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COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Call it the Megan show.

When Maryland needed them most, senior attacker Megan Whittle and junior goalie Megan Taylor stepped up to send the Terps to their 10th straight final four with a 17-15 comeback win over Navy in the NCAA quarterfinals.

“They posed a real challenge for us today,” said Maryland coach Cathy Reese, whose team trailed by one at halftime and by three with 18:08 to play. “I’m proud of how we rebounded today. … It’s a good day to be a Terp.”

On defense, Taylor recorded 13 saves, six of which came in the second half, including at least three that were point-blank stops on wide-open Midshipmen on top of the crease. Her third save of the day marked the 500th in her career.

“Megan Taylor. I mean, come on — the second half,” Reese said. “She was outstanding with huge saves. We had a hard time stopping them at first. We had some huge saves in the second half, which enabled us to have possession and go.”

Taylor’s play in front of an All-American defense then sparked Maryland’s offense, where Whittle nearly single-handedly punched the Terps’ ticket to championship weekend.

After a scoreless first half and opening 20 minutes of the second, all three of Whittle’s goals came with 10:32 to play to knot it at 14, regain the lead four minutes later and provide one extra insurance tally in the midst of a six-goal spurt, which Taylor Hensh ignited midway through the second period. 

Taking the game into her own hands, Whittle showed why she’s this year’s Tewaaraton finalist from the reigning national champion.

“It’s my senior year,” Whittle said, regarding her motivation to break through offensively after meeting Navy’s faceguards. “As the class of 2018, that was our last game on this field. … Just letting the game come to me, personally, I didn’t want to force anything. Taylor grabbed my face and said, ‘Start shooting the ball,” and I said, “OK,” so I did.”

Whittle’s late-game heroics didn’t come without some struggles early on.

After Maryland’s four-goal lead disappeared and she was called for a charge with 7:01 left in the first half, the momentum shifted toward last year’s surprise final four team.

Thirty-eights seconds after Whittle fouled, Navy senior attacker Julia Collins, who tied her career high with eight goals, scored her 100th point of the season. Trailing by two with 6:23 to play, midfielder Jenna Collins then brought the score within one four minutes later, and her sister again scored to knot it at nine with 1:47 left in the first half.

The ensuing draw saw Maryland control the ball, but the grit of the Mids came to the forefront. Navy junior midfielder Andie O’Sullivan scooped up the loose ball on defense in a short-lived Terps possession and then found the back of the net with 42.7 seconds remaining to take the 10-9 lead heading into halftime.

“They’re Navy,” Taylor said. “They’re going to go hard. … At one point, we were like, 'Bring it.' It was almost a chip on our shoulders.”

The Mids extended their lead to three with consecutive scores to open the second half. Each team then exchanged two more goals apiece to make it 14-11 with under 20 minutes remaining, after which Maryland exploded for its six-goal run.

But three yellow cards in the final 4:11 plagued Navy, who had seven total in the game.

“We had some unfortunate and mistimed cards that allowed them to break through in the end, and Meg [Whittle] would be one of those players to do that,” Navy coach Cindy Timchal said.

However, Whittle wasn’t the only star of the show.

When she was silenced in the first half, seven different Terps scored, featuring two each from junior midfielder Jen Giles and sophomore attacker Kali Hartshorn. Giles finished with a team-high seven points on four goals and three assists, while Hartshorn added a team-best 10 draw controls.

Senior defender Kathy Rudkin also played a key role in the second half as Maryland decided to faceguard Julia Collins after six of her eight goals came in the first period.

Thanks to a balanced effort across the field, the Terps held on for a return trip to the final four, trouncing Navy’s hopes of upsetting the reigning national champion for a second straight year. Last year, the Mids upset 2016 NCAA champion North Carolina in the quarterfinals for its storybook Cinderella season.

“We were in a position to do well today, but we came up short,” Timchal said. “Coming up short is not what we aspire to. … Our goal is to win a national championship, so we came up short. It’s where we want to be. I’ve always said it doesn’t serve the world to have a great Navy lacrosse program and not be great. That’s our goal – to be great.”

Maryland now turns to face fourth-seeded Boston College on Friday in a rematch of the 2017 NCAA championship, which the Terps won 16-13.