The No. 1 Terrapin field hockey team will face No. 3 Virginia in the ACC Championship game tomorrow at noon in a rematch of one of the Terps’ toughest matches this season.
The home team three-seed Cavaliers beat two-seed North Carolina 1-0 in the semifinals yesterday to force the rematch with the top-seeded Terps (19-0, 5-0 ACC).
The Terps might have preferred to face the Tar Heels, who they dominated 4-1 in their final ACC match of the regular season. Against Virginia (18-2, 2-3 ACC) on Oct. 2, the Cavaliers led 1-0 at halftime, the first time the Terps trailed at the intermission all season. But the Terps scored three unanswered second-half goals to win 3-1 in College Park.
But this game will be on the Cavaliers’ home turf in Charlottesville, Va., as they try for their first-ever conference championship. And they should get a boost of confidence from the Terps’ rough second-half performance in yesterday’s semifinal game against the four-seed Demon Deacons.
The Terp squad allowed Wake Forest two scores and a 6-1 penalty corner advantage, which turned a solid three-goal lead into a 3-2 nail biter, though they held on for the victory.
“We knew Wake Forest would bring a tournament-level team,” coach Missy Meharg said. “I am just so proud of our unit for finding a way to maintain the lead and stay composed in the final minutes.”
The defending champion Terps will use the lessons they learned against the Demon Deacons yesterday to refocus for Virginia and go for their first back-to-back ACC title since they won four in a row from 1998-2001.
Kate Yanchulis is The Diamondback’s field hockey beat writer. She can be reached at kyanchulisdbk@gmail.com.