The Terrapin men’s basketball team easily defeated Delaware State tonight, 72-54. The game wasn’t close from the opening tip, and the Terps lead by 19 points at the half. But after suffering two close losses to nationally-ranked opponents, this win was good for the Terps, who play Elon Friday before facing Penn State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Dec. 1.
Click the jump for some thoughts on tonight’s win. (more…)
Delaware State isn’t that big. Their biggest player is 6′9″. It certainly shows through the first 20 minutes.
Forward Dino Gregory, who finished with his first double double against Illinois last Friday, already has scored 10 points while reserve center Berend Weijs has six. Meanwhile forward Jordan Williams has finished the first half with zero points for the second straight game.
Even with Williams not scoring, the Terps have jumped out to a 40-21 halftime lead on Delaware State and look to be in control. Guard Cliff Tucker leads all scorers with 11 points.
The Terps currently hold an overwhelming 20-3 rebounding advantage.
Halftime Statistics:
Rebounds – Terps 20, DSU 3
Assists – Terps 6, DSU 5
Turnovers – Terps 9, DSU 10
Blocks – Terps 0, DSU 3
Steals – Terps 2, DSU 4
Shooting:
Terps – 16/28 (FG), 4/6 (Three), 4-4 (FT)
DSU – 8-20 (FG), 4-13 (Three), 1-2 (FT)
Chris Eckard is the Diamondback’s Terrapin men’s basketball beat reporter. Reach him at ceckard@umdbk.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ceckard.
Just one day after Terrapin field hockey forward Katie O’Donnell was named a first-team All-American by the National Field Hockey Coaches Assosciation, the senior co-captain has been selected by the organization as the Division I National Player of the Year.
After leading the Terps to a 23-win season that culminated Sunday with a national championship, the honor was expected for O’Donnell, who was also named the Sportswoman of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation earlier this season.
O’Donnell notched 98 points this season, a program record. Her career point total of 306 is an ACC record and the third-best mark in NCAA Division I history. She also holds the ACC’s career assist record and is second in career goals.
O’Donnell played a major role in the Terps’ last two games of the season. Against Ohio State in the Final Four, she recorded her seventh career hat trick. Then in the national championship against North Carolina, she started the play that led to Megan Frazer’s game winning goal with 2:10 left in double overtime.
“I’ve had four years of great hockey and great coaching,” O’Donnell said after the Terps’ 3-2 victory over the Tar Heels Sunday. “I couldn’t of asked for a better four years, and a better senior year.”
O’Donnell plans to spend the spring semester training with the U.S. National Team in preparation for the Pan Am Games and the Olympics. After those competitions, O’Donnell will return to this university to complete the requirements for a degree in education.
Jakob Engelke is The Diamondback’s Terrapin field hockey beat reporter. He can be reached at jengelke@umdbk.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jakob_Engelke.
Four players on the Terrapin field hockey team were named to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association’s All-America teams, the organization announced earlier today.
Forward Katie O’Donnell and midfielder Megan Frazer landed on the first team, while freshman forward Jill Witmer placed on the second team and defender Jemma Buckley earned a spot on the third team.
The Terps (23-1) defeated North Carolina in double overtime, 3-2, Sunday to claim the program’s seventh national championship.
With the recognition, O’Donnell became the first Terp since Paula Infante to be named a first-team All-American four times. O’Donnell finished her career with 98 goals, 108 assists and 306 total points, which is an ACC record and good for third best all-time in the NCAA.
Frazer scored the game winning goal with 2:10 remaining in the second overtime of Sunday’s championship game against the Tar Heels. After recieving a pass from O’Donnell, Frazer deked around a North Carolina defender before rifling a hard shot past Tar Heel goalkeeper Jackie Kintzer, who was also named a first-team All-American.
Witmer, who was named the ACC’s Freshman of the Year earlier this month, burst onto the collegiate scene this season, scoring 17 goals en route to 41 points.
Buckley, in just her first season as a Terp after transferring from the University of Western Australia, scored 22 goals and dished out 11 assists.
The ACC placed 15 total players on all three teams, with North Carolina adding four of their own.
Feel free to check out highlights from Sunday’s game in a video created by umterps.com here. Even if you’re not a fan of field hockey, check out the video and at the very least skip ahead to :55 second mark, which is where Frazer’s game winning goal starts.
It was a rip — don’t take my word for it, check the tape.
Jakob Engelke is The Diamondback’s Terrapin field hockey beat reporter. He can be reached at jengelke@umdbk.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jakob_Engelke.
The 2010 Terrapin Cup was all but over Saturday evening when another win by a Terrapin swimmer prompted another “Let’s go Maryland” chant from its throng of red-clad supporters.
The cheer rang through the vast pool deck at Eppley Recreation Center, its words still crisp despite the echo. The delight was deserved, as Terp fans had ample reason to celebrate.
The Terp men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams repeated as Terrapin Cup champions this weekend, posting times whose impacts will last long into the season.
The Terp women (4-1) were nothing short of dominant during the three-day championship meet, snatching their third straight Terrapin Cup title with ease. They finished the event with 1065.50 points, capturing wins in all five relay races in the process.
“The women overall, certainly extremely happy with some of the results that we got,” coach Sean Schimmel said. “Not just the top people, our top performers like Ginny [Glover], Annie [Fittin], Meghan [Lafferty], Addi [Koelle], all those girls, but really from top to bottom, the team performed well and we got some really fast times for the third week in November, so that was good.”
Victoria Cassidy had a third-place finish in the 500 free (4:52.34) and a win in the 400 IM (4:18.69) that was nearly three seconds faster than her preliminary time. Both marks registered as NCAA “B” cut times and highlighted an impressive weekend for the newcomer.
“Victoria’s come in as a freshman and she’s certainly filled in that role that we brought her here for,” Schimmel said. “She’s worked really hard up to this point and she had a great weekend. She went best times in all three of her individual events, she won the 400 IM, she went best time in the 200 back and 500 free was her best time also.”
The Terp men (1-4) held off a strong Connecticut side to clinch their second Terrapin Cup in as many years. Several swimmers put themselves in prime position for favorable seeds in ACC Championships as well.
“If we had the same performances that we did all weekend and the points didn’t show up like that, I would still be extremely satisfied,” Schimmel said. “Because really this is about preparing ourselves for championship season, it’s about putting times up, and we’ve done that all weekend.”
Andrew Relihan, a junior co-captain, fulfilled his pre-meet goal as he posted a pair of “B” cut times in the 200 IM (1:49.14) and the 200 back (1:46.54), a race Schimmel considered his best swim of the weekend.
“I’m just happy that I’m ahead of where I was this time last year,” said Relihan, who competed in four of the men’s five relays. “Still got a lot of work to do, but I’m pretty happy that I threw up those times, and it’ll put me in a good place for ACCs, so I’m pretty pumped about that.”
Both teams illustrated impressive depth as only one of the 40 events, the women’s 1650 free, did not feature at least one Terp swimmer or diver in the top finals heat.
– Matt Castello
Well the Terrapin men’s soccer team certainly didn’t show any rust coming off a week of rest for the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The No. 2 Terps (17-2-1) struck for three goals in the first half, scoring their first within six minutes of the game, and raced past unseeded Penn at Ludwig Field tonight. Terps midfielders John Stertzer and Matt Kassel and defender Greg Young scored the goals for the Terps.
Stertzer started the night off with a score from six yards out. He slid in and pushed the ball to the left side of the net after forward Jason Herrick put in the pass. He scored in the 9th minute.
In the 25th minute, forward Casey Townsend ran under a ball in the penalty box but was dragged down by Penn defender Thomas Brandt to draw the penalty kick. Kassel nailed the shot, going right once again, to put the Terps up 2-0.
Then Young capped off the half with a goal in the 44th minute. He found himself wide open with the ball on the right side of the penalty box after Kassel send in a free kick and the ball bounced straight to him. Young crushed the shot to the upper crossbar and it hit downward into the net.
Halftime Statistics:
Shots – Terps 9, Penn 4
Corners – Terps 2, Penn 3
Saves – Terps 2, Penn 2
Fouls – Terps 4, Penn 12
Scoring summary:
8:03, Terps John Stertzer six yards out from Jason Herrick.
25:10, Terps Matt Kassel on penalty kick
43:24, Terps Greg Young from eight yards out from Matt Kassel
Cautions and ejections:
Yellow card – Penn Loukas Tasigianis
Yellow card – Penn Jason Gorskie
Chris Eckard is the Diamondback’s Terrapin men’s soccer beat reporter. Reach him at ceckard@umdbk.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ceckard.
The Terrapin men’s soccer team is set to start its quest for a fourth national championship against unseeded Penn in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Quakers defeated Bucknell 1-0 in overtime on Thursday to earn a date with the Terps today. The No. 2 Terps (17-2-1) are coming off their second ACC Tournament championship in three years and have the confidence and depth to make a deep run this season.
Up until now, the Terps still haven’t ironed out their starting lineup – specifically the backline. Due late season injuries to defenders London Woodberry and Ethan White, coach Sasho Cirovski had to reinvent the unit. White is healthy again, but Woodberry is still out it seems. The backline today is made up of Taylor Kemp, White, Alex Lee and Greg Young. I’m not sure what the configuration will be just yet though.
Temperatures are much cooler than last Sunday, when the Terps last played, and several of them are sporting long-sleeves underneath their white jerseys.
The winner of today’s game faces No. 15 Penn State next Sunday. Penn State defeated Old Dominion 4-1 earlier today. No. 7 South Carolina defeated Duke, while No. 10 Michigan beat UCF. Both USC and UM are in the Terps’ bracket.
Chris Eckard is the Diamondback’s Terrapin men’s soccer beat reporter. Reach him at ceckard@umdbk.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ceckard.
The Terps were all over American from start to finish in the first half and take a 44-20 lead into the locker room.
Eight Terps scored in the half, and coach Brenda Frese clearly snapped the Terps out of slow starts. They never let the Eagles get into a rhythm, forcing 13 turnovers in the half and running the floor.
We saw a change in the starting five today, as freshman Natasha Cloud took over for Kim Rodgers. Cloud ran the point and Anjale Barrett took over for Rodgers at the 2.
Alyssa Thomas and Barrett led the charge for the Terps, with 10 and nine points, respectively. Thomas tallied six of the Terps’ first eight points, and Barrett seems willing to be the team’s shooter (3-for-3 from behind the arc).
The Terps brought serious intensity to the floor, and when the Eagles showed signs of life with a nine-point run, the Terps snuffed them out with a Barrett three and a couple tough buckets from Diandra Tchatchouang.
FG %: Terps- 63%, AU- 26.7 % 3FG%: Terps-50%, AU-10% FT%: Terps-85.7%, AU-75% Turnovers: Terps-11, AU-13
Three different players scored a goal, and midfielder Megan Frazer scored the game winner with just two minutes left in double overtime to lift the Terrapin field hockey team over North Carolina, 3-2, to win the NCAA national championship.
After 98 minutes of action, the Terps finally broke through in the second overtime frame as Frazer took a backhanded shot from the top of the circle to beat Tar Heel goalkeeper Jackie Kintzer.
Before that goal, Kintzer had been unbeatable, recording nine saves, five of which came in overtime.
The Terps made it to overtime off a late goal from defender Harriet Tibble, who scored on a backhanded shot in the game’s 63rd minute. Forward Hayley Turner got the action started in the game’s fifth minute off a penalty corner when she recieved a backdoor feed from defender Jemma Buckley.
With the win, the Terps avenged their 2009 title loss to the Tar Heels and won the program’s seventh national championship. This is the third time this season that the Terps (23-1) defeated North Carolina (22-3)
That’s all for now, but make sure to check out Monday’s Diamondback for a full recap from today’s exciting game.
Jakob Engelke is The Diamondback’s Terrapin field hockey beat reporter. He can be reached at jengelke@umdbk. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jakob_Engelke.
The No. 21 Terps will deal with yet another local foe today at Comcast Center when they host American.
The Terps are 14-1 all-time against the Eagles, and haven’t lost 1986. The Eagles look decent on paper, though. They return the 2010 Patriot League Player of the Year in Michelle Kirk, as well as all-Patriot League forward Liz Leer.
This is the last of a four-game road swing for the Eagles. While they lost at High Point, they topped East Carolina and Mount St. Mary’s. The Terps will see East Carolina, an up-tempo team, next weekend. The Pirates appear to play similarly to the Terps, so American has already seen what the Terps are going to throw at them with their relentless pace.
Some things to look for tonight: