For 28 years, Maryland field hockey and Duke matched up at least once a year as fierce ACC rivals. Even since the Terps joined the Big Ten in 2014, the two squads have kept the rivalry alive, squaring off every season – with the exception of the COVID-affected 2020 campaign – since 2015.
On Sunday, the rivalry will continue, as the second-seeded Terps and the Blue Devils will battle for the sixth time in the NCAA Tournament. Game time is set for 1 p.m. from the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex in College
Park. The contest will be streamed on ESPN Plus.
What happened last time
Then-No. 13 Maryland and then-No. 6 Duke played a classic all the way back on Sept. 6 as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, hosted at a neutral site by Boston College.
Duke scored a pair of goals in the first quarter to grab what seemed to be a commanding lead. Ashley Stockdale – who scored twice in Friday’s win over No. 7-seed Iowa – got Duke on the board with a point-blank tip-in, and Juliette Schulten added on with a penalty-corner finish. The deficit was the first of just three that Maryland has faced this season.
Maryland halved the deficit early in the second frame when Francisca Eschoyez nailed a penalty-corner goal of her own, but after that, the Terps struggled to muster additional offense. While the Maryland defense kept Duke off the board the rest of the way, the offense couldn’t find the equalizer.
That was until the 59th minute, when Ella Beach improbably redirected Rachael Whitehead’s long-range hit from well outside the shooting circle. The goal – Beach’s first of her collegiate career – came after Maryland wasted a five-minute yellow card assessed to Duke.
Neither team scored during the overtime period, so a shootout was required to decide the result. In the shootout, Maryland goalkeeper Alyssa Klebasko kept the Blue Devils to one goal while her teammates scored three to seal a massive victory for the Terps.
What happened since
Maryland’s victory over Duke served as the first of a number of magical victories within its 14-game season-opening win streak. It was also the first of the Terps’ seven wins over ranked opponents.
Duke rebounded nicely from the loss, winning 10 of its final 12 regular-season games. Six of those wins came against ranked opponents and four came in either overtime or shootout, something that has prepared the Blue Devils quite well for November.
Duke’s results were good enough to earn it a share of the ACC regular-season title, but the Blue Devils were dispatched early in the ACC Tournament by Boston College.
However, the Blue Devils responded well on Friday, upsetting No. 7-seed Iowa, 3-2. Madison Beach scored the overtime winner on a funky shot that deflected off an Iowa defender and sent her side into a frenzy.
Three things to watch
1. Was Duke the better team in September? Maryland allowed a season-high 18 shots against Duke in their first match. The Blue Devils also doubled up the Terps in the corner department, 10-5. If not for Beach’s extraordinary last-minute goal, the early two-score hole would’ve given the Terps their first loss a lot earlier in the year.
2. Familiarity will play a role. These two teams know each other well. However, neither team is the same since September. Missy Meharg referenced this idea after the win over Wagner: “I personally love the fact that we know the team, we know the people and we know the clients. We’ve seen it, we’ve got footage, we’ve got experiences with them, … but all teams are going to be different too right now.”
3. Changing things up. According to Josie Hollamon, the Terps are staying in hotel rooms instead of their own spaces. Hollamon mentioned that a lack of connectivity harmed the Terps in 2023, when they fell to Virginia, 4-0, in the quarterfinals on their home field.
“That just allows us to stay really close-knit as a group,” said Hollamon. “Previously, we didn’t do that, and I think we experienced a little bit of the side effects of what it might be like to just be in your own space on campus, specifically during this time when we all need to be together.”
