Caroline Steele is in the record books at Maryland, but there’s one thing that can’t be measured.

No one in program history has balanced fun and work better.

“Every time she steps on the field, she steps on the field to compete,” Maryland coach Cathy Reese said. “She puts her whole heart into everything that she does. She has great stick skills, shooting ability and offensive awareness. She steps on the field, and she’s a lot of fun to watch and a lot of fun to coach.”

Off the field, Steele has kept teammates and friends rolling with laughter. She and her best friend, Maryland goalie Megan Taylor, have a hard time doing anything but laughing when they’re together. They filmed short videos together throughout the season under the direction of sports information representative Ben Kessler. Their “finale” ended with them slamming plates of pudding in each other’s faces following a blindfolded tasting contest.

“Random people come up and ask for more videos,” Steele said. “Meg and I would go out there and try to have fun, and Ben would come up with some great ideas. We just had a good time.”

You're gonna want to watch this one!

Thumbs Up! | Episode Seven

Caroline and Megan take on a blindfolded food taste test in "Taste Buds" pic.twitter.com/RdTyXFvM5c

— Maryland Women's Lacrosse (@MarylandWLax) May 15, 2019

The fun continues in practice and games for Steele, and even when she returns to her campus house.

“I live with seven of the funniest people ever, so that’s always a good time going home and having some good laughs,” Steele said. “This year, Megan Taylor, if she got above a 50-percent save percentage in a game, we got to get ice cream. She’s obviously killing it, and we’ve probably gotten ice cream every other week, so that’s pretty nice.”

Steele has been killing it too. She became the seventh player in program history with 200 career goals in the midst of a career-high seven-goal barrage in Maryland’s 17-8 win over Denver in the NCAA quarterfinals last Saturday. The top-seeded Terps improved to 21-1 and advanced to the NCAA semifinals. They will play Northwestern at Johns Hopkins’s Homewood Field on Friday (7:30 p.m., ESPN3). The teams split their first two meetings, with Maryland winning at Northwestern 17-13 on April 11 and Northwestern winning, 16-11 in the Big Ten Tournament championship May 5 — also at Homewood.

“I’m pretty excited,” Steele said. “Northwestern’s a great team, and they obviously gave us a great game last time. The entire team is excited to get back after it and get another chance to play them and, from the first whistle, play our game.”

Steele showed early against Denver that her biggest concern was extending Maryland’s final four streak to 11 to set up a grudge match with Northwestern. In the first half alone against Denver, she had four goals, one assist, a career-high five ground balls and two caused turnovers.

“Definitely just making sure that we punched our ticket to Hopkins for this weekend,” Steele said.

Steele has been making the most of her final games for Maryland. She is tied with Erica Evans for a team-leading five game-winning goals and sits third on the team in goals (49) and points (64) despite missing four games due to injury. She’s one of the stars of a senior class that has lost only four games in their careers and are going for their second national title.

“The senior year as a whole, it’ll never hit me until it’s over,” Steele said. “But looking back on the great times, all the friendships that I’ve made, all the people that I’ve been touched by through this program and through lacrosse, it’s just crazy that my four years have flown by so quickly and that the little amount of lacrosse that I have left to play with my best friends is mind-blowing. I don’t think I’ll be able to fathom it until it’s over.”

Maryland remembers how appropriately Steele’s career began. She flipped in her first career goal on a fun behind-the-back shot four minutes into her college debut against William and Mary on Valentine’s Day 2016.

“I think her personality definitely comes out when she is on the field,” Reese said. “She’s fun, she’s got a lot of spunk, she has the ability to create a spark. And that’s her personality as well when she goes out. She’s being creative, she’s got a really good stick, some really cool abilities as a stick handler to do different things, but that’s because she works on it. She loves to have a stick in her hand, and she loves to compete. You put those two together, and she’s a really good attacker because of that.”

“This is our last go-around, so sell out and enjoy our last moments together.”

Steele’s demeanor at Maryland resembles a lot what it looked like growing up in Severna Park, Md. She’s the fourth of five children and the only daughter of John and Gretchen, who played for Maryland’s women’s team in the early 1980s. Her mother coached her, and her brothers helped groom her into a tough attacker.

“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Steele said. “Growing up, especially lacrosse-wise, I was thrown in the goal and pelted. I was kind of that dummy. My mom would have to step in and say, ‘No more shooting on your sister.’ That definitely made me a tough player.

“We’ve had so many good times together. They’re hilarious, so they’ve rubbed off on me. That’s part of the reason I want to go out to California after graduation, is to be with them and in an awesome place. I’m very close to my brothers.”

Steele was carving up defenses while smiling and even giggling during rec games as a young girl. It was the same in club lacrosse, and again as she set records at Severn School before coming to Maryland and putting together quite a career.

“Our senior class, it’s our last go-around,” Steele said. “We want to enjoy these little moments and enjoy every single day we have out on the field with each other and recognize that our time is coming to an end. It’s all going to end eventually and this is our last go-around, so sell out and enjoy our last moments together.”

Steele has had big games in both meetings with Northwestern this year. She had six points in the first game and five points in the Big Ten title game, but the latter came in Maryland’s only loss this year.

“Winning and trying to learn from our wins is one thing, but losing makes you take a step back and it does expose some of your flaws and makes you focus on areas that clearly didn’t work,” Steele said. “Last game, we were really stagnant on offense. We stood a lot, we didn’t cut for each other, we weren’t working for each other all over the field, defensively or offensively. Since then, we’ve focused on moving and never stopping off the ball and working for each other and getting those cuts open, and when one person dodges, we’re not just standing and watching. Being more of a dynamic offense with everyone moving is still our main focus. We’ve done well since that game, and we continue to work on that.”

Steele is making sure that she and the Terrapins are ready to work when the final four gets underway, then they can have fun in the end.

“Having that sophomore year win, you can’t even put it into words until you’ve really experienced winning a national championship,” Steele said. “Ever since that day, we’ve been chasing another one. We’ve been really working towards that feeling again. Ending my career like that would be a dream come true. Our entire senior class, we want to win Friday and we want to win Sunday. There’s no doubt about it, it’s a feeling that’s incredible and you can’t even put it into words. I would love to have that again. I would love to end my career that way.”