Women’s soccer's early ACC Tournament exit might not be all bad

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The disappointment in the Terrapins women's soccer team was obvious following a 2-0 loss to No. 9 Virginia in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals Sunday.

As the team stretched on the field at Klockner Stadium, it did so in near silence. A few players whispered to each other and a few others laughed quietly at jokes, but the pall of the recent loss hung clearly over the team.

Still, while the No. 16 Terps' hopes of a first-ever ACC Tournament championship were dashed, the hope of an NCAA Tournament run remains, with a national championship as the ultimate goal. And Sunday's loss, as much as the immediate aftermath pained them, could be beneficial in the long run.

"Coaches make the argument every year that the ACC Tournament is stupid sometimes," midfielder Amy O'Sullivan said. "We haven't been one of those teams, but you play, and then you play again."

Last season, the Terps lost on penalty kicks to Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament final, a stinging defeat that was comforted only by the notion the team was perhaps playing its best soccer of the season heading into the NCAA Tournament.

But the Terps, after earning a No. 1 seed for the first time in program history, were ousted by Georgetown on penalty kicks in the second round at Ludwig Field.

The other teams that advanced deep into the ACC Tournament didn't fare much better. The conference champion Demon Deacons also fell in the second round to UC Irvine, while top-seeded North Carolina lost in the third round to eventual champion Notre Dame. Boston College, the anomaly of the four semifinalists, advanced to the College Cup, where it lost in the Final Four.

The teams that fell early in the tournament last season, however, might have benefited the most among the eight participating teams. Duke and Virginia, both quarterfinal losers in the ACC Tournament, advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament. Florida State rested seven All-ACC honorees in a controversial loss to Wake Forest before making a run to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament.

And it's not as though the Terps needed additional experience against top-tier competition, either. Ten of the ACC's 11 teams rank among the top 37 in the RPI rankings, and Sunday's game marked the end of an eight-day stretch during which the Terps played three of the top five teams in the RPI.

"That's hard, with two on the road and such an emotional win on Thursday night," coach Brian Pensky said Sunday. "I think we gave what we could. Virginia's a good team, but I don't think we had our legs today. We were tired."

The Terps have played top-five RPI teams six times, emerging with a 1-3-2 record. That mark, highlighted by a scoreless tie against Stanford in August, should help the Terps secure an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.

But a grueling schedule has worn down the Terps this season. Six games have gone into overtime this year, putting extra minutes on the legs of key players.

"The big thing right now is just resting up and going into the tournament confidently," defender Lydia Hastings said. "We've shown we can beat the big teams. We had a bunch of huge games. Just get our legs back and get our confidence back and go into the tournament strong."

The Terps viewed the quarterfinal match as a chance to avenge a 4-1 loss to the Cavaliers on Sept. 15 that opened ACC play. But with an appearance in Sunday's ACC Tournament final now out of the question, the Terps find themselves with two weeks to prepare for something more significant than the ACC Tournament.

"We obviously aren't happy right now," O'Sullivan said, "but we have time to build as a team and prepare ourselves for the dance, so that's what we're going to do."

dgallen@umdbk.com