Terrapins Announce 2002 Field Hockey Schedule
4/22/2002 8:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
April 22, 2002
2002 Maryland Field Hockey Schedule in PDF Format
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The national finalist Maryland field hockey team and NFHCA Coach of the Year Missy Meharg announced a challenging schedule for the 2002 season, with a scrimmage against the U.S. National Field Hockey Team and a road trip to Chicago among the early-season highlights.
The 2002 Terps lose eight letterwinners to graduation, but feature a cast of rising stars that include 2001 AstroTurf All-American Carissa Messimer (Mountaintop, Pa.), ACC Rookie of the Year Colleen Barbieri (Centereach, N.Y.) and Mid-Atlantic All-Region defensive back Kateri Simon (Fallston, Md.). The squad will meet up with former Terp All-Americans Kate Kauffman, Carla Tagliente and Keli Smith when the national team comes to College Park on Sunday, Aug. 25 at 1 p.m.
"We always play a strong schedule, so there is nothing different there," said Meharg, who may add another preseason home scrimmage to the fall slate. "We play 13 home games, and we have the great opportunity in playing the national team. The schedule will be great for development, because we are going to be a really 'new' team."
As was the case in 2001, nine of Maryland's 2002 regular season matches will be played against teams that finished last season in the NFHCA Top 20. Eight of those contests are against participants of the 2001 NCAA championship tournament, including two of three other national semifinalist teams.
After the match-up with the Stars & Stripes, the Terrapins travel to face Northwestern and New Hampshire in Chicago on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. The squad returns home to face Drexel and Old Dominion, as part of the Terps' annual home-and-away series with the Monarchs, before hosting the sixth-annual Terrapin Invitational. Two teams from the northeast, Boston University and Massachusetts, will take on the D.C. area-American Eagles and Terps in that event on Sept. 13 and 15.
The Terps' perennially rigorous ACC slate opens on the road, with the first conference game on Sept. 21 at Wake Forest. The Terrapins then travel to Virginia on Oct. 6 before Duke comes to town on Oct. 12 and North Carolina visits on Oct. 26. Four out of the five ACC field hockey squads were 2001 NCAA tournament participants and finished among the top 10 in the NFHCA poll.
"The conference schedule speaks for itself," commented Meharg, whose squad has captured the last four ACC titles. "All of the schools should be highly ranked in the preseason polls."
Other 2002 schedule highlights include Maryland's yearly tilts with NCAA semifinalist No. 6 Princeton and No. 17 James Madison on Sept. 27 and Oct. 27, respectively. The Terrapins take on Meharg's alma mater, Delaware, for the 27th time in school history on Sept. 18 and face American for the first time since 1999 on Nov. 3. The 2002 ACC Championships will be held from Nov. 7-10 in Durham, N.C.
Contact: Mark Fratto
301-314-7064 (phone)
301-314-9094 (fax)
301-314-TERP (FanFone)
fratto@wam.umd.edu
