Three weeks into the season, the Terrapin field hockey team is already gearing up for the NCAA Tournament.

Though the tournament is two months away, for coach Missy Meharg it’s never too early to prepare. So the defending champions will use this weekend’s Terrapin Invitational as training for the postseason, facing No. 13 Penn State on Saturday morning and Towson on Sunday afternoon.

“What I like to do is have weekends mimic NCAA or ACC events,” Meharg said. “We have a lot of Friday-Sunday competitions, and that’s to mimic the ACC Tournament and the Final Four. And then the back-to-back like this weekend clearly mimic the first and second rounds of the NCAAs.”

The No. 1 Terps (5-0) could earn home field advantage and play the first and second rounds at the same venue as this weekend’s games, the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex.

Meharg said this strategic scheduling is crucial to the success of the program, and her players appreciate the preparation.

“I think it’s really important to kind of mentally and physically or even with your schoolwork get used to what a tournament’s like,” senior back Emma Thomas said. “So when we come around to ACCs and after that we know what to expect and our bodies are used to it. That’s important.”

The team will also get the chance to warm up against postseason-caliber competition.

The Terps have met the Nittany Lions (1-3) three times in the NCAA tournament in the last six years. They beat Penn State in second-round matchups in 2003 and 2006. But in 2007, the two-time defending national champions fell to the Nittany Lions 1-0.

But they have not plotted revenge, Meharg said. The team will focus on this year’s Penn State squad. The Nittany Lions have three defeats on their record, but all were against top-20 teams and by just one goal. The attack struggled in the losses, scoring five goals in four games, and the stingy Terp backfield won’t help.

Penn State will depend on junior goalie Ali Meves, who has recorded 24 saves so far this season, to lead a stout defensive effort. But she will have to go up against forward Katie O’Donnell, who leads a Terps attack averaging 4.4 goals per game.

In traditional tournament turnaround time, the Terps will go up against Towson (2-2) just more than 24 hours after their first game of the weekend ends. But though the Terps don’t share the same level of rivalry with the Tigers as they do with the Nittany Lions, forward Janessa Pope said they will keep the same approach.

“It doesn’t matter what name’s on their jersey,” Pope said. “We just go out and play.”

kyanchulis@umdbk.com