Before the Terrapins women’s soccer team’s game against William & Mary on Aug. 28, midfielder Maisie McCune received an opportunity she’d been waiting on for more than two years.
Fellow midfielder Cory Ryan broke her arm in the Terps’ previous match with Pepperdine, so coach Jonathan Morgan penciled McCune into the starting lineup as her replacement. It was the junior’s first career start, and the team went on to earn its first victory of the season in a blowout over the Tribe.
McCune started the next two games for Morgan and established herself as a fixture in the Terps’ lineup. That trend continued against No. 25 Rutgers on Friday night when McCune started her fourth straight game and scored her first goal of the season to help the Terps upend the Scarlet Knights, 2-0, for their first conference win.
And after two seasons coming off the bench, McCune is thriving as a part of the starting midfield, Morgan said.
“She has such a great spirit and energy about her,” Morgan said. “It’s been hard for her these first two years, but she has just kept working and kept working, and her game is starting to get to the point where she can not only play at this level but also have an impact on this level.”
McCune came to College Park as a part of the Terps’ 14-player class of 2012. The class included midfielders Aubrey Baker, Riley Barger and Ashley Spivey, each of whom played in at least 20 games during their freshman campaign.
With a plethora of options to fill the midfield, McCune was out of the rotation. The Bethesda native totaled just 85 minutes of playing time in four games that year while watching her fellow freshmen teammates make an impact right away.
Her sophomore season brought more of the same problems regarding playing time. That season, she made eight appearances without a start.
Halfway through her career as a Terp, McCune had scored one goal in 12 games. But she kept faith that she would eventually earn her chance, despite her lack of on-field contributions heading into her junior season.
“I looked up a lot to the older players when I was younger,” McCune said. “I always told myself that I’m going to do it and I’m going to work my way up.”
Yet when the Terps faced off with No. 1 UCLA in their season opener in late August, McCune began her third year with the program on the sideline. Instead, Baker, Barger, Sarah Fichtner and Sarah Molina accounted for the four midfield spots in a 3-0 loss to the Bruins.
McCune finally caught a break with Ryan’s injury, which prompted Morgan to start the 5-foot-6 junior against the Tribe. The move also meant the Terps would alter their formation to include five or six midfielders instead of four and one or two forwards.
Morgan’s adjustment proved effective, and the Terps are 3-0-1 in their four games with McCune in the starting lineup.
“She’s just grinding,” Morgan said. “It was hard because she’s had setbacks, but she didn’t let any of it get in her way.”
Morgan said he’s seen improvement on both sides of the ball from McCune in each of the four games she’s started. The midfielder not only put the Terps on the scoreboard first against the Scarlet Knights, but she also played stout defense — something Morgan said McCune needed to work on, given her increased workload.
Moving forward, McCune expects to have plenty more time to improve in her position on the depth chart. Ryan’s unfortunate situation presented McCune with the right set of circumstances to find the field, and now she is a formidable option in the midfield for the Terps moving forward.
“You know, you pay your dues,” McCune said. “I was the one cheering on the bench as loud as I could because that was my role on the team. So now it was my time to step up, and I’m just doing the best that I can, and it feels good.”
