Even 3,000 miles away, the Terrapin field hockey team had no problem living up to its reputation and its rank.

Nine months after capturing the NCAA title, coach Missy Meharg and her team proved themselves worthy of a No. 1 preseason ranking by handily defeating Pacific on Saturday, 6-0.

The game was the first of three the Terps will play in California to kick off the regular season, a swing that Meharg said will be extremely beneficial for a changed team.

“It’s a great way to start and get a look at all the regions, and for us, with nine new players and eight freshmen, it’s very important,” Meharg said from Palo Alto, Calif., before her team’s game against Stanford on Sunday night. “We had some breakthrough stuff happen in terms of every player available to play getting onto the field.”

The importance of these early season games is increased by the need to replace key cogs that powered the team’s run to the national championship last season. Key losses include two-time All-American Jackie Ciconte and three-time Mid-Atlantic all-region honoree Tiffany Marsh. Meharg pointed to sophomore forward Kim Ziegler, who redshirted in 2004, and senior forward Emily Trycinski as crucial parts in the offense, but she said the effort will be spread.

“The void is going to be filled by six people, which is kind of neat and more of a rotation,” Meharg said. “These players who have been doing a lot more watching than actually playing now have the shot, and we should be very solid with the rotation up front.”

Recently named team captains Paula Infante, who scored two goals against Pacific, and Kristina Edmonds will anchor a defense that finished second in the country with a 1.01 goals against average last year.

But even with confidence in many facets of the defending champs’ game, Meharg said being consistently touted as the best team in the country has a backlash that can’t be ignored.

“From a common sense standpoint, you just got a bullet in your head,” Meharg said. “But the ranking is an honor. I don’t look at it as pressure, but as a reputation, and there’s an expectation of a level of play that we’re used to.”

The team begins a two-week homestand with a game against Old Dominion on Saturday. The season’s tough schedule pits the Terps against nine of the 16 NCAA Tournament teams from last year and competition teams from eight different conferences.

Nevertheless, with early road tests under the team’s belt and most of September to be spent in College Park, Meharg said the expectations are justified.

“No matter what, every team is going to come out and give their best performance,” she said. “I look at the girls and say, we’ve done that.”

Contact reporter Geremy Bass at geremybass@gmail.com.