Guard Melo Trimble shrugs off a defender as he sprints down the court during the second half when the Terps defeated Bowie State, 89-47, at Xfinity Center on Nov. 8 2014.

As the semester trudges to a close, students will surely take a break from study sessions to look back on how the past few months. They’ll think about their favorite nights out, their toughest assignments in class and, perhaps, they’ll ponder how the semester played out for the Terrapins athletic teams.

And that’s exactly what we on the Diamondback Sports desk have been doing. So take a look at our top five sports stories of the semester.

SHAKEGATE

 

The Terps football team captains opted not to shake the Penn State captains’ hands when the two teams met in State College on Nov. 1. That, of course, followed a skirmish on the field during warmups.

Coach Randy Edsall’s squad went on to top Penn State, 20-19, in its first trip to Beaver Stadium as a Big Ten team, but it was the pregame antics that drew the attention of the country. 

Terps wide receiver Stefon Diggs was later suspended a game for making contact with an official during a scuffle before kickoff two days after the game, which kept the story in the national spotlight. 

Edsall’s decision to end a postgame interview by saying “Let the rivalry begin” helped dramatize the story, too. 

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EARLY EXITS

 

Two of this university’s most prestigious teams entered the NCAA tournament with high expectations. 

The men’s soccer team earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament after stringing together 11 straight wins to claim the Big Ten title. Coach Sasho Cirovski and company were aiming for the Terps’ third straight trip to the College Cup.

The field hockey team, meanwhile, was the No. 2 seed and looking for its sixth consecutive trip to the final four. 

Both Terps teams lost short of the semifinals, though. Men’s soccer fell to UMBC and field hockey to Albany in pair of shocking upsets that left this university without a championship in the fall.

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MEN SOCCER’S REMARKABLE RUN

 

We touched on the Terps men’s soccer team’s sobering end to the season, but that doesn’t mean its run to this university’s first Big Ten championship wasn’t a semester-defining story. 

The Terps started 1-2-3 and fell out of the national rankings before their 11-match winning streak repaired what seemed likely to be a lost season.

The Terps won their lost eight regular-season contests, beat Michigan State in penalty kicks in the Big Ten semifinals and then midfielder Mael Corboz netted a free kick to clinch the conference title.

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MEN’S HOOPS HOT START

 

The No. 19 Terps men’s basketball team is ranked in the AP Poll for the first time since 2010 thanks in large part to a four-member freshman class that’s made an instant impact. 

Point guard Melo Trimble’s been the star of the bunch, and he’s helped the team to a 9-1 start despite the absences of expected starting forward Evan Smotrycz and guard Dez Wells, last season’s leading scorer. 

Depending on how the Terps handle the pressure off the court and the Big Ten competition on it, coach Mark Turgeon’s team could also star in the top storylines of the spring semester. 

 

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[ READ MORE: POPPER: Seven games into season, Maryland’s start holds significance ]

BOWL BOUND

 

Edsall’s Terps are, for the second straight season, headed to a bowl game. The Terps earned five road victories this year, including triumphs at Penn State and Michigan, that helped them to a 7-5 record. 

It was that emotional victory over Penn State that clinched bowl eligibility for the Terps, who will play Stanford in the Foster Farms Bowl on Dec. 30 in Santa Clara, California. 

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[ READ MORE: Maryland to play Stanford in Foster Farms Bowl ]