For O’Donnell, a final weekend to win

It was three years ago when Katie O'Donnell realized what Hall of Fame coach Missy Meharg knew from the moment she first saw O'Donnell play: She could become one of field hockey's all-time greats.

On Sept. 22, 2007, in what was just her second-ever ACC match and ninth overall at the Division I level, O'Donnell burst onto the collegiate scene with a definitive performance that belied her inexperience.

During a game against Wake Forest, O'Donnell received a pass from defender Ameliet Rischen and looked up to see that only Demon Deacon goalkeeper Crystal Duffield stood between her and the goal.

O'Donnell sprinted toward the cage, gaining entry into the shooting circle. Alone with a charging Duffield, O'Donnell faked left, sending Duffield flying in her direction. But with a deft flick of the wrists, O'Donnell pulled right and fired a shot into the empty cage, giving the Terps a decisive lead in the game's 59th minute.

"The crowd went crazy," O'Donnell said earlier this month. "That was the time that I was like, ‘I do belong here.' … That was my ‘aha!' moment."

O'Donnell paced the Terps with two goals in their 3-2 victory over the Demon Deacons that day. She scored the game's first and last goals, including the game-winner off her second-half breakaway.

Since that day, O'Donnell, a 5-foot-2-inch, Blue Bell, Pa., native whose teammates and coaches simply call "Odie," hasn't stopped scoring. Her name sits atop nearly every statistical category in program history, and her 310 career points are an ACC record. With this weekend's Final Four, which begins today, O'Donnell will likely add to those astounding numbers, distancing herself from future players.

But of more importance to O'Donnell is the opportunity to win a second national championship, something that would further cement her legacy as one of the sport's all-time greats.

"Odie — what can you say," Meharg said earlier this season. "She's probably one of the most special field hockey players I've ever had the opportunity to work with. She loves competition. She loves to be the one to finish a game, and she wants the responsibility of that."

O'Donnell's need to excel isn't anything new to the people who have known her since she was young. Her mother, Kathy O'Donnell, said her daughter has been competitive almost since birth.

Kathy O'Donnell can remember a tiny Katie trying to play sports with her older brother and two older sisters at a young age. O'Donnell's older siblings, all of whom played varsity athletics in college, never took it easy on her, whether it was in "soccer, checkers or cards."

"It's just about everything," Kathy O'Donnell said when asked about what winning means to her daughter. "When she loses, she gets upset. Not like she pouts or anything like that, but she won't stop thinking about it. Before she plays a game, she thinks about her game. Sometimes, she'll dream about different moves that she'll make or things like that."

O'Donnell's competitive spirit continued throughout high school. As a freshman starter on Wissahickon High School's varsity field hockey team, O'Donnell and her teammates faced a 3-2 deficit in an elimination-style district tournament game. O'Donnell, even at her young age, took control, scoring two unassisted goals to give her team a 4-3 victory.

"That's the kind of player she is," Wissahickon coach Lucy Gil said. "She just takes things into her own hands and says, ‘All right, we're going to win today.' … She's also very pragmatic and knows that she has to make her team better. And she has what it takes to do that."

After shining in high school, Meharg said it was a no-brainer to recruit the highly touted O'Donnell. And once she did become a Terp, her career reached new heights.

Last season, she won the Honda Award, field hockey's equivalent to the Heisman Trophy. A month ago, O'Donnell received the Women's Sports Foundation's Sportswoman of the Year honor, joining the company of such distinguished athletes as Venus and Serena Williams and Mia Hamm.

All the accolades and awards are well deserved, according to Meharg and O'Donnell's teammates, who can't say enough about their captain's leadership.

"Odie is a huge leader on the field," defender and fellow senior Amanda Himmelheber said. "Whenever the rest of the team is down, she always steps up her game, and it forces everyone else to step up their game as well."

But despite all of O'Donnell's success, her career hasn't been without its lowlights. In last year's national championship, O'Donnell was held without a point during the Terps' last-second 3-2 loss to North Carolina.

The loss was hard for O'Donnell, but it was even tougher for the team's seniors, who ended their collegiate careers in defeat.

O'Donnell doesn't want to suffer the same fate.

"[A national championship] would just be the icing on the cake" for O'Donnell, her mother said. "It was so disappointing last year when we really were the better team, and we didn't win. She saw the seniors and how heartbroken they were. They were saying things like, ‘This is it. We lost.'"

O'Donnell had already won a national championship with the Terps in 2008, but last year's title loss stands out in a career otherwise defined by winning,

With just two more victories this weekend, 2009's disappointing finish can be easily forgotten. The Terps play Ohio State tonight, and if they advance, a match against either second-seeded North Carolina or third-seeded Virginia awaits in Sunday's championship.

For O'Donnell, whose lifelong drive to succeed has become just as much a part of her identity as the records she holds, the Terps' season-long goal of winning the program's seventh national title isn't just a desire — it's a necessity.