Allison Akers/The Diamondback
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – As the buzzer sounded yesterday, Terrapin field hockey forward Nicole Muracco crouched on the ground inside the circle and buried her face in her hands. She sent one final glare at the scoreboard across the field, as if sheer willpower could change the result.
But it remained: Tar Heels 3, Terrapins 2.
Muracco slammed her fists, flooded with the unfamiliar emotions of defeat, a result she had not known in more than a year.
The top-seeded Terps (23-1) had come into the National Championship game undefeated, with a 35-game winning streak stretching back to last October.
But with 11 seconds left in a game the Terps mostly controlled, Tar Heel forward Danielle Forword blasted a penalty corner goal into the cage, giving No. 3 seed North Carolina the lead and ending the Terp streak and Muracco’s career with a loss.
“It doesn’t feel good to end like this,” Muracco said through tears at the postgame press conference, before she stopped, too overcome by emotion to go on.
Coach Missy Meharg, sitting next to her, continued for the senior.
“We’ve had a great season, an incredible season, a lot of winning and a tremendous amount of laughter and a tremendous amount of hard work,” Meharg said. “So obviously it feels pretty disappointing right now.”
The Tar Heels (20-2) are the only other team to have won the national title in the last five years, claiming the trophy and a perfect season two years ago, when the Terps lost in the second round.
But it was still a strange feeling for the Terps, as they clutched their runner-up awards and watched another team hoist the National Championship trophy.
“I think Maryland had an outstanding season,” North Carolina coach Karen Shelton said. “And obviously, it may have been a bit of an injustice that we were able to steal the game.”
When the two teams met in the regular season Oct. 24, both were undefeated, and the Terps dominated the Tar Heels 4-1 in Chapel Hill, N.C.
North Carolina beat the No. 2 Cavaliers 3-2 in Friday’s semifinal after the Terps outgunned No. 4 Princeton 7-5 behind nine points from forward Katie O’Donnell, setting up Sunday’s showdown.
In the first half Sunday, the Terps controlled possession and the pace of the match, applying offensive pressure from the opening whistle. They forced the defensive-minded Tar Heels to play up to their quick style and generated more opportunities, outshooting their opponent 8-1.
At many points, the Terps seemed poised to take the lead. But behind goalie Jackie Kintzer’s five saves, the Tar Heels denied them at every turn.
“Jackie Kintzer played a phenomenal first half,” Meharg said. “I think I speak on behalf of the team that we had our opportunity to put the game in control.”
The Terps seemed to have taken control seven minutes into the second half, when midfielder Megan Frazer sent a pass to Muracco, who sent a shot into the right corner of the cage to put the Terps up 1-0.
The Terps held that lead for more than 18 minutes but could not convert any more opportunities in that span. The Tar Heels doubled their defensive efforts and completely shut out O’Donnell, the all-time Terp points leader, preventing her from notching any points or assists in the match.
So when midfielder Alexis Pappas got a yellow card with 11:46 remaining in the game and went to the sideline for penalty time, the Tar Heels were well within striking distance. Two and a half minutes later, Forword fired a shot into the cage to tie the game. The Terps never fully recovered.
“That really shifted the energy for us,” Meharg said. “And even subsequent to [Pappas] returning, we lacked some structure and some discipline and sort of ran around a bit.”
The Terps did pull ahead again, going up 2-1 on a goal by Frazer off a penalty corner deflection. But North Carolina, unwilling to go down without a fight, took a risk, pulling Kintzer and putting all their players on the attack, and it paid off with another goal to tie the game with five minutes remaining.
“Carolina was more opportunistic when the clock really counted,” Meharg said.
Though the Terps charged desperately downfield in the last 11 seconds, they could not get the ball into the circle in time.
The Terps said afterward they didn’t want to lose sight of what they did accomplish this season.
“Certainly, we came here to win the National Championship,” Meharg said. “We fell short of that. But it certainly doesn’t impact any of the way we feel about what it took to get us here.”
But judging by the Terps’ emotion after the loss, the memories of this game, the only one they lost in a season that was almost perfect, will last a long time.
kyanchulis@umdbk.com
