NEWTON, Mass. – As the clock ticked down in at Friday’s ACC Field Hockey Tournament semifinal between the Terrapins and Wake Forest with the score tied at 1, Terp coach Missy Meharg prepared for her team’s second overtime game of the season.
Then Wake Forest’s Hilary Moore controlled the ball in the Terp circle and passed across the front of the net, where Chelsea Cipriani was waiting to deflect it in, rendering the overtime plans meaningless.
Moore’s goal with 1:02 left in the game gave No. 3 Wake Forest a 2-1 win and kept the No. 2 Terps out of the ACC Championship game for the first time since 2003.
“You have your overtime lineup set, and you’re ready to go and have a kind of third game, as in first half, second half and then overtime, but that’s sport. You’ve got to be tough as nails until the final whistle blows,” Meharg said.
The players seemed just as surprised as Meharg to have the game end so abruptly with their fate an early exit from the tournament, which was hosted by Boston College for the first time. After failing to get off a shot in their last minute effort to tie, the Terps slowly and quietly exited the field as the Wake Forest team rushed onto the field to celebrate the upset.
“I don’t know if words can describe how disappointing it was when that whistle blew, and we looked up and they won,” sophomore forwardNicole Muracco said. “It’s really disappointing. We don’t come here to lose.”
After carrying a 1-0 lead into the half, the Terps could not sustain momentum into the second half.
The Demon Deacons outshot the Terps 6-1 in the second half and continually pressured goalie Kathryn Masson. The Terps’ only shot of the half came more than 27 minutes in.
“I think we played really well in the first half, and it showed,” sophomore defender Bri Davies said. “In the second half, I don’t know what happened. We didn’t fight and play as hard as we did in the first half.”
Wake Forest tied up the game in the 47th minute, scoring on a penalty corner. After Demon Deacon Aileen Davis’ initial penalty corner shot hit Susie Rowe’s left wrist, Wake Forest was given another opportunity. This time Minou Gimbrere unleashed the shot and Davis redirected it past Masson to even the score.
Wake Forest continued to get opportunities to take the lead, including a pair of open shots directly in front of the cage, but each time Masson, who made five saves in the game, stood strong – until Cipriani’s game-winner. Meharg praised her senior goalie and said the defense should’ve stepped up and intercepted the pass before it got to the front of the net on the last goal.
Meharg also said it wouldn’t have come to that point if her team could’ve stayed consistent and maintained its offensive intensity.
“I think the whole team played such an amazing 35 minutes [in the first half], and for whatever reason, we didn’t bring that same commitment to team play to the second half and we paid for it.”
In the first half, both teams struggled to find scoring opportunities, but the Terps were able to capitalize on the first shot of the game 9:29 in.
Freshman forward Katie O’Donnell brought the ball down the right side of her offensive zone and fed it across to Muracco, who put it into the net for her 13th goal of the season and first since Oct. 6.
But Muracco said scoring early loses its benefit if the team can’t build off of it.
“It’s good to get a goal right away, but the most important part is keeping it up after that,” Muracco said. “We had a lot of opportunities we didn’t put in.”
The team’s focus now shifts to winning a third straight NCAA title. The NCAA Tournament begins Saturday, and Meharg said the Terps can not be unhappy with their position entering the tournament, even on the heels of the disappointing loss.
“The outcome is the only thing that bugs me because it was a great game of hockey,” Meharg said. “They’re championship-level, and so are we. We can grow from this and hopefully we can do that as we go through the [NCAA] tournament.”
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