PISCATAWAY, N.J. — At a morning shootaround on May 1, several hours before her top-ranked team was set to play Ohio State in the semifinals of the inaugural Big Ten women’s lacrosse championship, Maryland Coach Cathy Reese chatted with Kara Lentz, a Big Ten Network broadcaster. Lentz said she would interview Reese that night at halftime if Maryland were ahead or if the game were tied.
Reese shrugged.
“If I’m losing,” she said, “no one wants to talk to me.”
The comment was, in retrospect, prophetic: Although Maryland entered halftime ahead at Rutgers’s High Point Solutions Stadium, the Buckeyes roared back in the second half, turning a 7-4 deficit into an 11-8 lead, and eventually held on to win, 11-10.