Welcome to The Diamondback Sports Digest. Every week, we send you a rundown of the latest Maryland athletics news.
The Terps’ two highest-ranked fall teams — No. 5 field hockey and No. 12 men’s soccer — continued their success over the past week.
In this week’s newsletter, we’ll break down the latest on each top-15 Maryland program, a development on a popular name among men’s basketball fans and more.
Maryland field hockey earns top-10 road win
Maryland field hockey only surpassed three goals in a game once before Sunday — in an 8-1 win over Lock Haven. But the Terps had an offensive explosion against a talented opponent in their most recent outing.
Maryland went on the road to beat No. 10 Iowa, 5-0, in its largest conference win in more than two years. All but one of the goals came in the second half.
The Terps have not lost to a team ranked outside the top five this season and have four ranked wins.
Late heroics lift Maryland men’s soccer
Maryland men’s soccer was on the verge of suffering its first conference loss against Michigan State as time wound down Saturday. Then, two scores in the final 20 minutes gave coach Sasho Cirovski’s squad a 2-1 victory.
Junior forward Sadam Masereka notched the game-winner in the 83rd minute, his first tally as a Terp. Colin Griffith scored the equalizer 10 minutes earlier, continuing to build off a breakout year.
Griffith has scored five times in the last six games after notching just three goals in his first 32 matches.
A year after going winless in the Big Ten, the Terps sit atop the standings midway through conference play.
Royalty in the weight room
The Big Ten held its men’s and women’s basketball media days this week. One of the most popular names on Maryland’s men’s team was Derik Queen.
The five-star freshman is one of the Terps’ most highly-anticipated prospects in recent memory, but one common knock on him was a lack of conditioning. He aimed to change that over the summer.
Queen has gotten in daily extra work with basketball performance director Kyle Tarp. The freshman has dropped his body weight, body fat and BMI, according to a team spokesperson.
“He’s super talented, he’s very skilled,” Tarp said. “But [we] didn’t want the conditioning to be the limiter for him.”
Best bits
- Maryland football starting defenders Kellan Wyatt and Lavain Scruggs carry a close bond that started in high school.
- Current San Francisco Giant LaMonte Wade Jr. returns to College Park each offseason to train with Maryland baseball coach Matt Swope, who helped revive the former Terp’s career.
- Maryland volleyball earned its first Big Ten victory of the year with a 3-0 win over Rutgers Saturday.
- Maryland women’s soccer’s conference woes continued with a 3-0 defeat to No. 7 Ohio State. Since the start of last year, the Terps are 0-14-2 in Big Ten play.
- Maryland men’s basketball landed a verbal commitment from Mt. Zion Prep guard Christian Jeffrey on Wednesday.
Quote of the week
“Pain,” Maryland men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard said when CBS’ Matt Norlander asked him to define the transfer portal experience for a coach in one word.
Stat of the week
Maryland football became the first Big Ten team in the past decade to lose a contest with a turnover margin of four or better in last weekend’s 42-28 loss to Indiana.
