Preview of the 2024 Maryland Field Hockey Season

Even before a ball is hit, the 2024 season promises to be a big one for Maryland field hockey. The program will celebrate its 50th season this fall, and head coach Missy Meharg hopes to cap this milestone season by adding a ninth national title to her stellar resume.

Now in her 37th season in College Park, Meharg has led the Terps to 27 of the last 28 NCAA Tournaments, including a quarterfinal loss to Virginia last year. But time has passed since Maryland last reached the postseason summit; it hasn't won a national title since 2011, the longest drought since the Terps' first championship in 1987.

Maryland, however, has had more success in the conference. The Terps won the Big Ten regular-season championship in 2022, but a loss in last year's regular-season finale to then-No. 1-ranked Northwestern cost the Terps a repeat conference title.

That same Northwestern team scored a heartbreaking goal in double overtime during the Big Ten Tournament championship, denying Maryland its 13th conference tournament title and first since 2018.

If there was a year Maryland could reach the Big Ten, this would be it. With renovations completed at the College Parks Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex, the Terps will host the 2024 Big Ten tournament championship in an effort to avenge last season’s losses.

Results won't come easy, however, as Maryland went 5-3 against ranked opponents last season. Ten of its 17 regular-season games are against teams that finished in the top 20 of the NFHCA's end-of-season poll last fall.

Main losses

Meharg’s task of reclaiming Maryland’s preeminence will be made more difficult by the loss of several veteran sticks. Last year’s fifth-years Maura Verleg and Margot Lawn and graduate students Nathalie Fiechter, Sammy Popper and Ashlyn Carr all departed, taking with them 51 percent of Maryland’s assists and 39 percent of its goals from last season.

Lawn and Popper in particular will be tough to replace offensively. Lawn led Maryland with 12 assists and 30 total points, with the midfielders' assist total tied for the eighth-best in Division I. Popper tied for second on the team with 10 goals, five of which were game-winning. For a team that went 7-4 in one-score games last year, finding someone else who can produce when the margins are narrow is crucial.

Newcomers

Meharg has been active in addressing Maryland's concerns during the recruiting process, prioritizing quality over quantity in the transfer portal and recruiting a number of interesting freshmen.

Junior forward Fleur Knopert played her first two years at Ball State and led the team with 13 goals and 28 points last year. Knopert, a two-time All-Mid Atlantic Conference first-team all-state selection, finished 31st in Division I in points per game last year.

The other transfer coming to College Park this fall is Alina Gerke, who played midfield for Vermont for three years. Gerke was an NFHCA All-Northeast Region first team midfielder after scoring a career-high 10 goals and 22 points last year. She was also named to the America East All-Conference first team twice and the second team once.

The Dutch and Germans continue Meharg's tradition of recruiting players with roots abroad. After both scoring three winning goals for their teams last year, the Terps can only hope to continue this.

Maryland also has several highly sought-after recruits from the 2024 class joining the team this season.

Freshman AJ Eyre, a native of nearby Glenelg, Md., led all Maryland high school players in points last year and was a three-time 2A state champion. She'll be joined in midfield by Callie Rogers, a native of Richmond, Va., who MAX Field Hockey was named the eighth-best prospect of the class of 2024 in June 2022.

Also joining the Terps from France and the Netherlands are first-years Adle Jardemar and Annemijn Klijnhout, respectively. Jardemar anchored the U-18 and U-20 French defenses to bronze medals in 2022 and 2024, while Klijnhout made multiple appearances for the Dutch U-18 team.

Up top, the trio of Ella Gaitan, Kristina Johnson and Ellie Goldstein will look to add depth and firepower to Maryland's attack. The three freshmen from New Jersey, Texas and Connecticut were all ranked in MAX Field Hockeys class of 2024 top 100 players.

Notable returnees

But it’s the returning core that will take Maryland to the top. Seniors Carly Hynd, Hope Rose, Kylee Niswonger and Paige Kieft and fifth-year Rayne Wright look to replace the experience of their graduated teammates.

The biggest burdens will fall on Hope, a first-team NFHCA All-American who led Maryland with 13 goals last season, and Wright, who has racked up nearly 1,300 minutes of playing time in the back line as captain. Their leadership will be critical as they lead the next iteration of Maryland field hockey.

Former freshman phenom Alyssa Klebasko will look to improve on her sensational debut season in goal. Klebasko, an Odenton, Maryland native, went 14-3 last season with the second-best save percentage (83.8%) and third-best goals-against-game average (1.0) among qualified Division I goalies.

These numbers earned Klebasko a call-up to the 2024 U.S. Under-21 Women's National Team, along with teammates Rose, Gaitan and Josie Hollamon.

Hollamon, who was still in the top 10 two years ago, is entering her second season with the intention of continuing where the Terps left off.

And while she didn’t make the team last year, the Terps will likely lean heavily on returning graduate student Emma DeBerdine. The two-time All-American midfielder was one of four current and former Terps on the U.S. Olympic hockey team in Paris last month. After taking last year off to train at the collegiate level, DeBerdine is using her final year of eligibility to push her Terps to a championship.

Looking ahead

The road to lifting the trophy in Ann Arbor, Mi., begins on familiar ground for the Terps. Fresh off a 13-1 win in their final preseason game against William & Mary, they open the season at home against Louisville on Aug. 30 at 8 p.m. and Drexel on Sept. 1 at noon before traveling to Evanston, Ill., where Northwestern hosts the Big Ten/ACC Cup.

Maryland will play Boston College on Sept. 6 at 4 p.m. and Duke on Sept. 8 at noon in rematches of games from last year's event. The Terps lost to Duke 2-1 and defeated Boston College 1-0 in overtime.

The Big Ten/ACC Cup is the only trip away from College Park until October for the Terps, who will need to build early momentum to solidify their title aspirations in the nation's most challenging conference. But with Meharg's track record and a promising group of players, the Terps are equipped with everything they need to make the program's 50th anniversary even more special.