COLLEGE PARK — Hannah Leubecker’s stick remains hot, and that was good news for Maryland women’s lacrosse.
Leubecker’s six goals represented nearly half of the No. 2 Terps’ output in a 13-8 victory over visiting Rutgers Sunday afternoon before an announced 1,179 at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex.
In her last three starts, Leubecker has scored 14 goals on 22 shots, which has coincided with a six-game winning streak for Maryland (9-1, 2-0 Big Ten). But the Forest Hill native shrugged off the notion that she was the offense’s most dangerous threat even when the Scarlet Knights began to double-team her in the fourth quarter.
“It wasn’t just me. We’re a unit out there,” she said. “So for one person to be open, everybody has to be working. That was the problem we were having in those quarters when we weren’t generating as many shots. We were really individual. So I just happened to have the opportunities to stick it, which I’m thankful for, but credit goes to the team.”
Leubecker, who also had an assist, scored the last two goals to cap a 6-1 run in the first quarter for the Terps. After Rutgers went on a 5-3 burst spanning the second and third periods to draw within three, Leubecker scored three consecutive goals in a 6:38 span to give Maryland a 12-8 advantage midway through the fourth quarter.
“She’s got that next gear, that lightning speed that really catches you off guard,” Scarlet Knights coach Melissa Lehman said. “And she’s great coming out of transition.”
Leubecker’s recent outburst isn’t even the most productive of her career. As a sophomore in 2021, she racked up 16 goals in three straight victories over Johns Hopkins and Ohio State (twice).
Coach Cathy Reese said Leubecker is hitting her stride.
“We’ve had some games this season where she was 1-for-10 shooting. But we know what she’s capable of,” she said. “So I think we saw her at a whole other level today. … She’s such a threat, she’s so dangerous, she’s such a great dodger, and today, she finished all of the opportunities she had, which led our team to victory.”
In addition to Leubecker, senior attacker Eloise Clevenger (Marriotts Ridge) amassed four assists, graduate student attacker Libby May (Hereford) scored three goals, and sophomore midfielder Kori Edmondson (McDonogh) scored twice.
After freshman midfielder Payton Tini scored with 13:48 left in the fourth quarter, Rutgers did not find the net for the rest of the game. Graduate student goalkeeper Emily Sterling (John Carroll) finished with eight saves, and the Terps withstood a five-goal barrage by graduate student midfielder Cassidy Spilis.
“I think we just put an emphasis on getting those middle balls, staying tighter on cutters,” said redshirt sophomore defender Kennedy Major, a Hampstead resident and Gerstell graduate. “I think when you’re playing alongside [graduate student] Meghan Ball and [junior] Sophie Halus who were marked up on [Spilis] in the middle every time, it just makes everything a lot easier going around and just shifting defensively. I think [it was] just shutting off those cutters with Meg and Soph and Em coming up with great stops.”
Speaking of Ball, Sunday’s game was her first against the Scarlet Knights since transferring to Maryland in the offseason. Ball collected four draw controls, caused two turnovers, scooped up a ground ball and was hugged warmly by several former teammates after the game.
How Ball — who left Rutgers as the all-time leader in draw controls (308) and caused turnovers (154) and was named the Big Ten Defender of the Year and a first-team All-American last spring — felt afterward will remain a mystery because she was not made available for an interview, and Reese cut off a question to Major about whether the game was meaningful for Ball.
“I’ll answer it,” Reese said. “We came out, and we approach it like all of our kids that have transferred in. We play against good teams. We played against Hopkins [when Aurora Cordingley was with the Terps in 2022], Abby Bosco played against Penn [in 2023]. This was an opportunity to respect your other opponents and your teammates and your friends, and we just needed to step out and step up and support each other all over the field. Great win for Meghan, great win for the Terps.”
Lehman didn’t elaborate quite as much when asked about her former player. “It was good to see her play great again, but I was really focused on the Rutgers team,” she said.
A tough schedule awaits Maryland, which ends the season with five ranked opponents in its last six games. The next four games involve No. 15 Penn (7-1) on Wednesday, No. 3 Michigan (11-0) on Saturday, No. 1 Northwestern (8-2) on April 6, and No. 10 Johns Hopkins (8-3) on April 10.
The Terps figure to move to the top spot in Monday’s Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association poll after the reigning NCAA champion Wildcats were upset Friday by Penn State, 14-13. Maryland hasn’t occupied the No. 1 ranking in the IWLCA poll since the 2020 preseason poll.
As well as the Terps have played, there remain areas to address. On Sunday, the offense did not score a goal in the second quarter — the team’s third consecutive game with a goal-less quarter — and went 19:54 without a goal.
“I’m proud of where we are,” Reese said. “We have a lot of room to grow, which makes me excited. … We’re sitting at 9-1, and we have room to grow. So that’s going to be our job as coaches and as a team, just continuing to get better, focusing on the details.”
No. 15 UPenn at No. 2 Maryland
Wednesday, 6 p.m.
TV: Big Ten Network
