The Wildcats have a knack for close games. On Friday night, Northwestern ended the first half, knotted in a 5-5 tie with North Carolina, and ended up edging the Tar Heels 11-10 with a last-second goal. On Sunday, the Cats enter halftime once again deadlocked, this time in a 5-5 tie with Maryland.
After freshman Kara Mupo scored the first goal of the game, the Terrapins reeled off four consecutive goals to take an early 4-1 lead. Three of those goals came off the stick of Maryland midfielder BethGlaros.
NU scored four of the last five goals of the half to force the halftime tie, however. Two of those goals were scored by junior attacker Shannon Smith, and she has now 16 in the first 210 minutes of this tournament.
Maryland still led 5-4 heading into the final seconds of the half, but Smith managed to make something out of nothing as the seconds ticked off the clock. Her repeated attempts to come out from behind the net netted nothing, so she passed it to junior midfielder Jessica Russo who took a hard shot from 15 yards out to tie the contest at five.
This is only the third time all season that Maryland hasn’t led at halftime.
