November 28, 2008

Senior Susie Rowe capped a historic senior season with a goal and an assist. Playing with stitches across her nose thanks to a hard hit taken in the semifinal victory over Iowa, Rowe tied the Maryland record for goals scored in a season early in the second half when the third goal of the game was her 28th of the season.

Soph Katie O’Donnell added a goal and an assist for the top-seeded Terrapins (22-2), who rattled off four straight goals after falling behind early against the Demon Deacons (22-4).

Junior Nicole Muracco and senior Danielle Keeley also scored for Maryland, which swept all three of its meetings with Wake Forest this season. The victory was Maryland’s sixth national title.

Junior Hillary Moore led the Wake Forest attack, posting two goals for the team. Moore is the team’s leading scorer, netting seven goals through seven games. Goaltender Crystal Duffield stopped four shots, but Maryland dominated play after Moore gave Wake Forest the lead 17 minutes in.

Muracco tipped in a penalty corner to tie the game and Maryland took the lead shortly before the half as O’Donnell blasted one by Duffield. Rowe and Keeley put the game away with goals less then three minutes apart in the second half.

Maryland outshot Wake Forest 13-5 and had a 9-2 advantage in penalty corners.

To what do the Terps credit the championship?  Just a year ago, Maryland - then defending back-to-back NCAA championships - found itself on the outside looking in when the school served as host for the field hockey final four. According to a Baltimore Sun article:

It made for a “painful” time, Maryland coach Missy Meharg said. In addition, with some Terps away to represent national teams and some taking shortcuts in their lives, 2008 did not get off to a great start, and the coach said the team was not close to being national title contenders.

But Meharg credited Joel Fish, a sports psychologist, for helping the team. In addition, the players opened up to one another by spending a lot of time talking. The camaraderie helped change the direction of the team, which spent six of the nine weeks in the top spot of the National Field Hockey Coaches Association poll and finished winning its past 12 games.

In other NCAA field hockey news, Lindsay McNamara scored the winning goal in double-overtime yesterday at Collegeville, Pa., lifting Bowdoin to a 3-2 victory over Tufts for its second-consecutive NCAA Division 3 field hockey title.

Congrats to all!

Background: Originally considered far too dangerous for female participation, field hockey became popular in the mid 1800’s with women whose previous introduction to sport included the “socially acceptable” outdoor activities of croquette and lawn tennis.

The Basics

Attack
the team possessing the ball as it advances toward the opposing goal.

Blade
flat part of the hockey stick used for hitting the ball. The blade face is always on the left side of the hockey stick.

Bully
neutral re-start to play following a stop in the action, much like a face-off in ice hockey.

Clearing
when the defense stops an offensive attack by passing or dribbling the ball away from its goal; usually done by the goalie.

Covering
defensive maneuver in which a player positions herself between an opposing player and the ball in an effort to intercept a pass or to tackle an opponent moving with the ball.

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We’re mighty! We’re crazy!
We’re never, ever lazy!
We’ll beat you! Defeat you!
We’ll even try to eat you!
We’ll cover you in hot sauce, cuz we’re the best at lacrosse.
Gooooo…. ( Team Name.)

Let’s go (Team Name)
It’s time to score.
Check out those (Opposing Team)
And rock ‘em to the core.
You might think we’re cocky.
But we’re the best at field hockey.
Gooooo….. (Team Name).

May 2, 2008

To date, the U.S. women’s team has only participated in two Olympics. In 1980 women’s field hockey was added to the Olympic lineup, but the U.S. team did not compete because of the United States’ boycott of the Moscow games. The women won the bronze in 1984: and the team’s last Olympic appearance was the 1996 Atlanta games, where they placed 5th overall.

Earning an Olympics spot is a huge accomplishment for the American women. Field hockey is considered the third most popular sport worldwide, behind soccer and cricket, but the U.S. has struggled to be competitive. In countries like the Netherlands, boys and girls begin playing at age four or five. Whole families belong to hockey clubs - much like swim, tennis or golf clubs in the States - with each family member playing on a different team. In the United States field hockey is a girls game and not usually introduced until middle or high school.

Comparing the popularity and history of the sport in the United States to the rest of the world underscores the U.S.’s accomplishment in winning the qualifier tournament. The U.S. bested the Netherlands, a country with a very strong women’s team who claimed the silver at the 2004 Olympics and the gold at both the 2000 and 1996 Olympics. The U.S. also defeated India in a shut-out 4-0 match. This marks the first time in 80 years that an Indian hockey team has not qualified for the Olympics.

The U.S. will join China, Japan, South Africa, Argentina, the Netherlands (they already earned a spot before competing in the qualifying tournament), Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Spain in Beijing this summer.

Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan (aka King Khan), plays the coach at the heart of the film. According to international sources, Khan is bigger than Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt combined. Whoa - this guy’s hot! The script is inspired by the life of former Indian Hockey Goalkeeper and coach of the women’s Indian Hockey team, Mir Ranjan Negi, and his contribution in driving the women’s Indian Hockey team to win the 2002 Commonwealth Games held in Manchester.

We start when Kabir, India’s team captain and most successful Center Forward of all time, flubs a crucial penalty against Pakistan and is castigated by his nation. An Islamic last name and a meteoric temper don’t help his case and Kabir is labeled as a traitor involved in match fixing. He leaves his hometown along with his mother and goes into exile.

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Dawson’s victory will earn her the 2008 Honda Sports Award, given annually to the top women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports, along with automatic nomination for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. She was voted over three other nominees: Jen Long, a junior at Penn State University; Katie O’Donnell, a freshman at the University of Maryland; and Pam Spuehler, a senior at Boston University. The candidates were selected by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association. (more…)

North Carolina got on the board early, with a flick pass by Jesse Gey getting past the Penn State defenders to open teammate Katelyn Falgowski in the third minute of the game.

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