The Sunday Slide: April 7, 2024

Maryland hasn’t been the same since its 2019 national championship. I think we can all agree on that.

I think we can also all agree that Maryland is still pretty much Maryland. Staying on top for as long as Maryland did is next to impossible. Maintaining that level of excellence is incredible. And, let’s all be real for a second — the Terps spent a week at No. 1 this year, even if this isn’t the same traditionally strong Terps teams that the Maryland faithful had grown to love a decade ago.

All of this is to say that even during its “down” years — and “down” is very much a relative term here — Maryland protected its home turf. Until Saturday, Maryland hadn’t lost a single conference game at home in the Cathy Reese era.

That spans 18 years. Even the good teams — like, the good good teams — lose games. At home, on the road, at a neutral site. They lose games anywhere. But Maryland truly has a home field advantage in College Park, one that was even sustained while the Plex was being renovated and the Terps had to play in SECU Stadium.

Northwestern was simply too much to handle in a 17-9 win, and if anyone was going to break the streak, the defending national champ with the defending Tewaaraton Award winner seemed like a safe bet.

All good things must come to an end. But Reese is far from finished at Maryland.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

When we talk about dynamic duos in the women’s game, I’m 99-percent certain a pair from Cincinnati gets overlooked every time. Lauren Ottensmeyer and Camryn Callaghan are as tough a 1-2 to cover as you can find nationwide. They combined for nine goals and one assist in the Bearcats’ 13-11 win over Ohio State.

The Ivy League runs through … Yale. It’s funny how many times we’ve gone back and forth internally about the Ivy favorite. It first looked like Penn. Then we wondered if Princeton was back. There was a sliver of a moment in which Brown and/or Harvard looked ready to dethrone the top teams (and maybe one of them still can).

But now it’s Yale, which just dismantled Penn 16-8. The Ivy League is going to so interesting come Selection Sunday. How many bids will the conference get?

The final two minutes of the Johns Hopkins vs. Rutgers game is why no lead is safe in lacrosse. (Well, at least no reasonable lead.) Trailing by three goals after Cassidy Spilis scored her fifth of the game with 2:31 left, Hopkins managed to rip off four straight to win it.

Close games have been commonplace for these Jays. It’s perhaps a sign that Hopkins has matured enough to gut close games out. It could also be a sign that Hopkins inconsistently plays full 60-minute contests. Either way, there’s a ton of potential in this team.

It’s a shame that three high-profile injuries could come to define North Carolina’s 2024 season. The Tar Heels’ postseason story is still yet to be written. At the very least, those injuries will define the inconsistent regular season. But with injury comes opportunity, and Alyssa Long has taken the opportunity in stride.

Long is an exciting player to watch and one of my personal favorites to watch celebrate a goal. She was very good last year and might have been in line for something of a breakout anyway, but she’s had no choice but to step up this spring. It’s been fun to watch.

So much what’s going right for Harvard starts on offense, where Riley Campbell is having a career-best season. She already has 42 goals (a career high), and she’s three assists off tying her career-best mark from last year. Her shooting efficiency is incredible. It made me check back at my notes. She’s shooting 60.9 percent and 84.1 percent on goal. That’s just remarkable.

FUN WITH NUMBERS

0 • Undefeated teams left after Yale lost on Wednesday to Boston College.

6, 1 • Identical lines of six goals and one assist for both Izzy Scane and Madison Taylor in Northwestern’s 17-9 win over Maryland.

12 • Wins in a row for the Gators, who are in for an AAC rivalry game on Saturday against James Madison.

148 • Wins for Christine Halfpenny at Notre Dame, surpassing former Irish coach Tracy Coyne for most in program history.

200 • Wins at Stony Brook for Joe Spallina, who is 200-39 in his 13 seasons with the Seawolves.