No. 8 Maryland field hockey knew it would be in for a battle as it met No. 3 Rutgers on the road Friday afternoon.
The Terps dominated the stat sheet. They took 15 shots against the Scarlet Knights’ six, and had 12 on goal versus their opponent’s four. Maryland drew six penalty corners, while Rutgers didn’t earn any.
But it was Scarlet Knights goalkeeper Gianna Glatz’s day. The senior matched her career high with 12 saves. And with a goal on a penalty stroke in the third quarter, her squad pulled out its first win over the Terps as a Big Ten school, 1-0.
“The content of the match was great. Super proud of the quality of the game,” coach Missy Meharg said. “But we need to capitalize on penalty corners.”
In yet another top-10 clash, Maryland (9-5, 1-4 Big Ten) again found itself in a stalemate early on. Both sides took a total of one shot in the entire first quarter — one that Rutgers’ (11-2, 4-1) Milena Redlingshoefer missed.
Hope Rose — who took eight of her team’s 15 shots — got a look toward the beginning of the second quarter that didn’t fall. The Terps continued attacking and eventually drew a corner, but their shot was turned away by Glatz.
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With just under three minutes left in the first half, Maryland drew its second corner. Emma DeBerdine handled the insertion and Riley Donnelly‘s shot was blocked — but the play resulted in another corner. Donnelly fed the ball to Julianna Tornetta for the shot, but Glatz didn’t let anything by her and pulled out a couple of saves.
The teams headed to the locker room at halftime, still in a scoreless affair. After going the whole first quarter without a shot, the Terps got five total in the second — and held Rutgers to just the first quarter try.
“We just had a very strong defensive presence,” Brooke DeBerdine said. “And we were very prone to intercepting.”
But a few minutes into the third, the Scarlet Knights broke the ice.
After Rutgers’ Rachel Houston missed a shot, officials held a review to confirm the Scarlet Knights had drawn a penalty stroke.
They had. The officials determined the ball hit off defender Rayne Wright’s body.
“Personally, I didn’t think it hit my body … I didn’t know where it went,” Wright said. “It was based on what the refs saw.”
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And Redlingshoefer buried the shot.
She took the team lead with her fifth goal of the season and gave Rutgers a 1-0 advantage.
While the goal gave the Scarlet Knights some breathing room, the match was easily well within reach for Maryland. It drew its fourth and fifth corners on a sequence in the middle of the third.
But none of those shots fell. Glatz continued to show why she’s one of the nation’s best in the cage.
Despite trailing, the Terps dominated every other category on the stat sheet. The hungry attack just took shot after shot, but Glatz couldn’t have looked much better.
“The goalies in the top 10 are all great,” Meharg said.
With just under two minutes left, Meharg pulled goalkeeper Noelle Frost to bring out an extra attacker.
Eventually, Taylor Mason took a shot that missed, and Rutgers wound up with the ball.
And after Maryland couldn’t get anything going in the midfield, the Scarlet Knights took it back.
The Terps had no answer for Rutgers’ successful penalty stroke in the third quarter. And as the final horn sounded, Scarlet Knights head coach Meredith Civico celebrated her first win against her alma mater.
