, running their season record to 15-0 and their winning streak to 37 games.

The No. 8 Loyola men's lacrosse team scored the final four goals to rally from a two-goal fourth-quarter deficit, defeating host No. 19 Fairfield, 8-6, on Saturday. The win clinched a spot for the Greyhounds (10-0, 4-0) in the Eastern College Athletic Conference championships, which will be held May2-4 in Denver. The Stags (9-2, 2-1) used a 5-0 run that spanned the last three quarters to go up 6-4. UMBC 11, Vermont 8: Nine Retrievers scored and UMBC (4-5, 2-0 America East)

Karri Ellen Johnson (Broadneck) scored all of her game-high five goals in the first half, and the No. 5 Maryland women's lacrosse team beat No. 20 Towson, 13-3, on Tuesday. The host Terps (10-2) scored 12 straight goals before the Tigers (6-3) put together a three-goal run over a 13-minute span in the second half. Goucher 24, Centenary 13: The host Gophers (4-6) held the previously undefeated Cyclones (7-1) to 13 goals to extend their winning streak at home to four games.

After having gone scoreless for nearly two full games, Steve Mock delivered in the biggest moment. Mock scored the tying goal with 6.2 seconds left in regulation on a feed from Chris Langton, then found Langton for the winner just over a minute into overtime as the host No. 3 Cornell men's lacrosse team beat No. 6 Denver, 9-8, Tuesday at Hofstra's James M. Shuart Stadium. The loss was the second straight for the Pioneers (4-3), who dropped a 10-9 triple-overtime game at No. 5 Notre Dame on Sunday.

Brenda Frese's 4-year-old son, Tyler, squirmed in his mother's lap Monday as they waited for word on where Maryland's women's basketball team would be seeded and whom the Terps would play in the first round of the NCAA tournament. If Tyler was impatient, so was Frese. The coach and her players have been eager all season to get back to the tournament and eclipse the memory of last season's second-round loss to Georgetown on Maryland's home court. After waiting for most of the televised selection show, the Terps (28-4)

The sixth-ranked Maryland women's basketball team survived a cardiac finish in the ACC tournament final on Sunday, getting the go-ahead basket from Anjale Barrett and a pair of pressure free throws from Alyssa Thomas down the stretch to fend off No. 15 Georgia Tech, 68-65, and become the first to claim 10 conference championships. Named ACC player of the year on Thursday and tournament MVP three days later, Thomas scored 16 of her career-high 29 points in the second half, including both ends of one-and-one foul shots with 23 seconds to play that kept third-seeded Maryland in front by four.

If there's one lesson Maryland coach Cathy Reese took out of her team's narrow loss last weekend to Duke, it was that her fourth-ranked Terrapins - who start four freshmen and lack experience on defense - can't afford to miss prime scoring chances. "We had a ton of opportunities and we needed to capitalize on them," Reese said. "We needed to step it up in this game. " Maryland did just that in a 12-9 win over No. 6 Virginia at home on Friday, scoring on seven of their nine shots in the second half.

Monica Wright hadn't forgotten her previous game against Maryland, and it wasn't because that was the game the senior guard broke Dawn Staley's all-time scoring record at Virginia. No, the reason Wright remembers that Maryland game so well is that the Cavaliers lost, and she was determined not to let it happen again. Wright turned in another explosive performance, scoring 22 of her 34 points in the second half to lead Virginia past Maryland, 82-68, on Monday night for the Cavaliers' first victory at Comcast Center since 2003.

The sixth-ranked Maryland women's basketball team survived a cardiac finish in the ACC tournament final on Sunday, getting the go-ahead basket from Anjale Barrett and a pair of pressure free throws from Alyssa Thomas down the stretch to fend off No. 15 Georgia Tech, 68-65, and become the first to claim 10 conference championships. Named ACC player of the year on Thursday and tournament MVP three days later, Thomas scored 16 of her career-high 29 points in the second half, including both ends of one-and-one foul shots with 23 seconds to play that kept third-seeded Maryland in front by four.

The eighth-ranked Maryland women's basketball team recovered from a deflating start Sunday against No. 5 Duke to complete a stirring comeback in the final minute for a 63-61 victory that was the Terps ' most satisfying win this season. An announced Comcast Center crowd of 15,150, the eighth-largest in both Atlantic Coast Conference and school history, rose for the closing moments, when Blue Devils sophomore forward Haley Peters had the ball at the left corner, her team trailing by two. Peters released a 3-point attempt, but Alyssa Thomas swooped in to block the shot at the buzzer, and Maryland celebrated its fifth win in six games and its first over a Top 10 team.

Women's college lacrosse No. 2 Maryland routs Wm. & Mary in opener The No. 2 Maryland women's lacrosse team began the 2012 season with nine unanswered goals, cruising to a 19-8 win against visiting William & Mary on Sunday. Junior Katie Schwarzmann (Century) led the way for the Terps (1-0) with five goals and also had three ground balls, two draw controls and two caused turnovers. Redshirt freshman Brooke Griffin (South River) shone in her Terps debut with four goals.