Maryland women’s soccer’s Liz Beardsley stood dead center in the net, her eyes following an incoming shot. Exploding upward the goalkeeper extended her body wide, punching her arm above the crossbar. She knocked away Northwestern’s ninth shot of the match.

Seconds later another look came. A ball that resembled a cross at first swerved toward the goal, but a diving save notched Beardley’s fifth save of the match to maintain the draw.

The Terps needed Beardsley on the road on Thursday. They slugged with the Wildcats in a 0-0 draw.

Beardsley, resolute on the goal line, had a dominant performance against consistent shotfire. She made eight saves to tie her career-high and earn her most across conference play this season.

“I thought Liz played well,” coach Meghan Ryan Nemzer said. “She came up huge with a save in the last few seconds of the game. That’s what we talk about, make the saves that you’re supposed to make and make the ones we don’t expect you to make.”

After scoring ten goals in its first six games, Northwestern’s (5-5-2) offensive production significantly decreased — earning three goals in the last five. Maryland (3-5-4) hasn’t scored since the start of Big Ten play. That resulted in a sluggish outing.

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The Terps started a more defensive lineup on Thursday as Kelsey Smith entered on the wing and Katie Coyle returned on the backline after being out for Maryland’s last two matches.

While the Terps stacked their defensive third, the Wildcats played offensively-heavy with two on the top. Their offensive aggression showed early on — Northwestern’s first shot came in the fourth minute.

The Wildcats maintained possession in the first half. But they couldn’t find the back of the net as Beardsley handled pressure against her well. The senior made three saves in the period, also successfully directing the backline to defend five corners.

Miscues and defensive errors have been detrimental to the Terps in their early conference contests. The defense moved simultaneously on Thursday. The backline defended eight shots over the first 45 minutes to keep the scoreboard clean.

“I thought in the second half we were the better team. I thought we fought and I thought that we competed,” Nemzer said. “We talk about we bend but we don’t break, and I was proud of their ability to stay together throughout the 90 minutes.”

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Maryland’s stagnant offense couldn’t register a shot in the first half with little ball progression into Northwestern’s defensive third. The attack hovered along the edge of the final third, but none of the set pieces materialized.

A stagnant game for the Terps, they finally broke through in the 58th minute with their first corner. But the attempt resulted in nothing. Maryland didn’t record a shot until the 67th minute, consistently playing on defense.

The Wildcats’ inability to score resulted in the draw. They missed all 20 of their shots, putting just 8 of them on the cage. Six different players missed multiple looks.

Maryland saw small moments of offensive prowl, a majority in the last five minutes of the match. Lauren Wrigley took a corner but the Terps didn’t capitalize as Northwestern’s aggression gained its possession. Maryland didn’t get a shot off after that.

“We spoke about some defensive rotations,” Nemzer said. “We spoke about stealing them out wide, we spoke about that at half. We also spoke about our defenders pushing up and our midfielders pushing up.”

The Terps are still in search of their first Big Ten win of the season. Their next chance is on the road at Illinois on Sunday.