The No. 13 Virginia field hockey team put forth a valiant effort but looked overmatched yesterday, as it was shut out 5-0 by its rival to the North, the No. 3 University of Maryland Terrapins (11-2, 1-1 ACC). The Cavaliers season record dropped to 6-6 (0-2 ACC), putting them at the .500 mark.
Virginia was never able to get into an offensive rhythm. The Cavaliers took four shots during the entire game and had only one short corner opportunity.
"I think we had trouble maintaining an attack because Maryland is such an attacking team and we were focusing on defense which really hurt our attack," junior midfielder Allison Flynn said.
Maryland grabbed an early lead on a penalty corner goal scored by Sara Silvetti. Former Cavalier Emily Beach, who transferred to Maryland after her sophomore season, got an assist on that goal. The Terrapins maintained their offensive aggressiveness with Tiffany Marsh and Jackie Ciconte netting goals before halftime. The Cavaliers faced a 3-0 deficit at the break.
All hopes of a second half Cavalier comeback were quickly vanquished. Two Terrapin goals early in the half deflated Virginia and turned the game into a rout. Maryland sophomore Paula Infante increased the Maryland lead to 4-0, with a goal 4:43 into the half. Two minutes later senior Colleen Barbieri put the nail in the coffin, becoming the fifth different Terrapin to score a goal in the game.
"I think part of the problem was that Maryland is an excellent team," Virginia coach Jessica Wilk said. "They exposed our weaknesses, and there were a lot of things they did well and we didn't adjust to."
Virginia used two goalkeepers against the Terrapins. Junior Katherine Blair played for one half and made 10 saves while surrendering three goals. Senior Logan Carr also played for a half and made eight saves while giving up two goals. Carr and Blair faced a barrage of 33 Terrapin shots.
The Cavaliers now face a stretch of four home non-conference games, beginning Wednesday night against Longwood and including matches with Princeton, Radford and VCU. These contests against unranked opponents should be useful to Virginia leading up to a brutal final stretch of the season with games against the No. 1 North Carolina Tar Heels, the No. 2 Wake Forest Demon Deacons and the No. 5 Duke Blue Devils. Wilk has confidence that Virginia can achieve success during the remainder of the season.
"I still have a lot of confidence in my team even though we got it handed to us a little bit," she said. "We're young and we're going through growing pains, but I like this group. They work hard and want to do the right thing, and they'll grow and develop. It is just taking a little longer than we'd like."
Senior Katie Jo Gerfen said that the loss to Maryland will help motivate the team to work harder.
"I think it [the loss to Maryland] is really going to get us hungrier to come out to practice on Monday," Gerfen said.
The Cavaliers will likely have to work extremely hard to maintain respectability in the ACC, which is the premier conference for field hockey in the entire nation.
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