Title took care of Terps' two goals

After a preseason scrimmage against Penn State in late August, coach Missy Meharg talked about how her Terrapin field hockey team would get past its heartbreaking loss to North Carolina in the 2009 national championship. This year's team was different, she emphasized, and had moved on from the demoralizing defeat.

The Hall of Fame coach's early-season evaluation was on point. The Terps, after all, had lost seven seniors to graduation, while the defending national champion Tar Heels returned seven starters. The Terps ranked behind their ACC rivals in most preseason publications, which pegged North Carolina as the favorite to repeat as champions.

But for the Terps — even after losing a senior class that included members with three national championships — expectations for greatness never wavered. After that late-summer practice, Meharg and senior co-captains Alicia Morawski and Katie O'Donnell all said their goals for 2010 were a national championship and revenge for their loss to the Tar Heels.

"It's Maryland field hockey," Meharg said. "We like to put ourselves in a position to win the ACC Championship and to win the NCAA Championship. Having done that, you always have to believe you can."

The Terps accomplished both goals on the same stage, topping North Carolina in double overtime, 3-2, in the national championship game Nov. 21 in front of a standing-room-only home crowd that numbered nearly 2,400.

"It was great," O'Donnell said. "After four years of hockey, to go out against your biggest rival is remarkable. To know that I'm leaving with one-up on UNC and that I will be able to have two national championships under my belt is something that not many other people will be able to say leaving their college careers behind them."

The Terps' (23-1) win was one of three against the Tar Heels this season. They were also victorious in the regular season and again in the ACC Championship. All three of North Carolina's losses came at the hands of the Terps.

"Just a really fitting finish for us after last year," Meharg said.

The Terps ran through their regular-season schedule, slipping up only once in a 4-2 loss to Princeton that O'Donnell said gave the team extra motivation for the rest of the season.

"Last year, when we were undefeated, it always puts more pressure on you to win, and we may not have been focused on the present. But this year, having lost, it really helped us build and work together as a team," O'Donnell said. "Losing's not easy when you come from a winning program, so it definitely helped us in the long run because we all went through it together."

After that loss, the Terps never looked back, rattling off a 15-game winning streak en route to an ACC championship and a national championship. Four Terps — O'Donnell, defender Jemma Buckley, midfielder Megan Frazer and forward Jill Witmer — were named All-Americans, and O'Donnell claimed national player of the year honors.

Following their victory over the Tar Heels, the Terps took time to relish their seventh national title, the second-most in NCAA history. But Meharg was already looking ahead to 2011 and beyond.

Entering next season, fewer question marks seem to be facing the Terps, who lose just three seniors. O'Donnell will be gone, but the emergence of freshmen Hayley Turner, who scored the first goal in the national championship game, and Witmer, the ACC Freshman of the Year, should ensure that her departure won't cripple an offense that will likely again rank among the nation's best.

"We're all just still chasing Old Dominion," said Meharg, alluding to the owner of the sport's most national championships. "They have nine, so let's keep it going."

jengelke@umdbk.com