Maryland field hockey has dominated its all-time matchup against Ohio State. Before last season, the Terps had never lost to the Buckeyes in program history.
But for the second straight time in the series, the Buckeyes knocked off the Terps in overtime. Despite Maryland shutting down Makenna Webster – the nation’s third-leading goal scorer – for the first 65 minutes, she made the desivisve play in Ohio State’s 2-1 win at Buckeye Varsity Field.
In the seventh minute of overtime, Webster’s shot attempt of the game slid right past Maryland goalkeeper Alyssa Klebasko for the game-winning goal on Friday to win 2-1 at Buckeye Varsity Field.
“[Klebasko] made a couple of game-changing saves for us, and she’s always going to keep us in position to win games,” coach Missy Meharg said. “We just have to clean up what’s going on in our front field.”
It wasn’t Webster’s goal that cost Maryland the win, though. Offensive consistency remains an issue for the Terps’ offense. Penalty corner misses were the story in the Terps’ first two losses and was once again an issue for the Terps on Friday.
Ohio State (5-5, 1-1 Big Ten) scored on a corner chance in the third quarter, while No. 11 Maryland (6-4, 2-1 Big Ten) came up short on all six of its opportunities in the loss.
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It’s the third time that the Terps offense went scoreless on their penalty corner chances. They have scored a goal or less six times this season.
The Buckeyes averaged 19 shots per game entering Friday’s game, but were held to just 13 shots. For Maryland’s style, this was too much, as its offense produced just nine shots for the second consecutive game — and dropped a crucial conference matchup to an unranked team.
“They did a great job of marking us in the midfield, which we hadn’t seen yet,” Meharg said. “We were able to control the game much more [after the first goal], and we put more pressure on their side with numbers.”
Coming off back-to-back 14-win seasons, Ohio State entered as the No. 13 team in the preseason poll. It has since fallen out of the rankings after dropping four of their last five games.
The Buckeyes are still a talented team. Four of its losses to ranked teams have come by one goal, but it failed to score first in any of those games. Ohio State fixed that trend in the third quarter when Raleigh Kerst scored in the fifth minute to take a 1-0 lead.
Maryland hadn’t won when failing to score first this season. Its offense has failed to construct a comeback effort, particularly against tough competition.
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With just over ten minutes to go, the Terps’ offense finally broke through. Callie Rogers dribbled into the attacking circle, sliding an entry pass to a wide-open Annemijn Klijnhout directly in front of the goal to tap it in for the tie.
Maryland controlled the ball much of the fourth quarter, but the final two minutes of regulation swung momentum in the Buckeyes’ direction. They kept the ball away from the Terps, even attempting a shot at the buzzer.
While Friday was Maryland’s first overtime game of the season, Ohio State had played in three. The Buckeyes rallied off their late fourth quarter momentum to outshoot the Terps 3-0 in overtime, scoring the game’s final goal in the seventh minute.“This was their fourth [overtime game], and I think it led to them having more experience in a competitive setting,” Meharg said. “We fought back into the game, and now we have the experience of being in overtime, and we’ll take this together and head out to Michigan State on Sunday.”
