So after the celebration, a rebuilding course of started, and now the second-seeded Terps are back in this weekend’s Final Four in Baltimore. Before returning to that summit, they needed to climate struggles in 2020 earlier than the season abruptly ended due to the coronavirus pandemic. The subsequent 12 months, the Terps exited the NCAA event in the second spherical and amassed the identical variety of losses (seven) because the earlier 5 seasons mixed.
As Maryland returns to the game’s greatest stage, a pair of fifth-year gamers, Grace Griffin and Torie Barretta, have led this group — nonetheless a staff that’s inexperienced in postseason play — and can quickly finish their Maryland careers with a wide-ranging assortment of experiences. They began their careers with a Final Four look in 2018 and a semifinal loss. Griffin, a five-year starter in the midfield, scored thrice in the 2019 nationwide championship sport. Barretta celebrated on the sideline earlier than ascending right into a beginning function in 2020, starting the stretch of two tough seasons.
Griffin has excelled as this system’s first three-time captain. Barretta, additionally a captain, hoped to contribute on the sphere and win a nationwide title, including to the championship custom that lured her to College Park. In Maryland’s tenth sport, she tore her ACL, ending her taking part in profession with the Terps. Her function modified from beginning defender to sideline energizer, and the harm added to what Barretta describes as a protracted profession with “well-rounded emotions.”
“Those two guys, gosh, they mean so much to Maryland lacrosse,” Coach Cathy Reese mentioned after the Terps gained this 12 months’s Big Ten event. “I’m going to cry even talking about it. They stuck it out. It was not easy. These past two years were not easy.”
The canceled postseason in 2020, adopted by the second-round loss, led to a collection of firsts for this 12 months’s group. Griffin and Barretta had been the one gamers on the roster who had gained the convention event earlier than Maryland lifted the trophy this month. The freshmen, sophomores and juniors hadn’t performed in an NCAA quarterfinal till they dominated seventh-seeded Florida final week. When the Terps face No. 3 seed Boston College, the defending nationwide champion, in Friday’s semifinal, 11 of Maryland’s 12 starters will likely be making their first Final Four look.
“We were such a young team in 2020 before the season ended,” Barretta mentioned. “And then 2021, we were finally starting to connect the dots and figure it all out. I felt like this season we could really execute on those connected dots.”
That’s partially why Barretta returned for this extra season. She wished to see the top of what has felt like a three-year arc back to the Final Four. Griffin, who has lived with Barretta all 5 years, knew quickly after the NCAA granted this eligibility aid she would return for an additional 12 months.
“She doesn’t want it to end,” Reese mentioned of Griffin, who has began 83 video games and scored 133 objectives as a Terp. “These guys want to keep playing as long as they can.”
During highschool, Griffin and Barretta watched the Terps have a exceptional four-year stretch that included three nationwide titles, one runner-up end and simply three losses. Initially, Griffin didn’t know whether or not she wished to play for Maryland. She wasn’t certain she was adequate, and rising up in Sykesville, about 45 minutes from College Park, she noticed many prime gamers flock to Maryland. Maybe, she thought, she would head down a unique path.
“You almost think it’s too good to be true,” Griffin mentioned. One name with Reese modified her thoughts, and Griffin remembers pondering, “If they have this much confidence in me, why wouldn’t I want to go play under them?”
Reese is aware of her younger gamers really feel the stress of wanting to hold on this system’s success, however Griffin, thrust right into a beginning function as a freshman, remembers the upperclassmen serving to her really feel comfy. Taylor, the star goalkeeper, would inform her, “You’re the best middie ever!” And fellow midfielder Jen Giles would embrace Griffin throughout video games when “we were running down the field a million times,” Griffin mentioned, as if to remind her, “we’re in this together.”
Advancing to the nationwide semifinals felt pure. The 2019 journey was Maryland’s eleventh straight Final Four look. After the two-year layoff, Griffin mentioned, “I think I definitely realize how hard it is and how much more meaningful it is now.”
Before this season, Maryland added a pair of graduate transfers in Aurora Cordingley from Johns Hopkins and Abby Bosco from Penn. The two standout gamers be a part of Griffin and Barretta as captains. Cordingley, the Big Ten attacker of the 12 months and a Tewaaraton finalist, and Bosco, the Big Ten defender of the 12 months, have added expertise to the roster however are nonetheless first-timers on the Final Four. After Bosco noticed a video of Maryland gamers celebrating the 2019 title, she mentioned: “We had the chills. We just want that to happen, and we want it so badly.”
During the 2019 nationwide title run, Barretta performed solely sparingly, however in the lopsided semifinal win over Northwestern, she entered the sport for the ultimate couple of minutes. Barretta’s household greeted her with pleasure afterward, and he or she remembers pondering how it might assist her not be as nervous subsequent time she stepped on the sphere in a Final Four sport.
That alternative by no means got here. She is as a substitute leaning on her expertise to guarantee different bench gamers that their job on the sideline issues. She has had each roles — because the underclassman scout-team participant and because the starter who advantages from the sideline encouragement.
During video games, Barretta doesn’t really feel sorry for herself. She mentioned she watches with satisfaction. It’s typically powerful to see her teammates snigger and luxuriate in practices whereas she’s off to the aspect working by bodily remedy. But she’s nonetheless glad she’s at Maryland for this fifth season as a result of the dream of one other nationwide title lives on.
“I do think, even being injured, I’m in the best place that I could be,” Barretta mentioned. “And I’m so grateful that it’s happened here instead of anywhere else.”
As Maryland returns to Homewood Field, the location of the 2019 championship, Barretta plans to carry power and a relaxed demeanor to the sideline whereas additionally supplying cool water towels to sweaty teammates. Griffin leads on the sphere, reminding the youthful gamers that they’re succesful. She’s making an attempt not to consider her dwindling time left as a Maryland participant, regardless that that actuality typically creeps into her thoughts.
But there’s a easy method for Griffin to strategy the weekend: “Not ending on a loss would be the best thing ever.”