The American University Eagles field hockey team (6-6) fell to the #9 University of Maryland Terrapins (10-3) 2-1 on Oct. 8.
Jacobs Field was packed on that sunny afternoon with 418 fans, the team’s largest home crowd of the season. Many fans were from Maryland and made the short trip down. The Terrapins were immediately dominant offensively, scoring their first goal not even three minutes into the contest. A Maryland attacker aerialed the ball halfway down the field, keeping it out of American’s reach and giving the Terps a relatively open shot at senior goalkeeper Bryn Underwood.
Maryland continued a strong attack, outshooting American 7-2 in the first quarter. The Eagles made those few shots count, as last season’s top goal scorer, junior midfielder Federica Turina Dellamaggiore, lifted in her first of the year to close out the first quarter.
“I was looking for it for a long time now,” Turina Dellamaggiore said. “But it took some pressure off and I’m ready to keep doing it.”
The Terps continued their attack in the second quarter and earned three penalty corners to the Eagles’ one. No goals came out of those corners, but the repeated chances still wore out the American defense.
The third quarter continued with much of the same until at the end of the period, Maryland midfielder Hannah Boss was issued a yellow card that would put the Terps down a player for more than five minutes. Even with fewer players on the field, Maryland successfully caused yet another penalty corner and took the lead over the Eagles with a shot that deflected off of an American defender.
That goal put the Terps up 2-1 with two minutes remaining in the third quarter. Turina Dellamaggiore attempted to level the score with another shot that Maryland blocked. Going into the fourth quarter down by one, the Eagles couldn’t fight back against Maryland. Underwood kept them in the game with four more saves in the final quarter, three of which came on penalty corners, but it was no use, as the offense only mustered two more shots and no corners.
Maryland held American to just two penalty corners in the entire game which proved crucial in their win, as the Eagles have averaged 13 corners per game this season. While the Eagles have faced a bit of a slide in non-conference play, going 3-6 with one non-conference game remaining, they are still a perfect 3-0 in Patriot League games.
“Look, we’re right there in all the matches, and we're playing a really, really tough schedule,” head coach Steve Jennings said. “But I think we just keep going with that and we’re figuring it out as we go. So I’m really excited to see what's going to happen in the next couple of weeks.”
The Eagles will travel to Pennsylvania to face off against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks on Oct. 13 for their next game.
This article was edited by Delaney Hoke and Abigail Pritchard. Copy editing done by Isabelle Kravis and Olivia Citarella.
