The Terrapin field hockey team’s senior day pregame festivities yesterday included a locker room party and the usual parade of flower-bearing parents.

Two days after a crushing loss to No. 8-ranked Old Dominion, it was just what the No. 2 Terps needed.

The seniors set the tone and put the game out of reach with a 5-0 Delaware drubbing at the Terrapin Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex. But no party could offset Friday night’s defeat.

“That game is something we’ll never leave because it felt terrible,” coach Missy Meharg said. “It’s the feeling of that first half that I know we’ll take with us.”

Friday night, the Monarchs scored just over a minute into the game and never relinquished the lead.

Senior forward Meredith Long admitted the Terps played complacently against Old Dominion and set out yesterday with the aim to control the game from the start.

The Terps (15-2) were determined not to let Friday’s loss or last year’s escape repeat itself. Last season, they had to come back from a three-goal deficit to beat Delaware.

This time the Terps didn’t allow the Blue Hens (6-9) a shot until midway through the second half.

Just seven minutes into the game, Long scored her second goal of the season. Long gathered a carom off goalkeeper Megan Allen’s pads and tucked it past her.

“We said earlier we wanted to get the rebounds,” Long said. “We wanted to knock everything that was loose back into the cage.”

Long’s goal stood as the only tally on the scoreboard until late in the half, when Allen was doomed by more rebounds.

Following a flurry of shots and saves, senior forward Jackie Ciconte pounded the ball into the right side of the cage to give the Terps a two-goal lead going into the half.

“We couldn’t hit it at her. Deflections only work if we hit it outside of her reach,” Ciconte said of Allen, who made nine saves in the first half and 18 overall. “It was hard to get a shot off without her blocking it and clearing it out of the circle.”

Allen and the Blue Hen defense made the Terps’ penalty corners an even harder challenge than the rest of the game. On 17 penalty corner chances, the Terps only converted once – when senior back Emily Beach hammered a shot into the cage with 26 minutes remaining.

The 17 chances were more than the Terps had in the previous three games combined (14).

Despite struggling on penalty corners, the Terps never relented and kept swarming in their offensive zone. Freshman Susie Rowe scored her second goal of the season on a deflection, and redshirt freshman Kim Ziegler notched her first career goal in the Terps’ second half rout.

The five-goal win was the ideal way to move past the loss to Old Dominion, Ciconte said, and a perfect way to end their regular season home schedule.

“That’s what everyone wanted to do,” Ciconte said. “It meant a lot to go out with a bang.”

Contact reporter Stephen Whyno at whynodbk@gmail.com.