The No. 21 Terrapin wrestling team is leaving the comforts of home and taking a two-match road trip.
The Terps (12-3, 4-0 ACC) will face the Penn Quakers tomorrow and then the Columbia Lions Sunday.
The road has proven to be rocky territory for the team. While the Terps are undefeated at home, lead the ACC with four conference wins and currently are on an eight-match winning streak, their early-season struggles on the road still haunt them.
But the Terps are not too worried.
“I think the team will do well this weekend,” freshman Brian Letters said. “We have been training really hard and I think everyone is starting to really step it up.”
The closest calls for the ACC leaders since then have taken place in their two road games. At Navy, they won by only three, 21-18. In North Carolina, the Terps had another close call as they barely edged the Tar Heels, 19-17.
The team believes that its tough workout schedule and momentum will help them win this weekend, despite their road troubles.
Pennsylvania (5-4) boasts three top-25 wrestlers. Earlier this year, the Quakers were ranked No. 23 in the nation but dropped out of the polls while on their current three-match losing streak.
The Quakers and the Terps seem to be moving in two different directions: Pennsylvania in a tailspin after their three-match slide, and the Terps rocketing upward. But Pennsylvania will embrace its home mats for the first time in a little more than two months.
Columbia will be the second road match in as many days for the Terrapins. While the Lions are only 2-3, on Jan. 19 they placed fourth out of 18 teams in the New York State Championships. Combined with the Terps’ road wear, the match is a potential trap.
The team, though, sees this as a weekend like any other.
“We all just need to wrestle seven minutes without mistakes and the outcome will take care of itself,” redshirt sophomore Brendan Byrne said. “It is not going to be any different than previous weekends. We have wrestled some of the best teams in the country and beat them. We know if a team effort is put forward that we can beat anyone. Everyone just needs to show up and wrestle well and have some fun.”
In these matches the Terps want to build on last weekend’s wins against arch-rival Duke, 33-5, and last year’s ACC Champion N.C. State, 27-12.
The only worrisome point in the victories was a late-match push from the Wolfpack.
“We just need to keep pressure on our opponents throughout the match,” said freshman Eric Medina. Redshirt sophomore Hudson Taylor, though cautious, places his confidence in the team’s abilities.
“It’ll be tough,” he said of this weekend’s matches. “But we go through a lot of conditioning and preparation for each match. A lot of our success is because of the coaches pushing us to improve. We’re in great shape, and we’re ready to go.”
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