Ashley Spivey
The Terrapins women’s soccer team took the field last night in Coral Gables, Fla. — a place where it had never won before — without injured leading scorer Hayley Brock.
The Terps, though, were unfazed, and defeated Miami, 1-0.
“We didn’t beat ourselves,” coach Jonathan Morgan said. “We just took care [of] the ball. I thought our attack was good today. It didn’t result in a lot of shots, but it did result in a lot of great crosses.”
Brock suffered a concussion near the end of Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Duke and was not cleared to play. Before Thursday, the senior started every game this season, consistently commanding a double or triple team from opposing defenses. She produced anyway, tallying more goals than the Terps’ second and third-highest scorers combined.
The Terps still had options, though. Morgan has recently praised the play of midfielder Ashley Spivey, and she repaid him last night with a goal, her fifth of the season and first since Sept. 12.
It wasn’t just Spivey either. Forward Alex Doody, who replaced Brock in the starting lineup, had one of the Terps’ five shots in her first start of the season.
“Her movement off the ball, her activity, her voice was really the difference for us tonight,” Morgan said. “She just opened up a lot of spaces for other players.”
Defender Shade Pratt, who had started all but one match, also began the game on the bench. Unlike Brock, her absence wasn’t injury-related, and she did play three minutes at forward.
Morgan wanted to switch things up on the backline and rewarded defender Amanda Gerlitz, who took Pratt’s place in the lineup and played left back. Defender Erika Nelson moved back into the center where she partnered with Shannon Collins. Nelson started the season as a center back but played on the left in the last two matches.
After surrendering five goals in the last two games, the defense held the Hurricanes, who rank near the bottom of the ACC in most major statistical categories, to one shot on goal.
“They did a lot of long balls over the top and tried to be direct and run onto balls over the top,” defender Megan Gibbons said. “We had a lot of dropping and covering, and we did a good job of that. We had to win a lot of headers too, and we did a good job with that.”
Spivey made sure the defense’s hard work wasn’t for nothing when she kicked Gibbons’ cross into the far corner of the goal in the 56th minute. It was Gibbons’ team-leading sixth assist of the year and Spivey’s first point since her game-winning goal against Clemson more than a month ago.
“She knew that we needed more from her, and I think she wanted to have a bigger role tonight,” Morgan said. “From the very start of the game, she had the intention to be dangerous and score goals.”
The win catapults the Terps ahead of the Hurricanes in the conference standings. With 12 points, the Terps, who came into the game in 10th, could rise as high as seventh entering Sunday’s match against No. 3 Florida State.
If Brock is unable to play Sunday, then the Terps will need Spivey, Doody and others to again fill the void left by her absence, just like they did last night.
“Each player had to take a little bit more responsibility and bring a little bit more to our attack.” Morgan said. “I thought the kids did that.”
