A crowd of 17,243 yesterday easily broke the ACC record for attendance at a women’s basketball game.
The Terrapin women’s basketball team fell short in its effort to upset No. 3-ranked Duke, but the team surpassed its other goal with room to spare.
After weeks of e-mails, posters and billboards from the Athletics Department urging fans to “Cram Comcast,” a crowd of 17,243 showed up at Comcast Center yesterday to break the ACC women’s basketball attendance record.
The Terps held the previous record, boasting 14,500 fans for a game against Virginia Feb. 12, 1992 at Cole Field House. The university now holds the top three attendance marks in conference history, as 13,446 fans watched the Terps battle the Blue Devils a year ago.
“Obviously it says a lot about our fans and our support,” coach Brenda Frese said after her team’s 60-49 defeat. “That’s going to be something when [the players] look back after they’re done playing that they’re going to remember for a long time.”
Aside from breaking the record, university President Dan Mote and Maryland’s first lady Kendel Ehrlich, planned the event to help raise awareness for the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, which is expected to celebrate significant contributions from females in the state.
Along with Mote and Ehrlich, men’s basketball coach Gary Williams and several of his players were among the 17,243.
A full student section stood throughout the game and started chants of “Our house.” The students had an extra incentive to remain in the arena; they were eligible to win raffles for a satellite radio, karaoke machine, DVD player and 47-inch flat screen television.
While the fans supplied plenty of noise, the team struggled, shooting less than 34 percent from the field. Sophomore guard Shay Doron said the Terps needed to get used to playing in front of so many spectators.
“We can definitely learn from this,” Doron said. “We’re going to be playing in [front of] some big crowds coming up. Every game you go through you learn. This is a game you need to experience to get better.”
Athletics Director Debbie Yow viewed yesterday’s showing from the Terp players and fans as a sign of things to come in College Park.
“I’m proud of the attendance today, and I’m proud of [the players’] effort,” she said. “I think we’re going to have some fine times around here in women’s basketball, a lot of TV exposure and I think we’ll be in the hunt next year for the championship.”
