As the Maryland field hockey team prepared for a penalty corner in the fifth minute Sunday against Connecticut, Terps fans chanted “right here, right now.”
Midfielder Kyler Greenwalt said that the last time the teams played, the 2017 national championship game, the Terps were timid in the first half, leading to them trailing for most of the 2-1 loss.
They suffered no such problems in Storrs on Sunday. Defender Bodil Keus slotted home the fifth-minute corner to put the Maryland up 1-0, and the Terps didn’t let up from there, avenging the national championship disappointment with a 4-2 win over the previously undefeated Huskies.
“I’m just proud of our entire coaching staff, our team, our team around the team,” coach Missy Meharg said. “It was a year ago that we put ourselves in a position to even play UConn at the finals … We couldn’t be more pleased.”
Maryland had an uncharacteristically poor regular season in 2017, making its national title game appearance a surprise. The No. 3 Terps have returned to their typical dominant play this season, entering Sunday one of three undefeated teams in the nation, along with No. 1 North Carolina and No. 2 UConn.
But instead of a tight game between two of the top-three teams in the nation, the Terps needed less than five minutes to get on the board and had a 4-0 lead early in the second half. The Huskies scored two goals in the final 10 minutes to make the scoreline respectable.
The defending national champions were tied for most goals per game in the country through their first 10 games but didn’t manage a single shot in the first half against Maryland (12-0).
UConn (10-1) ended with only four shots on goal in the entire matchup, while Maryland put 13 shots on goal and had 19 shots total.
“All our backs … didn’t let anybody into our circle,” defender Nike Lorenz said. “They defended really, really [well] back there. And whenever somebody in the line did make some sort of mistake, they repaired it and did a really good job.”
Keus and Lorenz scored three of the team’s four goals. Keus had a pair of goals off penalty corners in the first 15 minutes, and after forward Bibi Donraadt scored in the 25th minute, Lorenz gave the Terps even more cushion right out of halftime in the 39th minute.
Meharg said opponents expect the Terps to use the drag flick on corner chances, making Keus’ quick, sweeping shots a surprise. And, Meharg points out, scoring corners isn’t even her main role.
“Bodil is our field general, [she] is just playing so well,” Meharg said. “She’s speaking early and speaking urgently…She can make short passes, she can make medium size passes and she can make passes all the way up to the goal, and her attack point was outstanding.”
