The Terrapin field hockey team played its first and only preseason scrimmage today, beating Penn State, 3-1.
The Terps will play their annual red/white game tomorrow at 9 a.m., but today’s matchup against the Nittany Lions was the team’s only real competition before the regular season begins on Aug. 27 at Drexel.
The result was expected, as the Terps are a perennial power, while Penn State didn’t even qualify for last season’s NCAA Tournament.
In the first half, the Terps had multiple chances to score but only converted on one of them. In the game’s 26th minute, attacker Lindsey Puckett put home a shot off a pass from attacker Kirstie Dennig.
The Terps took 11 shots in the opening frame, but Nittany Lions’ goalie Ayla Halus stopped seven of them.
Penn State got on the board first, with a goal just 7:18 into the opening frame. Midfielder Brittany Grzywacz controlled a rebound off of Terps’ goalie Melissa Vassalotti (four saves) and put a low shot into the back of the net.
In the second half, both teams struggled initially to do anything offensively. But, the Terps eventually broke through in the 63rd minute, when Janessa Pope recieved a cross-crease pass and shot into a wide-open goal.
Just three minutes later, the Terps struck again when midfielder Katie O’Donnell (five shots) took a pass from defender Jemma Buckley and rifled a shot from the top of the circle past Halus.
Overall it was a good first day for the Terps, as the team didn’t allow a single shot from Penn State in the second half, after allowing seven in the first half.
“We’re very excited,” head coach Missy Meharg said following the scrimmage. “We had a backfield that is completely gone … and to a great Penn State team, we didn’t give up a shot in the second half. … Our goal is to build a defense because we know we’ve got goal scorers and we know we’ve got finishers.”
After today’s game, it looks as if the Terps are well on their way to achieving that goal.
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.