Almost as significant as the Women's Soccer win in that it was #2 knocking off #1 and repaying the favor from last year's title game. The Terps showed character, by first taking an early 2-0 lead into halftime, losing it midway through the 2nd half, and then fighting back to get the narrow win in the closing minutes, countering the momentum that UNC had built up. Allegiances aside, it really was a terrific college hockey game.
Plus, the crowd of 1,617 was, as far as can be determined, a regular season record for Maryland Field Hockey at home. Only bigger crowd was the one Final Four we hosted.
Keep in mind that this is probably just Round 1 this year. It is inevitable that the two teams will face each other again, either in the ACC Tournament and/or the NCAA Tournament. The former is usually a preview of the latter, so this story is far from over.
Afterward, Coach Missy Meharg observed "there are no undefeated teams in the country anymore" which just about sums up the competitiveness of D1 F-Hockey this year. Most people would still rate Maryland and UNC a notch above the rest, but not by much. The ACC still dominates but as Princeton showed a couple of weeks ago, there are a lot of good teams out there. Stay tuned.
Also, keep in mind that Maryland is the Final Four host this year. The amazing thing to keep in mind is that, after last year when the Terps were national runner-up to UNC, some of us, myself included, were wheezing and spewing on and on about the seven starters Maryland had graduated, blah blah blah, how are these players going to be replaced?, moan kvetch kvetch, can this team even be competitive against the other tops teams, wheez cough cramp....well, the Terps are going to be #1 at the next rankings, so I guess us "experts" screwed that one up. I have rarely been happier to be wrong.
Of course, when the returning players include the national player of the year who was recently named the top female athlete in America (somebody named Katie) and you have returning players like Meg Frazier, Harriet Tibble, Meghan Dean, Amanda Himmelheber, etc.; super freshmen in Jill Witmer and Hayley Turner; a super transfer international like Jemma Buckley; and a vastly underrated defense led by goalie Melissa Vassalotti and senior defender Ali Morawski, you end up with a terrific team.
As I said, stay tuned.
This post was edited on 10/25 12:00 PM by Fekula
Plus, the crowd of 1,617 was, as far as can be determined, a regular season record for Maryland Field Hockey at home. Only bigger crowd was the one Final Four we hosted.
Keep in mind that this is probably just Round 1 this year. It is inevitable that the two teams will face each other again, either in the ACC Tournament and/or the NCAA Tournament. The former is usually a preview of the latter, so this story is far from over.
Afterward, Coach Missy Meharg observed "there are no undefeated teams in the country anymore" which just about sums up the competitiveness of D1 F-Hockey this year. Most people would still rate Maryland and UNC a notch above the rest, but not by much. The ACC still dominates but as Princeton showed a couple of weeks ago, there are a lot of good teams out there. Stay tuned.
Also, keep in mind that Maryland is the Final Four host this year. The amazing thing to keep in mind is that, after last year when the Terps were national runner-up to UNC, some of us, myself included, were wheezing and spewing on and on about the seven starters Maryland had graduated, blah blah blah, how are these players going to be replaced?, moan kvetch kvetch, can this team even be competitive against the other tops teams, wheez cough cramp....well, the Terps are going to be #1 at the next rankings, so I guess us "experts" screwed that one up. I have rarely been happier to be wrong.
Of course, when the returning players include the national player of the year who was recently named the top female athlete in America (somebody named Katie) and you have returning players like Meg Frazier, Harriet Tibble, Meghan Dean, Amanda Himmelheber, etc.; super freshmen in Jill Witmer and Hayley Turner; a super transfer international like Jemma Buckley; and a vastly underrated defense led by goalie Melissa Vassalotti and senior defender Ali Morawski, you end up with a terrific team.
As I said, stay tuned.
This post was edited on 10/25 12:00 PM by Fekula
