LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Susie Rowe crumpled to the Trager Stadium turf, her hands pressed against her face. On the sidelines, Terrapin field hockey coach Missy Meharg barked directions to her team.

An opponent’s errant stick had cracked the Terps’ leading scorer on the bridge of her nose during the team’s final four matchup against Iowa.

Rowe saw blood and knew she would have to get cleaned up. The headstrong back would have hustled to the bench then and there, but she stayed on the field to give the Terps time to adjust tactics.

When she arrived on the sideline, Rowe continued to receive attention from the trainer while teammates Kristina Foster and Alicia Morawski helped her into a clean uniform.

Everyone raced to get her back in the game.

“That was really pretty speedy,” Rowe said afterward. “It was kind of like Formula One on the side, touching me up and changing my shirt.”

Rowe didn’t let the moment break her focus. She stared past the trainers’ hurried hands, eyes fixed on the field, shouting encouragement to her teammates.

Meharg said it felt like a long four minutes with Rowe sidelined, but the Terps did well without their co-captain in the game. Meharg was proud.

“I would have thought it would be a lot worse, because I thought our team did great,” Meharg said. “In fact, [the players] were calmer; they were smart. They were biding time. They let the ball roll. They were just biding time, waiting for their field general to get back on.”

When Rowe was ready, she stormed back onto the field with the same calculated abandon that drives her game.

Meharg said getting Rowe back in the game was an “incredible” lift for the Terps. The team went on to beat Iowa 2-1 in double overtime and advance to the NCAA championship game.

“Her level of play when she returned, she just lit it up,” Meharg said. “She was just really eager, the team was eager, and probably the best portion of our game was right after she got injured.”

Rowe would eventually assist on the game-winning goal in the second extra period.

“That really did give me an extra fire inside, because I felt like I had to make up for those minutes,” Rowe said. “I just wanted to keep myself in the game and not … let it get me down.”

After the game, she received stitches to close up the wound. Although it reopened in the final against Wake Forest, Rowe said it bothered her more in terms of physical appearance than in her play.

Rowe went on to have a goal and an assist in the title game as the Terps won their third national championship in four years.

There was never a doubt that the senior wouldn’t be back on the field playing in her final moments in a Terps uniform. But that didn’t make it any less significant when she stormed back onto the field in the semifinals.

As soon as Rowe was set to go, Meharg could be heard once again barking to the players.

“We’re ready,” she confirmed. “Everything, back to normal!”

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