The 2025 season was a mixed bag for Maryland women’s soccer, full of new beginnings and unfortunate endings.
The Terps kicked off their season on a hot streak, winning their first three matches in shutout
fashion for the first time since 1996 — long before any current Maryland player had been born. The squad showed signs of life for the first time in recent memory.
Then it all came crashing down. A shutout loss to Old Dominion was the first sign of offensive struggles which became a trend for the Terps, who finished with a minus-9 goal differential on the season. Maryland also experienced significant struggles on the road, failing to score a single goal through seven away games.
This tumultuous campaign marked the end of Michael Marchiano’s first full year as head coach, having taken over midway through the 2024 season for the ousted Meghan Ryan Nemzer. Marchiano’s player-first approach was a huge switch in program philosophy and paid early dividends, as the Terps won their most games since 2019.
Maryland finished with a 6-11-1 record, a steady improvement from its 4-10-5 performance in 2024. While the Terps have cultivated a new culture under fresh leadership, much needs to be done to elevate the program to national relevance.
Nonconference play
Maryland went 4-3 during nonconference play and scored 12 goals, eight of which were in the first two games of the season.
The season began with three dominant victories over Lehigh, St. Francis, and UMBC, shutting out each school in dominant defensive showings.
The Terps were then silenced by Old Dominion, showing flashes of their former selves in a 2-0 loss. Following a narrow win over Navy, Maryland dropped back to back games to Florida and James Madison to wrap up their nonconference slate of matches.
The captain tandem of Kelsey Smith and Ava Morales shone during this stretch, as Smith scored once against Lehigh and twice against St. Francis and Morales scored twice against Lehigh. Other goalscorers included Lisa McIntyre — who had a brace against St. Francis — and Gemma Davitian, who scored against St. Francis and Navy. Alongside Davitian, Ellie Egeland and Tahirah Turnage-Morales logged the first goals of their collegiate careers.
Goalkeeper Faith Luckey made 25 saves while only allowing seven goals, performing well in her first collegiate starts between the posts.
As Maryland limped to the end of nonconference play, it hoped to make a difference in conference play and capture multiple Big Ten wins for the first time in three years.
Big Ten play
Maryland improved to 2-8-1 in conference play this season, a slight step up from going 1-8-2 in 2024. The Terps nabbed the two wins early in conference play and the draw at the close. Maryland finished tied for last in the Big Ten with seven table points alongside Oregon.
The Terps kicked off Big Ten play with a 4-0 loss to then-No. 8 Penn State before logging two one-score wins over Indiana and Purdue.
These back-to-back conference wins following the Penn State match failed to reroute Maryland, as it went on to drop its next seven Big Ten matchups.
The slump began in Los Angeles, as the Terps were shut out by cross-town rivals USC and then-No. 4 UCLA. They then returned to Ludwig Field, losing a close bout to Illinois, before going back on the road and getting shutout in losses to then-No. 7 Iowa and Nebraska.
Maryland wrapped up its difficult schedule with three home matches. After failing to crawl back from a four goal deficit despite a late surge, the Terps’ 4-3 loss to Michigan ended all remaining hopes of postseason play. The final loss of the season came at the hands of then-No. 25 Ohio State, before a thrilling defensive performance culminated in a scoreless draw to Rutgers to close out the season.
Despite being shutout six times, goalscoring in Big Ten play ballooned this year — the Terps finished with a total of nine goals. Smith and Morales once again led the charge, with each captain scoring three conference goals. Morales netted scores against Purdue, Illinois and Michigan while Smith tallied goals against Indiana, Michigan and Ohio State. Mckinley Heaven was a pleasant surprise for Maryland, making her first career starts in both conference wins and delivering the go-ahead goal in each. Davitian also tacked on a goal in the loss to Michigan.
Looking forward
The 2024 season left many questions about Maryland’s future, and this year was no different. While Marchiano has solidified himself as head coach for the foreseeable future and enacted noticeable change, the program still isn’t at a level where it can compete on the Big Ten stage.
Massive roster changes are an inevitability for this program, with three seniors departing and four redshirt juniors — including captains Smith and Turnage-Morales — still determining their fates.
“I don’t think we gave ourselves much of a chance to be competitive,” Marchiano said. “They wanted it more than we did. We need players who are going to give that, and whether that’s players [on] this team or players that we add to the program moving forward, that’s only something that they can answer if they’re willing to give what it takes to be successful at this level.”
Marchiano has so far landed seven commits for the 2026 season, with more to come from the transfer portal and international recruitment.
That being said, Maryland remains at the bottom of the barrel in Big Ten soccer. The Terps missed the Big Ten tournament for the sixth year in a row and still have a long way to go to end that streak.
