A tightknit affair was expected when the Terrapins field hockey team took the field to play No. 2-seed Virginia in the ACC Tournament semifinals. In their last meeting on Sept. 28, the Terps lost a one-goal lead and the game to the Cavaliers, who joggled positions with them all season in the conference standings.

But this time around, the contest was anything but close. With four straight goals to open the game and a hat trick from defender Sarah Sprink, the No. 3-seed Terps routed Virginia, 5-1, yesterday. Now, only North Carolina, the best team in the country, stands in their way of capturing their fourth ACC title in five years.

“Our team has been looking for a breakout game all season, to be honest,” coach Missy Meharg said following the win. “We’re a team that’s still evolving and just getting really good.”

Midfielder Janessa Pope got the first shot of the game, and she made it count. After Virginia (15-5, 4-2 ACC) goalkeeper Jenny Johnstone saved one shot off a penalty corner, Pope retrieved the ball and trickled it past her to put the Terps (16-4, 3-2) ahead after 10 minutes of play.

After failing to hold a 1-0 advantage yesterday against Duke, midfielder Megan Frazer and forward Lindsey Puckett made sure it didn’t happen again. In the 33rd minute, the ball was slapped by Frazer towards Puckett, who deflected it off a Virginia defender and into the goal.

It soon became a laugher, however, shortly after halftime. Sprink, a freshman from Germany, converted on two consecutive penalty corners less than three minutes apart. Six of the defender’s ten goals this year have been on penalty corner opportunities.

“We wanted to show everybody that we can play better than yesterday,” said Sprink, who also recorded the last score of the game with two minutes left. “We talked about dominating the game, and not giving them the chance to come into their game.”

That involved keeping the Cavaliers’ Michelle Vittese and Paige Selenski off the scoreboard. The two Olympians almost singlehandedly defeated the Terps in their regular season meeting – they both scored off breakaways in the second half to grab the lead. Meharg’s game plan involved keeping the ball away from them, and it was nearly perfect – Selenski scored the team’s only goal, and the duo got just two shots combined in the game.

“You have to keep the ball away from those two players, and if you put the ball in the belly of the field, you’re probably going to lose the game,” Meharg said. “If you can quiet them with incredible doubling down laterally, north and south, you can obviously be very dominant.”

Now that the Terps have avenged their first ACC loss of the year, they can focus on avenging their second. In front of over 1,000 spectators in College Park two weeks ago, the Terps lost control of a two-goal lead and fell to the Tar Heels, 4-3, in overtime.

“It’s a good thing we have a day off tomorrow, and we can just focus on what we can do against UNC,” Sprink said. “After that loss in overtime, we want to have revenge and win against them on their field.”

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