Maxine Fluharty lifts the ball to get past a Hawkeye during the Maryland vs Iowa field hockey game that ended with a 4-1 Terrapin victory on November 1, 2014 in College Park, MD
As the ball ricocheted off the back of the cage Saturday, Terrapins field hockey midfielder Maxine Fluharty raised her hand toward the sky. The senior’s 38th career goal sealed the win and the school’s first Big Ten regular season title.
It seemed right for so many reasons. The goal ensured Fluharty’s lead as the top scorer on the highest-scoring offense in the nation. She was one of the five Terps who stood at midfield just more than an hour earlier as part of a Senior Day celebration. And she would be one of three captains posing for photographs with the trophy later.
Fluharty’s two-goal performance powered the No. 2 Terps to their 11th consecutive victory in a 4-1 win over Iowa (11-6, 4-4 Big Ten) at the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex.
“On the field, it still was just that whole team atmosphere,” Fluharty said. “I love that our team is very grounded in that way, and we just make it about everyone and unity.”
The Terps (16-2, 7-1) entered the day sharing the No. 1 spot with Northwestern. A loss would have relegated Meharg’s team to the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten tournament because it lost to the Wildcats on Sept. 20.
During the opening minutes, the Terps dominated all facets of the game and took the first eight shots, but Hawkeyes goalkeeper Alexandra Pecora made four saves to keep the contest scoreless early on.
But the sophomore netminder couldn’t keep Fluharty stifled for long. Pecora sprinted from the goal and dove forward to try to clear a ball midway through the first period, but Fluharty corralled the ball and sent it into the back of the cage.
“Max is special,” coach Missy Meharg said. “She’s just a great athlete, and she can play at any line or any position on the field.”
The Millsboro, Delaware native nearly extended the lead later in the half on a rebound opportunity off one of the Terps’ seven first-half corners, but her shot clanked off the post.
Fluharty even contributed on the defensive end. On Iowa’s first two penalty corners of the game, Fluharty sprinted out of the cage and blocked both shots 15 yards from the goal. As a result, Iowa didn’t have its first shot on goal until the 5:35 mark in the first half.
And minutes after the Hawkeyes offense finally managed a shot on goal, Terps forward Alyssa Parker extended the lead to 2-0 on a tip-in at the far post off a penalty corner.
“We have some very talented forwards, and in the beginning of the season, we were just having trouble finishing,” Fluharty said. “We still had the opportunities; it just takes time for that to come.”
Pecora made nine first-half saves to keep the game within reach, but the Terps were more efficient in the second half to put the Hawkeyes away for good. After Iowa scored its only goal, midfielder Anna Dessoye responded with a goal 65 seconds later to extend the lead to two goals.
And fittingly, Fluharty left the final mark on the game with her team-leading 15th goal. Though they never anticipated playing in the Big Ten, the senior class helped lead the Terps to their first title in their inaugural season in the conference.
“It’s really cool,” redshirt senior goalkeeper Brooke Cabrera said. “I mean, just like last year we went [out] of the ACC with a bang, and we are starting the right way in the Big Ten.”
