A season of highs and lows

Casey Townsend isn't accustomed to losing.

The Terrapins men's soccer senior forward won 71 games during his collegiate career, collecting a national title along the way. So it was no surprise when Townsend struggled to grasp the finality of the Terps' season-ending, 4-2 loss to Louisville in the third round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday.

"I thought we were going to score again," Townsend said, his voice heavy with grief. "We had them on their heels."

But they didn't, and the Terps (14-4-3) made their earliest postseason exit since 2007. Sunday's defeat was the final blow for a team that seemed destined for greatness only six weeks earlier.

After losing seven starters from last year's Elite Eight squad, the Terps shattered expectations in the season's opening weeks. They went undefeated through their first 12 games to forge their best start in 43 years.

As recently as Oct. 14, each of the Terps' preseason goals — an ACC regular-season title, ACC Tournament title and NCAA championship — seemed well within their grasp.

They had topped rival Duke, 4-2, before a record crowd of 7,957 at Ludwig Field. They were atop the ACC standings, were about to earn their third No. 1 ranking of the season and were outscoring opponents by a combined 42-12.

"We worked for everything we got early on," forward Matt Oduaran said. "So I really wasn't surprised by how we were able to do. I was more surprised by how we performed in October and November."

The troubles started when midfielder Sunny Jane was handed a red card against the Blue Devils, sidelining him for their 1-1 tie at North Carolina the following weekend.

It was the first in a string of suspensions and injuries that left the Terps without at least one — and at times, as many as three — of their starters over their next four games. Off-kilter for the first time all year, the offense sputtered. After averaging more than two and a half goals through their first 15 games, they scored just one in each of those four outings.

During that stretch, they lost their stranglehold on the ACC regular-season crown and fell to Boston College in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.

"We knew the problem, we talked about it all the time," midfielder Kaoru Forbess said. "We were getting complacent. But it's hard to just turn things around and start playing like you did at the start of the year just because you want to. It's not that simple."

The Terps entered the NCAA Tournament on a four-game winless streak, their longest rut in seven years. That ended any hope of securing a top-four seed, which guarantees home-field advantage through the quarterfinals of the 48-team NCAA tournament.

Still, the Terps remained committed to their ultimate goal: capturing the program's fourth national championship.

"I'll sacrifice the ACC Tournament for a chance to go to Alabama [for the College Cup]," coach Sasho Cirovski said after the Terps lost to the Eagles. "So all of our focus now is about getting to Alabama."

And for at least 90 more minutes, that again seemed like a realistic possibility. After sitting out the first round with a bye, the fifth-seeded Terps returned to their early-season form with a 4-0 win over West Virginia in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

"We were finally able to put things together," Forbess said. "It seemed like we were ready to make a real run."

But the celebration was short-lived. Seven days later, the 12th-seeded Cardinals handed the Terps their fourth elimination at home in six years.

Louisville's senior-laden attack exposed an inexperienced Terps backline. A spate of injuries and some late-season rotational adjustments left them with just two of their five regular starters on defense.

Yet as the final whistle blew on the Terps' 2011 campaign, no one was making excuses.

"I'm extremely proud of our team because we lost seven starters from last year and three very good underclassmen," Cirovski said. "To come back and have the kind of year we had was special."

The Terps hope to build on this season's successes as they return to training this week. The decisions made in the coming months could temper expectations for next year, however. As many as five non-seniors — defenders Taylor Kemp and London Woodberry, midfielders Sunny Jane and John Stertzer, and forward Patrick Mullins — could bolt for MLS.