COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The top-seeded Maryland Terrapins and SMU Mustangs will vie for the chance to play for the national championship Friday night in Cary, N.C. Kickoff from the SAS Soccer Complex will be at 4 p.m. The game will be televised live by ESPN2 and ESPNU.

LiveStats (www.ncaasports.com) and audio (www.wmucsports) are also available for the game.

The winner will take on either Clemson or New Mexico for the NCAA title.

The Terrapins (17-4-2) advanced to the College Cup with a 1-0 win over Brown in the second round, a 3-1 win over St. John's in the third round and on penalty kicks (4-1) over Akron after playing to a 1-1 draw. SMU advanced with a 2-1 win over San Francisco, a 3-0 win over third-seeded UCLA, a 3-2 win over UNC Greensboro and another 3-2 win over fourth-seeded North Carolina. The Mustangs last two matches have been in the state of North Carolina.

SMU entered the NCAA Tournament unseeded but ranked 14th in the country in the NSCAA poll.

The Terps are making their fourth consecutive trip to the national semifinals and are seeking their first NCAA title since 1968. The University of Maryland is seeking its second national championship of the 2005-06 year after the field hockey team's recent title.

Maryland is just the eighth team in NCAA history to reach the semifinals in four consecutive years.

Maryland is 2-6 all-time in the national semifnals. The Terps last win in the semifinal round came against San Jose State in 1968 -- the same year it shared the NCAA title with Michigan State.

Friday's meeting will be the first-ever between Maryland and Southern Methodist. The two teams did see each other at the preseason Westfield Cup in Akron, but did not play each other.

SMU and Maryland share three common opponents this season in Indiana, UCLA and North Carolina. The Mustangs are 2-1-0 in those games, while the Terps are 1-1-1 against those squads.

The head coaches in this game, Schellas Hyndman and Sasho Cirovski, have combined for 645 wins. Cirovski, the 2005 ACC Coach of the Year, has led Maryland to the College Cup five times in his 13 seasons at the helm.

Over the past four years, Maryland has played 11 games at the SAS Soccer Complex in Cary. The Terps are 7-2-2 in those games, including the 2002 ACC Tournament championship.

Tournament Notes
• Maryland is making its 25th appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Terps are 30-23-4 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. Maryland shared the 1968 national title with Michigan State.
• Sasho Cirovski is making his 11th trip to the NCAA Tournament in 13 seasons as head coach of the Terrapins. Cirovski is 18-9-3 in the NCAA Tournament at Maryland and has led the Terrapins to five College Cup appearances (1998, 2002-05).
• The Terps have seven players that have started in the NCAA Tournament prior to this season. Combined, the group has 74 NCAA Tournament starts. Defender Chris Lancos has started every NCAA Tournament game Maryland has played since 2002 (15 starts).
• Maryland has faced 13 of the 48 tournament teams this season. The Terps are 10-4-2 against those teams (Maryland played Duke and Wake Forest twice).
• The Terrapins are one of a record eight teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference in the NCAA Tournament. Maryland won the ACC regular season title with a record of 7-1 in the league.

Quick Kicks
• Prior to the Brown game, Maryland's last 1-0 victory came on Sept. 25 against William & Mary. That hard-fought victory, which was similar to the one against the Bears, helped spark an 11-game unbeaten streak.
• Maryland is 16-0-2 this season when scoring first. The team's lone come-from-behind win this season came against Virginia Tech (11/4).
• Maryland is 1-0-2 this year in overtime.
• Maryland has gone to penalty kicks three times in NCAA Tournament history. The Terps have won their last two (Akron in 2005 and Creighton in 2004), but lost the other in 1995 to James Madison.
• The Terps' scoring average of 2.65 goals per game is second in the country.
• Maryland's 61 goals this season rank second all-time in school history. The Terps set the record for goals in a season last year with 62.
• The offensive combination of Jason Garey and Stephen King is the most prolific in school history. The two have combined for 34 goals this season -- the most ever by two players in a single season at Maryland. (The previous high was 28 set by Richard Roe and Oyton Tertemiz in 1961.)
• Maryland has been shutout three times this season (all losses). The last shutout against Maryland was Sept. 25 vs. NC State.
• All four of Maryland's losses (and the one tie) in the regular season came against teams in this year's NCAA Tournament. All four of the teams that defeated Maryland have been eliminated (Penn State, NC State, Duke and UCLA) and Indiana, which tied Maryland, also did not advance.
• Maryland is 4-2 in games decided by one goal this year.
• Terp goalies Craig Salvati and Chris Seitz have combined for 10 shutouts this season.

Maryland/Akron Postgame Notes
• Maryland and Akron played to a 1-1 tie, but the Terps advanced on penalty kicks, 4-1 ... the crowd of 4,129 was the fifth-largest in Ludwig Field history ... the tie now makes the all-time series between the two schools entirely square at 1-1-1 ... Maryland improved to 10-0-2 in the NCAA Tournament at Ludwig Field over the past four years ... in each of the two ties, the Terps have advanced on penalty kicks ... Maryland also extended its home unbeaten streak to 19 games (17-0-2) ... the Terps are 2-2 all-time in penalty kicks under Sasho Cirovski, including a 2-1 mark in the NCAA Tournament ... Kenney Bertz' goal in the first half was his third of the season and the sixth of his career ... it was his first NCAA Tournament goal ... the 1-0 defict was just the third time the Zips had trailed all season long ... Akron trailed twice against St. John's but rallied each time before settling for a 2-2 tie ... for the third straight game, Marc Burch helped seal the victory for Maryland after he clinched the penalty kick win with a conversion in the fourth round ... goalkeeper Chris Seitz finished the day with four saves, not including his clutch penalty kick save in the shootout.

Goalin Garey
• Jason Garey, the 2005 ACC Offensive Player of the Year, is continuing to etch his name all over the Maryland record books. After one of the strongest offensive seasons in Maryland history in 2004 in which he set a school record for points in 2004 with 53 (22g, 9a), he followed that up with another 20-goal season this year.
• On Nov. 15 Garey was tabbed a MAC Hermann Trophy Semifinalist. He was also a semifinalist for the award in 2004.
• On Nov. 21 he was named CoSIDA's Academic All-American of the Year. He maintains a 3.4 GPA in finance.
• Garey scored his school record-breaking 46th goal on Sept. 27 with his game-winner against William & Mary. He now has 58 career goals -- 13 more than the record held for 44 years.
• He became Maryland's all-time points leader on Oct. 7 vs. No. 8 Duke with a goal and an assist against the Blue Devils. Garey currently has 136 points in his Terrapin career.
• Maryland is 12-1-1 this season when Garey scores a goal.
• As of Dec. 4, Garey is first in the nation in points (47) and third in points per game (2.03), and ranks second in the nation in goals (20) and third in goals per game (0.87).

Recently At The College Cup
• Last season at the College Cup the Terps were deated 3-2 in overtime by the eventual national champions, Indiana ... the Hoosiers scored the deciding goal with just 48 seconds left in the second overtime period ... Maryland took the lead on a Jason Garey goal, but Indiana rallied for two scores to make it 2-1 ... Maurice Edu evened the score on a header from Michael Dello-Russo on a corner kick ... Indiana's John Michael Hayden scored the winner on an assist from Danny O'Rourke.
• In 2003, Maryland out-shot St. John's 24-9 but ended up on the short end of a 1-0 decision in Columbus, Ohio ... SJU earned its goal on a penalty kick after a foul was whistled on Noah Palmer in the box ... Red Storm keeper Bill Gaudette was forced to make nine saves in the game.
• In 2002 against UCLA, the deciding Bruin goal came on a penalty kick with just over eight minutes to play ... UCLA, the eventual champion, won 2-1 ... Sumed Ibrahim scored Maryland's only goal ... Maryland out-shot UCLA 14-10.
• In 1998, Maryland lost to Stanford 1-0 ... the Terps had a goal disallowed ... the game-winner for the Cardinal came in the 40th minute.

Tough Slate
• According to the most recent NSCAA poll, a season-high 14 Maryland Terrapin opponents are ranked among the nation's top 25. Also, six Maryland opponents are currently ranked in the Top 10 and seven ACC teams are ranked in the top 25.
• The Terp regular season schedule also included 10 opponents that were selected for the 2005 NCAA Tournament, including 2004 College Cup qualifiers Indiana and Duke.
• Maryland is 9-2-2 against ranked opponents this season.
• Southern Methodist is currently ranked 14th.

Help Me, Help You
• Maryland has assisted on all but 11 goals this season (four of which were PKs), led by A.J. Godbolt's career-high 12 assists this season. Godbolt ranks tied for fourth at Maryland for assists in a season. He is second in the ACC and 11th in the country in assists per game (0.57).
• Stephen King is second on the team with eight assists.
• Maryland has 63 assists on 61 goals on the year.
• Fourteen different players have an assist this season, including goalkeeper Chris Seitz.

Start Me Up
• The Terps are 16-0-2 this season when scoring the game's first goal. Maryland is outscoring opponents 30-11 in the first half this season.
• In all four of Maryland's losses, not only have the Terps not gotten a lead, they have given up a goal in the game's first 15 minutes.

The Crew
• Maryland's loyal student fan base perched behind the goals is known as "The Crew." A large contingent of this group will likely make the trip to Cary, N.C. Two years ago for the ACC Tournament, "The Crew" drove to Cary to watch the Terps play on a Friday, but the game ended up being re-scheduled for the next day. The group bussed back the five hours that night before turning around the next morning to watch the Terps defeat North Carolina in the ACC Semifinals.

Feast Or Famine
• In three of Maryland's four losses, the Terps have been shut out. In the Terrapin wins, though, Maryland is averaging over three goals a game (3.21).

Fantastic Four Years
• Maryland's 74 victories since 2002 are the most in a four-year span at Maryland. In that time Maryland's record is 74-18-5 -- a winning percentage of .800.
• The success extends beyond victories as the Terrapins have advanced to the national semifinals in fall four years and played in the ACC Tournament finals in three of those seasons.

For Starters...
• Through 23 games, head coach Sasho Cirovski has utilized 12 different starting lineups. Eighteen different players have cracked the starting lineup this season.
• Of the four players that have started every game, three of those are seniors (Kenney Bertz, Michael Dello-Russo, Jason Garey). The fourth is Stephen King, who has started every game Maryland has played in the last two seasons.

Men`s Soccer Program Contributes To Katrina Victims
• The Maryland men's soccer program helped raise over $2,000 for the Hurrican Katrina relief effort.
• Each player contributed $20, and Sasho Cirovski chipped in $500, meaning the men's team itself donated over $1,000.
• On Friday, Sept. 9 vs. Santa Clara, the women's team collected donations during the game to bring the total over $2,000.

Terps On The TV
• The Maryland Terrapins played four times on television this season. The Terps played twice on Fox Soccer Channel as part of its "Game of the Week" and played two games on CN8/Comcast Sports Net.
• The Terps are 3-0-1 this year when on television. Maryland defeated Duke, 3-1, and North Carolina, 4-1, on Fox Soccer Channel and defeated Santa Clara, 3-1, and tied Indiana when on CN8/Comcast Sports Net.