Forward Katie Gerzabek will miss the Terps’ next two games while competing with the Under-21 U.S. National Team at the Junior Pan-American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The Terrapins field hockey team had just suffered a disappointing loss to rival Old Dominion and was gearing up for the start of conference play.

But forward Katie Gerzabek and midfielder Maxine Fluharty weren’t fully preparing for Terrapin Invitational games against Massachusetts and Dartmouth. They were talking with coach Missy Meharg, devising an academic schedule that would allow them to miss consecutive games against the Big Green, Boston College and Wake Forest.

The two former All-Rookie Squad members had just received the call they’d been waiting for their entire careers. They would represent the Under-21 U.S. National Team at the Junior Pan-American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. They would be exchanging the red and gold for a chance to don the red, white and blue.

“I think this is the first step to making my Olympic dream come true,” Gerzabek said Thursday, two days before flying to Mexico. “The rest of the team obviously wants us here on the field and with them, but they know it’s the best for us in our long-term decisions.”

The sophomore is following in the footsteps of former Terps Keli Smith Puzo and Katie O’Donnell, who both joined Team USA at the London Olympics this past summer.

And though she wasn’t the youngest player in national team history — a distinction O’Donnell earned as a 16-year-old high school junior — Gerzabek caught the squad’s attention early on. She made the U-17, U-19 and U-21 national teams before playing a collegiate game, and she helped solidify her spot in the Pan-American Games through a stellar freshman campaign. Gerzabek ranked second on the team in goals last season, and scored in each of the team’s first four contests this year.

U-21 team coach Nick Conway said he saw enough to grant Gerzabek a roster spot during Team USA’s exhibition with the Terps last month. Gerzabek scored the national team’s first goal, helping the squad to a 4-3 win.

“On the field, I’ve been really impressed with Katie’s defensive persistence and her ability to score goals consistently,” he said.

For Fluharty, the distinction was just another progression in her extensive international career. She played for the U-16 team in the 2007 Junior Olympics and competed for the U-17 team in a World Cup qualifier in Uruguay. And with the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Fluharty and Gerzabek hope to become the latest Terp alums to make the Olympic field hockey squad.

“Unquestionably, both have the potential to play senior international hockey, and I would fully expect both of them to be pushing hard for a place within the senior squad at the completion of the current U-21 cycle,” Conway said. “The leap from U-21 to senior international hockey is substantial, but they are certainly on the right track.”

But Olympic aims hardly make leaving their college team midseason any easier.

“I love this team and the atmosphere around here … and just leaving them midseason, it was a hard situation,” Gerzabek said. “I just had to step back and say, ‘What’s best for my long-term career, especially as a field hockey player?’”

For a coach, it’s never easy to have to replace starters on the fly. But it helped the news of Gerzabek and Fluharty’s selection hardly blinded Meharg.

“They’ve been with the program a long time, so I wasn’t really surprised and I had a very good idea that they would be selected,” Meharg said. “We’ve talked it over since the recruiting process, and all of their parents and us know that we firmly support the opportunity.”

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Meharg has plenty of depth to draw upon during the pair’s absence. Even with two of its best players gone, the team proved its worth during a 6-0 rout of unranked Dartmouth on Sunday.

“I’m very comfortable with the depth on the program and with the desire,” Meharg said. “I look at it like this – this situation gives everybody an opportunity to compete, so I think it’s a positive. We’ll have other people step up to the plate.”

Still, Fluharty and Gerzabek will be missed.

“A lot of people are going to have to step up because they are two big powerhouses for this team, especially up front generating attack,” midfielder Janessa Pope said. “There’s going to be a lot more responsibility on some of the younger girls and some of the older girls to try to fill in their shoes while they’re gone.”

munson@umdbk.com