Midfielder Alyssa Parker looks to pass during the Terps’ 2-1 loss to Albany in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament at the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex on Nov. 16, 2014.
Terrapins field hockey coach Missy Meharg considers the ACC the nation’s strongest field hockey conference.
Michigan’s victory over the Terps in 2001 marked the last time the Big Ten won a national championship in the sport. Since then, an ACC team has won 10 of the last 13 crowns, with the Terps accounting for five of them.
After moving to the Big Ten last year and having little opportunity to face their former rivals, Meharg and the Terps wanted to blend their past with the future of their new conference. The Terps’ connections to both leagues will collide in this weekend’s Big Ten/ACC Cup.
The No. 3 Terps travel to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to face No. 13 Boston College on Friday and No. 5 Duke on Sunday to rekindle their old rivalries. It will also allow them to establish a new culture in Big Ten field hockey along with conference peer No. 10 Northwestern, who will join them in the four-team challenge.
“One might say that the brand of hockey in the ACC has a fair amount more possession and pizzazz,” Meharg said. “But I think that that is changing.”
Meharg’s squad used that same flash they established in the ACC to win the Big Ten regular-season title in its inaugural year. Still, the Terps (2-0) missed battling opponents with whom they’d developed a rich history.
The last time they played the Eagles was in September 2013, when defender Sarah Sprink and midfielder Alyssa Parker teamed up for two goals in a 70-second span to win, 3-2. The victory kept the Terps’ perfect 11-0 all-time record against Boston College intact.
The Terps weren’t as fortunate in their last meeting with Duke. The Blue Devils ended the Terps’ 2013 season in the NCAA semifinals. Parker didn’t make excuses when recalling the defeat.
“They played better that game, and they deserved to win,” Parker said.
Meharg and Parker said the team doesn’t think back to its shortcomings, but the Terps want to avoid the same outcome against Duke at Spooky Nook Sports, an indoor athletic complex.
“We have been being pretty dominant in the last two games, but we’re going to be coming up against maybe more skillful competition and faster competition,” defender Carrie Hanks said. “They’ll be able to work the ball around us a little bit more.”
In a trip out west last weekend, the Blue Devils blew a two-goal lead against No. 6 Stanford. In their season-opening win against California, though, Duke forward Ashley Kristen notched a hat trick.
While Duke and Boston College present the Terps’ first ranked opponents of the year, Hanks said their defensive strategy won’t change based on any one player’s dominance.
“We try and just play a team defense and just have an overall awareness of where that player is,” Hanks said.
The Terps’ knowledge of the Eagles accrued during their time in the ACC might prove dated, as Boston College’s leadership has changed since the Terps departed.
Kelly Doton is in her first year at the helm of Boston College’s program, but Meharg doesn’t expect the Eagles’ approach to be much different from when they last dueled.
Doton has been an Eagles assistant since 2012, and she and Terps assistant coach Dina Rizzo were teammates on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team in Beijing.
“[I’m] very familiar with her as a leader, as a player and certainly as a coach,” Meharg said.
Meharg and the Terps hope that comfort translates into two more wins in Lancaster this weekend in their last opportunity to face former conference foes before the NCAA tournament starts in November.
“History will tell you that the ACC has been a stronger league,” Meharg said. “[We’re] in position to integrate and blend a style of hockey for both regions.”
