Poor first quarter start dooms No. 9 Maryland field hockey in route to earliest conference tournament exit ever

(Courtesy of Maryland Athletics)

But five minutes into the game, No. 4 Iowa earned its starting time penalization corner of the game and midfielder Ellie Holley hit the brawl perfectly over Terps goalie Noelle Frost to take the early lead.

Shortly afterward, midfielder/defender Esme Gibson collection the brawl to the right of the shooting circle and sent a pass to frontwards Alex Wesneski who hit the ball into the left side of the goal to take a 2-0 lead in the commencement seven minutes of the game.

No. 9 Maryland field hockey could non muster whatever kind of response with ane of their penalty corners blocked and the other was cleared before the Terps were even able to become a shot off. The poor offset quarter start ultimately doomed the team equally they fell 3-0 for their first ever conference tournament quarterfinals loss.

"Nosotros came out a little boring," caput jitney Missy Meharg said. "Iowa is a very powerful team and dominated from the get go in the first fifteen minutes, so information technology really set the tempo for the friction match. Although we played a sustained brand of hockey in the third and 4th, information technology was a lot of good hockey as well late."

Midway through the second quarter, the Hawkeyes struck again when Wesneski scored off a pass by Gibson that was deflected past Terps stick to take a 3-0 lead. Wesneski finished the game with eight shots and iii of them on goal.

The Hawkeyes flat out dominated the first half and were able to fly up the field on resets and takeaways catching the Terps by surprise, which immune them to take an early lead.

Iowa outshot Maryland six-3 in the showtime half, and the Terps were only able to muster a total of five shots with none on goal.

"I call back what'due south disappointing for u.s.a. is that nosotros have been playing several games in a row with sustained passing and today our passing was behind everybody," Meharg said. "We were passing to people's back feet, and so we had to slow downward."

The Hawkeyes were able to take advantage of their opportunities despite only taking eight shots and their defense was clutch, taking the brawl away everytime the Terps moved into the shooting circle.

"They are a very good squad and their defenders are besides really good," midfielder Kyler Greenwalt said. "I feel like we didn't do all we could. I remember their defense was the same as the final three times so it's not similar we don't know the defenders or their styles."

Frost recorded three saves in the match while Iowa's goalie Grace McGuire was rarely challenged.

Midfielder and team captain Brooke DeBerdine returned to the starting lineup after missing the last three games with an injury and recorded one shot in the loss. Brooke DeBerdine's shot, with five minutes left in the game, missed the net and caught McGurie'south attention, but the shot rolled out of bounds before any Terp could tap it into the empty net.

With their early exit from the Big Ten Tournament, the Terps' impressive streak of 25 sequent NCAA Tournament appearances could end. In this unconventional season, the NCAA Tournament shrunk from the typical xviii teams to just 12 this year.

The 12-squad NCAA Tournament Field volition be appear Saturday.

Despite the likely disappointing end to the flavour, the next field hockey flavor is just four months abroad and seniors Brooke DeBerdine, Frost and Greenwalt are all returning for the fall 2022 season.

"Nosotros accept been through a journeying and we have been for and with each other thick and thin, win or loss, we are in information technology together," Meharg said. "I couldn't be more than proud…in that location'south nothing regular well-nigh what nosotros have done [this flavor.]"

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Source: http://wmucsports.net/poor-first-quarter-start-dooms-no-9-maryland-field-hockey-in-route-to-earliest-conference-tournament-exit-ever/

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