The Terrapins baseball team broke a nine-year postseason drought when it qualified for the ACC tournament more than two weeks ago. But a lengthier NCAA tournament drought remained unbroken, at least temporarily.

That drought was broken Monday, when the Terps made the national tournament for the first time since 1971. They are the No. 2 seed in the Columbia, South Carolina, regional and will open the tournament against No. 3-seed Old Dominion on Friday at 1 p.m.

“I was really just happy for our players and our coaching staff,” coach John Szefc said. “These guys put in a lot of effort and a lot of time and sacrifice a lot. … Any time you get a day like that it kind of makes it all worth it.”

The Terps (36-21) broke a school record for wins this season and reached their first ACC championship game for the first time since 1976. But the Terps lost 9-4 to No. 25 Georgia Tech in the final Sunday.

Still, the Terps finished strong. They went 11-2 in May, including a sweep of Pittsburgh to clinch an ACC tournament berth. They also beat No. 8 Virginia and No. 4 Florida State in the conference tournament.

Old Dominion (36-24) went 17-13 in Conference USA play and reached the semifinals of the conference tournament this past weekend. They notched an 8-1 victory against the Cavaliers on April 29.

Szefc is friends with Monarchs coach Chris Finwood, while Terps pitching coach Jimmy Belanger knows an assistant Monarchs coach.

“It’ll be a pretty good challenge in the first game for us,” Szefc said. “We have to play well to beat them.”

Host and No. 1-seed South Carolina (42-16) and fourth-seeded Campbell (40-19) round out the regional. Campbell and South Carolina, which won NCAA titles in 2010 and 2011, will play Friday.

The regional uses a double-elimination format, and the winner will face the champion of the Charlottesville, Virginia, regional in the Super Regionals, which is a best-of-three format.

In 1971, the Terps won the ACC Championship, their most recent conference title, with an 11-4 ACC record and a 15-10 record overall. But the Terps lost both games in the NCAA tournament. The Terps’ last victory in the tournament was in 1970, when they beat Mississippi State, 3-2.

While the Terps were thrilled to make the 64-team field, they aren’t satisfied with the historic appearance alone.

“We just made this first step to be in the field, and now we have to move forward and to be successful,” Szefc said. “It’s not really just about getting in. It’s about having success once you get there.”