About three minutes into overtime against Michigan, Maryland field hockey head coach Missy Meharg wasn’t happy with defender Grace Balsdon.
Balsdon was in the team’s offensive half as No. 9 Michigan pressured Carrie Hanks, who had the ball near midfield with no outlet passing option behind her.
Meharg yelled for Balsdon to retreat into a more defensive position.
“That’s just not smart,” Meharg said, turning to the bench.
But Hanks found Balsdon near the right corner and the graduate transfer sent it into the circle to forward Welma Luus. Luus then passed to forward Emma Rissinger, who scored the game-winning goal on the far post.
Meharg followed her bench onto the field with a smile. Despite the coach’s displeasure moments before, Balsdon’s play helped the Terps clinch a 3-2 overtime win Friday night at the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex.
“It was just a matter of picking the right people for the right places for [overtime],” Meharg said. “We really put pressure … to be able to have our players put the ball into the circle in position.”
The second half against the Wolverines looked similar that of Maryland’s 3-2 loss to Northwestern five days earlier.
In both games, the Terps (8-2, 3-1 Big Ten) entered halftime trailing, 1-0. In both games, they evened the score early after the break only to lose the lead again. And in both games, they tied it once more.
“We learned a lot from Northwestern,” Rissinger said. “In those back and forth battles, you have to be ready for all things, and we were more ready today.”
Unlike when Northwestern scored in the 60th minute to retake the lead for good, Michigan (7-4, 2-2) couldn’t respond to the 2-2 tie after Luus’ score in the 61st minute.
Before Luus assisted Rissinger on the final score, Rissinger assisted the Luus’ connection. Defender Grace Balsdon hit the ball toward the circle, and Rissinger got a touch as it came in. The ball then appeared to hit the stick of a Michigan defender.
Luus waited as the ball sailed near the cage before hitting it high past Michigan goalkeeper Sam Swenson. The netminder had little time to react to the deflection that sent he ball from the right side of the goal to where Luus stood on the left side.
That score was the second time the Terps had to erase a Wolverine lead.
Michigan — also like Northwestern— scored the game’s first goal early. Starting goalkeeper Sarah Holliday made three saves in the 18th minute, but Michigan corralled the rebound each time. The fourth look snuck past the far post despite Holliday diving to her right to try to use her stick for the stop.
Bates replaced Holliday soon after the tally. It was Bates’ sixth appearance of the season.
“Holliday looked off-balance and a little struggling,” Meharg said.
Bates played the remainder of the game and made a career-high six saves. She surrendered her second goal of the year, however, when Michigan midfielder Meg Dowthwaite scored with a high deflection in the 54th minute.
The point gave the Wolverines a 2-1 lead, after Balsdon used her 10th goal of the season — this one on a drag flick penalty corner attempt — to tie the game at one in the 44th minute.
Meharg cherished the back-and-forth nature of the game.
“I couldn’t be happier with the opportunity to go to overtime, I know that might sound strange,” Meharg said. “To be in position to win championships you have to play a lot of overtimes.”
Rissinger said the team felt prepared because it often practices overtime scenarios.
The efforts paid off, as Michigan didn’t take a shot in overtime. Maryland took four.
On the fourth, Swenson left the Wolverines’ goal open by charging toward Balsdon’s pass, but Luus beat her there. The redshirt senior rolled it to Rissinger in front of the net. Rissinger took a touch, chased it and dove to knock the ball into the backboard before Swenson could settle back into position.
“Going into overtime, there was never a part where we thought we were going to lose this game,” Rissinger said. “So it was just a relief, like, now it’s over and we won.”
