Maryland defenders buried their heads in their hands twenty minutes into its matchup with Oregon. The game was tightly contested to that point, but then the pressure multiplied.
The Ducks offensive line moved in a pack of four, pressuring the lone Terps defender. Oregon stripped the ball and moved up the pitch as Cameron Bourne sent a through pass to Haley McWhirter.
She cut right giving her the space to aim a shot — which she slammed into the top left corner of the net, giving the Ducks a lead they never looked back from.
Oregon bested Maryland, 2-0, in the most evenly-paced game the Terps have played in the Big Ten. The Terps and Ducks began with a clean slate on Sunday, the first-ever meeting between the new conference foes.
“We just need a little bit more bite in front of goal and just try to take our opportunities. It doesn’t need to be the perfect chance,” Tahirah Turnage-Morales said. “We just need to get a shot off or cross off.”
Sunday marked 700 days since Maryland scored a goal in conference play. Its last score came on Oct 23, 2022.
Terps goalie Liz Beardsley played high out of the box early on. The defenders used her as a backboard to propel the ball forward with long kicks to the attacking third.
[Maryland women’s soccer falls to Washington, 3-0]
The Ducks got a shot off in the first 20 seconds, indicating how the day would go for Maryland. The Terps played close together on the backline using small passes to hold possession and aggravate Oregon’s offense.
“I thought we kept possession, and we spoke about keeping possession more and switching the point of attack and getting them a little bit more tired,” Meghan Ryan Nemzer said. “I think that opened up things for us and the final third.”
In constant competition for fifty-fifty balls, the Ducks came out on top across the first twenty minutes. Oregon took five shots and earned three corners in the first half, consistently testing the Terps defense.
An offensive breakaway by forward Peyton Bernard earned Maryland a corner in the 24th minute. Turnage-Morales took the Terps’ first of four first-half shots shortly after.
“I thought the one that [Turnage-Morales] had in the first half, back post, I mean, she was wide open,” Nemzer said. “I thought we created those opportunities, and now it’s just putting the ball in the back of the net.”
Kelsey Smith, Madison Krakower and Bernard all followed with shots of their own. The intensity increased as the clock ticked down, as the Terps recorded more shots in the first half than they did in either of their last two games.
Maryland continued applying pressure in the Ducks defensive third after the half.
[Starbucks, Gossip Girl and telepathy: Inside twins Drew and Peyton Bernard’s relationship]
Bernard received a pass up the right wing in the 53rd minute. Cutting into the center of the box, she used quick footwork to get a cross-off. The ball rolled past the Oregon goalie before a defender booted it out of bounds.
The sequence was just one of several that gave the Terps a chance at a goal — but none were put in the net. Oregon did not have that same difficulty.
Sophomore midfielder Lisa McIntyre extended her leg jumping in front of a Ducks shot. The ball soared into the box, bouncing around two Terp defenders before Ariane Haysman Boaler gained control. Her shot bounced over a sliding Beardsley and put another on the board for Oregon.
Maryland became aggressive with the two-goal deficit but an influx of yellow cards slowed the Terps’ offensive momentum. Emily Lenhard, Ava Morales, and Lauren Wrigley were handed yellows across 11 minutes.
Maryland heads to the road to play at Northwestern on Thursday.
“I challenged them over the last three days to compete, to have a better mentality, and I thought that showed. I think we had about 65 to 70 percent of possession today,” Nemzer said. “I thought that we were definitely more threatening… I was happy with the response.”
