All week, Maryland field hockey worked at correcting its penalty corner woes. Missy Meharg has coached in College Park for over 30 years, so she has a good understanding of how to rectify a team’s issues.
And within three minutes of Friday’s contest against Penn, the Terps practice paid off. Maryland scored on a penalty corner in the third minute to take an early advantage, leading to the Terps’ 3-1 win over the Quakers.
“The first [goal] was a set corner play. We’ve been working on that all week,” junior Maci Bradford said. “I knew I had to do my job; get the touch and get in the goal.”
Meharg said Tuesday that Maryland emphasized penalty corners in practice after the Terps scored only one of their 15 corner attempts last weekend. Early in Friday’s contest, the extra work seemed to pay dividends.
[Maryland field hockey hopes to bounce back after poor weekend against ranked teams]
After struggling in last weekend’s losses to Boston College and Duke, the Terps answered with a quick goal. Bradford connected on a penalty corner in the third minute to take an early lead. But the defense failed to stop the Quakers’ first penalty corner opportunity as Penn responded with its own score.
The Quakers had multiple corner opportunities near the end of the first half. They recorded three shots within the final two minutes. But goalie Alyssa Klebasko held strong, stopping Penn’s effort to take the lead. It was a part of Klebasko’s six-save effort in the opening half.
She didn’t have to do much in the second half, though, as the Terps’ defenders shut down Penn’s attack. Maryland didn’t allow the Quakers’ offense to record a second-half shot and rarely let them push the ball past midfield.
The game remained knotted at one until Bradford pushed into the attacking zone in the third quarter. She side-stepped past the goalie and slid the ball into the right corner to put the Terps ahead.
[Maryland field hockey falls to Duke, 2-1, on late penalty corner]
Two minutes later, opportunistic defense led to transition offense again, as sophomore Callie Rogers delivered a spinning pass to junior Maddie Vasilios for a backhanded goal to extend Maryland’s lead as its bench went crazy.
“Maddie’s a special girl,” Meharg said. “She’s a real chemistry part of the team. She has that excitement and flair to her that is very contagious, and the team really warps themselves around that.”
Though the Terps had trouble generating offense, their defense produced two goals, underscoring how Maryland’s back line can contribute on both ends of the field. The last time these two teams met, the Terps won 9-0 in a blowout victory.
Penn coach Scott Tupper returned to College Park after spending four years on Maryland’s staff under Meharg. The Terps’ former associate head coach is in his first season coaching the Quakers.
“It’s an honor to have coaches come through this program and do so well, be so competitive to lead their own program,” Meharg said. “He’s a great coach, and I knew that Penn would be far more organized, technical, and deliberate about what they were doing.”
It was a much closer match Friday, but getting a win was critical for Maryland. Now, they enter a gauntlet of ranked opponents in Big Ten play, which should reveal a lot about where the Terps stand in the national hierarchy.
