COLLEGE PARK, Md. - On the verge of heading to their fourth-straight NCAA semifinal appearance, eight Maryland field hockey players have been named to the Mid-Atlantic All-Region team, selected by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association. Senior Paula Infante was selected to the first team for the fourth-straight year, while two freshmen was also named to the first team.

Infante (Santiago, Chile) was last year's Honda Award winner and was named the ACC's Defensive Player of the Year for the second-straight year. She is also a four-time All-ACC honoree, leading the Terps to the championship game of the ACC Tournament and a fourth-straight trip to the NCAA semifinals. She is second on the team with 31 points and is tied for second with 12 goals. She ranks among the all-time goals and points scorers in school history.

Fellow co-captain Kristina Edmonds (Emmaus, Pa.) is making her second appearance on the first team all-region squad, along with junior Kathryn Masson (Richmond, British Columbia). With the help of Infante and sophomore Susie Rowe (London, England), who has also been named to the first team, the Maryland defense is ranked third in the nation with a 0.74 goals against average with 11 shutouts, one short of the school record. Rowe is also tied for second on the team with 12 goals, while Masson leads the country with an 81.3 save percentage.

Freshmen Nicole Muracco (Sewell, N.J.) and Bri Davies (Anneville, Pa.) were also named to the first team. Both have made an immediate impact, helping the Terps to a No. 1 ranking for most of the season, before finishing out the year ranked No. 2 in the final NFHCA poll. Muracco was voted the ACC's Freshman of the Year and was the only rookie to be named All-ACC. Davies is the only freshman on the team to start every game and has also helped the defense post one of the best goals against averages in the nation.

Senior Berber Rischen (Rotterdam, Netherlands) and junior Janneke van Leeuwen (Hilversum, Netherlands) were also selected to the all-region squad and were named to the second team. Van Leeuwen was named to the second team for the second year in a row, while Rischen had been named to the West Region squad three times while at Kent State, prior to transferring to Maryland this year.

The Terps are headed to the NCAA Tournament semifinals for the fourth-straight year, the first time in the history of the program the team has accomplished that feat. Second-seeded and second-ranked Maryland is 21-2 and faces Big East Champion Connecticut on Friday, Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Kentner Stadium on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

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