Danielle Hubka’s celebrates after scoring a goal in the 95th minute to lift the Terps to a 2-1 victory over Miami in the ACC tournament.
While much of College Park was preparing for the impending storm, there was a different sort of hurricane taking place at Ludwig Field yesterday morning.
The Terrapins women’s soccer team was taking on Miami in the opening round of the ACC Tournament, just 10 days after forward Hayley Brock and the Hurricanes’ Maddie Simms and Kate Howarth received red cards for fighting in the Terps’ 1-0 loss Oct. 18.
But this time, the No. 2-seed Terps came out on top. They battled their way to an overtime victory, defeating No. 7-seed Miami, 2-1, on forward Danielle Hubka’s 95th-minute goal.
And this time, there was no pushing, no punching and no red cards.
“I think we just looked at the match as if we’d never played them before,” forward Alex Reed said. “We didn’t want to think about how it went last time. We just wanted to focus on our soccer and not what happened in the last game. We do well when we focus on the soccer and not the emotions of the game.”
ACC officials moved the game time three hours earlier due to the impending storm, and Reed got the Terps’ morning off to a fast start in the 36th minute. Just seconds after being subbed into the game, forward Gabby Galanti, who started for Brock during her suspension, set Reed up with a pass just inside the 18-yard box. Reed took her defender one-on-one and finished from the left side of the net, recording her third goal this season.
“I feel really happy for Alex Reed,” coach Jonathan Morgan said. “That kid just works and works and works but sometimes doesn’t get the credit. For her to find that first goal and hit it the way she did was awesome.”
The Hurricanes netted the equalizer in the 73rd minute, though. After a penalty on the Terps, Miami defender Tara Schwitter netted a penalty kick with ease, ultimately sending the game into overtime.
But Hubka came through when it mattered most. Midfielder Cory Ryan stole the ball from Miami’s Ali Brennan in front of the Hurricanes’ net and centered it to Hubka, who rocketed the ball past goalkeeper Emily Lillard to clinch the Terps’ first-round victory.
“I saw Cory going for it and she did a great job at the end line, and I knew she was going to beat that girl so I just tried to rush in and call for the ball,” Hubka said. “She played me a phenomenal ball. I had the easy part. She did all the work.”
The Terps’ win knocks the Hurricanes out of the conference tournament and sends Maryland into the semifinal matchup with No. 3-seed Wake Forest on Friday in Cary, N.C. The team won its lone meeting with the Demon Deacons this year, 2-1, in Winston-Salem, N.C.
And impending storm or not, the Terps plan to be ready for it.
“We’ll take one day off, but then we’ll get right back into it,” Reed said. “We’ve just got to get ready for the semifinals.”
sportsdbk@gmail.com
