After 2009, men's soccer enters postseason cautiously

No one on the Terrapin men's soccer team has fond memories of last season's ACC Tournament — not of its beginning, and certainly not of its end.

With a hurricane storming through Cary, N.C., ACC officials initially told the Terps and coach Sasho Cirovski that all second-round games would be postponed, if not canceled altogether. So Cirovski let his players enjoy the afternoon, setting them free at about noon so they could venture off in search of bites around town.

Only 45 minutes later, Cirovski received a call saying the Terps were indeed still set to play at 3 p.m.

Rushing around, Cirovski and his assistants rounded up the entire team and went to WakeMed Soccer Park. Needing a win to solidify their NCAA Tournament resumé, the Terps faced a stout Virginia defense. Despite a man advantage, the team failed to score and eventually allowed the Cavaliers to snatch a decisive late goal.

"Last year was a debacle," Cirovski said. "They were devastated."

The early exit from the tournament gave the team a quiet bus ride home and the Cavaliers a springboard to the ACC Tournament title and a top seed in the NCAA Tournament.

This year, the No. 3 Terps (14-2-1) will look to erase those memories and replace them with more pleasant ones. Their postseason run starts this afternoon back in Cary, N.C., against a young Clemson team that narrowly lost to the Terps earlier this season.

"We're going there to win; that's the bottom line," Cirovski said. "We have great respect for the ACC Tournament. I think it's the hardest tournament in the country. But we're very focused."

But the sting from last year still weighs some on the team.

"It was heartbreaking," midfielder Matt Kassel said. "It was a major letdown for us."

The disappointment continued over that weekend as the Terps watched their name appear in a peculiar spot in the NCAA Tournament bracket: the first round. For the first time in eight years, the Terps went unseeded in the tournament, making their road to the College Cup that much more trying.

"It shows how important the ACC Tournament is," Kassel said.

This season, the Terps, who are slotted at No. 4 in the latest RPI rankings, should have no problem garnering a seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. But they're also fighting for a No. 1 seed, which would ensure home-field advantage until the College Cup in Santa Barbara, Calif.

"It's going to motivate a lot of people tomorrow, especially how we felt afterwards," forward Casey Townsend said yesterday. "We never expect to lose."

Today, the Terps enter the conference tournament with a No. 2 seed, a 10-game win streak and as good a chance as any ACC team at the championship. The Terps have beaten all but two conference opponents — No. 1 seed North Carolina and No. 5 seed Boston College — and would not have to face either until the championship game Sunday.

Their slate starts against Clemson, though, which rebounded from an early deficit to nearly upset the Terps at Ludwig Field on Oct. 16.

"We got a little complacent," Townsend said of the Terps' 3-2 victory. "We have to stay focused for 90 minutes."

"This is a Clemson team that played very well against us here," Cirovski said. "It presents a good challenge to see how much we've learned since that game."

With no hurricanes in the forecast, the Terps are hoping their trip back down to North Carolina ends more favorably. After last year's disaster, they have no doubt it will.

"We know what we're capable of doing," Kassel said. "We know we can win."

ceckard@umdbk.com