With Dartmouth sitting at home in Hanover, the women's lacrosse final four was raging this past weekend at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. Once againt the Maryland Terrapins walked away with the title, their eighth in a row, by virtue of a 14-13 double overtime nailbiter against the Georgetown Hoyas.
Maryland advanced to the final as a result of a 14-7 pounding of Princeton, who knocked the Big Green out of the tournament. In a rematch of last year's national final, Maryland jumped out to a 6-3 halftime lead on the back of a hat trick by Kelly Coppedge and a pair of goals by Courtney Hobbs.
Maryland then scored the first four goals of the second half to bury the Tigers in a seven-goal deficit with 19:10 to play. Hobbs completed her hat trick to open the half and Quinn Carney scored the next three.
Jen Adams would wind up with a hat trick as well as the Terps completed their 14-7 win. Maryland thoroughly dominated the draws, winning 27 of 33 en route to the victory.
Georgetown advanced by grabbing a come-from-behind 10-9 victory over Loyola. The Greyhounds led 8-4 at the half but saw the Hoyas score three times in the first six minute to close the gap.
The teams jockeyed for the lead with Georgetown's Erin Elbe scoring her second of the game to tie the score at nine with 10:27 to play. As time wound down, freshman Gloria Lozano picked up a loose ball and fired it into the net with seven seconds to play to give the Hoyas the win.
The title game saw Maryland race out to an 8-1 lead before the Hoyas battled back to a 9-6 score at the half. Maryland pushed the lead to four early in the second half, but Georgetown came right back and tied the score with 5:51 left.
Maryland's Alexis Venechanos was forced to make some big saves down the stretch to send the game into overtime. Both squads scored in the first overtime, sending the game into sudden death.
With only eight seconds remaining in the second overtime, Tori Wellington found Allison Comito wide open next to the right post and Comito slammed it in to give Maryland another championship title.
The victory also made Maryland coach Cindy Timchal the all-time winningest coach in women's lacrosse history with 268 victories, passing Pat Genovese of William Smith.
