Oct. 21, 2009

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The No. 8 Maryland Terrapin women's soccer team (11-2-2, 3-2-2 ACC) plays its final regular season ACC road game on Thursday when it heads to Clemson, S.C., to take on the Clemson Tigers (3-12-0, 0-7-0 ACC) at 7 p.m. at Riggs Field.

Event Multimedia
• Fans will be able to follow the games on Gametracker.

Ranked Terps
• The Terps moved up to No. 8 in the latest Soccer America Top 25 after tying No. 6 Boston College, 1-1, and coming back to top NC State, 3-2, last weel. Maryland stayed steady in this week's NSCAA Top 25. The Terrapin are still 13th with 447 points.

Scouting The Terps
• After going a perfect 8-0 in its non-conference schedule and dropping its first two ACC contests, the Terps have gone 3-0-2 in its last five outings.

• Maryland opened its 2009 season with a two-game road trip to New York for games at Army and Fordham. In the season opener at Army, the Terrapins dominated the Black Knights en route to a 3-0 shutout victory. After a scoreless first half, sophomore Ashley Grove got the Terps on the board with the team's first goal of the year off an assist by senior Megan Watson. Less than two minutes later, sophomore Jasmyne Spencer tallied her first collegiate goal. Senior goalkeeper Mary Casey started the play with a good punt, which was then flicked on by junior Caitlin McDowell. The third goal came was an unassisted blast by freshman Caitlin Mooney.

• After the Army win, Maryland moved to the Bronx to challenge the Fordham Rams. This time the Terps got on the board midway through the first half when freshman Olivia Wagner played the ball through to Spencer, who beat her defender and finished from 20 yards out with a low shot. Fordham tied the game at 1-1 in the 53rd minute, but it took Maryland less than 30 seconds to score the go-ahead goal. Once again it was Spencer scoring the goal, with the assist going to Grove, to give Maryland the 2-1 victory.

• The Terps continued their winning ways in their home opener on Friday, August 28 against Seton Hall. Freshmen Olivia Wagner and Caitlin Mooney scored goals for Maryland, leading the Terrapins to a 2-0 victory over the Pirates. Wagner scored the first goal on a 25-yard blast that was too much for the Seton Hall keeper to handle in the 51st minute. Mooney added the insurance goal on a quick turn-and-shoot effort in the 81st minute.

• The undefeated streak was in jeopardy for a half in the Terps' game against Loyola. The Greyhounds took a 1-0 lead into halftime, but that didn't stand up for long. Sophomore Sade Ayinde, who was inserted into the line-up at the beginning of the second half, scored in the 51st minute to knot the score at 1-1. Less than a minute later freshman Danielle Hubka gave Maryland the lead with a 30-yard shot into the upper right 90. After the Greyhounds tied the match in the next minute, the Terps regained the lead in the 53rd minute on another Ayinde goal. Ayinde was on the giving end of Terps' fourth goal,playing a give-and-go with freshman Caitlin Mooney, who finished from 15 yards into the lower left corner. SophomoreAshley Grove finished off the scoring with a 40-yard rip from the far left side of the field, giving the Terps a 5-2 victory.

• Maryland faced its toughest test so far on Sept. 4 in traditional powerhouse Santa Clara, but a goal by sophomore Ashley Grove propelled the Terps to a 1-0 victory. Senior keeper Mary Casey made five stops to earn her third shutout of the season.

• The Terps were not sharp when they played at American on Sept. 9, but Maryland still found a way to win the game - a 1-0 decision. Jasmyne Spencer scored the lone goal of the game in the 49th minute with the assist going to Caitlin McDowell.

• Maryland won its third-straight 1-0 decision on Sept. 11 when it defeated James Madison, an NCAA Sweet 16 team from 2008. For the fourth time this season the game was 0-0 at the half, but the Terps came out fast in the second half, putting pressure on the Dukes. Maryland had a goal taken off the board when the referee blew an early whistle in the 47th minute. The Terps were awarded a penalty shot on the play, but JMU goalkeeper Diane Wszalek came up with the stop to keep the game scoreless. That's how it would remain until the 60th minute when junior Molly Dreska put in her first career goal. Sophomore Ashley Grove made a hard run down the left side and crossed the ball back to the middle of the field to Dreska. Dreska then tried a fake to buy some space, but the JMU defender played her tightly. That didn't matter, because Dreska created a sliver of space and rifled a shot to the back post, past a diving Wszalek, to give the Terps the 1-0 lead.

• The 1-0 victory-streak came to an end, but the winning streak stayed alive with a 3-1 win over Brown in the Terps' non-conference finale. The victory gave the Terps (8-0-0) their first undefeated record in non-conference play since 1996. That season Maryland was 13-0 in regular season non-conference games. Molly Dreska continued her hot streak, scoring the first two goals for the Terps. Sophomore Jasmyne Spencer, who picked up an assist on Dreska's second goal, scored the insurance goal for Maryland.

• Maryland opened its conference schedule with the difficult five-day road trip to Florida. The Terps showed they can hang with the nation's elite by giving the No. 5 Florida State Seminoles all they could handle. In the end, FSU came away with a 2-1 victory, but Maryland showed its mettle. After falling behind 1-0, sophomore Jasmyne Spencer scored her sixth goal of the season to tie the game. The Seminoles got the go-ahead goal late in the first half to seal the win. After that the Terps went to Miami and gave up two set-piece goals to the Hurricanes and dropped a 2-0 decision in Coral Gables.

• Four different goal scorers gave Maryland its first conference win of the season, a 4-0 drubbing of Duke in Durham, N.C., on Oct. 4. Freshman Danielle Hubka scored the first goal for the Terps for her first career game-winning goal. That score was followed by first-half tallies by junior Molly Dreska and sophomore Jasmyne Spencer and a 90th-minute goal by sophomore Sade Ayinde. Sophomore Lydia Hastings had two assists on the day, while junior Caitlin McDowel, sophomore Domenica Hodak and sophomore Kristen McAfee also had helpers.

• After a scoreless first half the Terps got on the board first when redshirt sophomore Mallory Baker scored her first collegiate goal in the 56th minute. Virginia tied the match at 1-1 a few minutes later, but junior Caitlin MdDowell scored in the 79th minute to give Maryland a 2-1 lead. Virginia tied the match at 2-2 on a 90th-minute goal and that's the way things would end, giving each team a point in the conference standings.

• Maryland finally returned home to host No. 6 Virginia Tech and the Terps put together another statement game in a 3-1 win over the Hokies. Freshman Danielle Hubka scored to give Maryland a 1-0 lead, but a controversial penalty kick was awarded to VT and it tied the match at 1-1. But less than two minutes later sophomore Ashley Grove got on the end of a Jasmyne Spencer cross to put the Terps back on top. Sophomore Becky Kaplan added her first career goal to lock the game away for Maryland.

• On a rainy, cold night the Terps battled No. 7 Boston College to a 1-1 tie. Sophomore Becky Kaplan got Maryland on the board in the 75th minute off assists by sophomore Sade Ayinde and freshman Caitlin Mooney. BC knotted the match in the 83rd minute on a 30-yard shot into the upper right 90 by Kristen Mewis.

• For 81 minutes it looked like "Lady Luck" was going to overlook the 10th-ranked Maryland women's soccer team in its game against NC State Sunday afternoon at Ludwig Field. Posts, crossbars and a stingy Wolfpack defense stifled the Terrapin offense for much of the afternoon, but the Terps rallied from a two-goal deficit in the final nine minutes of regulation and won the game, 3-2, six minutes into the first overtime. Sophomore Ashley Grove finished a cross from sophomore Jasmyne Spencer to cut the Wolfpack lead to one in the 81st minute. Then, with two minutes remaining in the game, junior Molly Dreska got on the end of an Olivia Wagner corner kick and headed it into the far upper corner to send the game into overtime. It was another set piece in the sixth minute of the first overtime that gave Maryland the victory. A foul by the Wolfpack gave Maryland a free kick near midfield. Wagner sent the ball into the box, but the ball didn't find a Terrapin player. Instead the ball found NC State defender Gia Cipollini and her header went into the Wolfpack goal, giving the Terps the 3-2 win on an own goal.

• Sophomore Jasmyne Spencer continues to lead the team in points and goals with 19 and seven, respectively. She also shares the team lead in assists with fellow sophomores Sade Ayinde and Lydia Hastings, who also have five. Senior All-ACC goalkeeper Mary Casey has played every minute for Maryland so far in net and has a goals-against average of 0.90 with a save percentage of .741.

Scouting The Tigers
• Clemson enters Thursday's game with a 3-12-0 record overall and a 0-7-0 mark in the ACC.

• The Tigers started the season winning two of its first four games, but have since won just once in its past 11 games. This past week Clemson hosted Florida State and Duke on Thursday and Sunday, respectively. The Seminoles topped the Tigers, 5-1, while the Blue Devils handed Clemson a 2-1 defeat.

• Freshman forward Maddy Elder is Clemson's leading scorer with 21 points on 10 goals and one assist. She is also tied for fifth in the ACC in points and is tied for third in goals scored. Defensively, junior goalkeeper Paula Pritzen has started all 15 of the Tigers' games with a 2.09 goals-against average and a .659 save percentage.

Deeg's Diary
• Every week Colleen Deegan is filing "Deeg's Diary" on umterps.com. Log on each week for her latest insights on Terps women's soccer.

Media Information
• Email Straight To You: If you would like the latest Maryland women's soccer news emailed directly to you as soon as it breaks, email women's soccer contact Patrick Fischer with "Women's Soccer E-Mail" as the subject and you will receive every update.

• Terps on the Web: For up-to-date game stories, statistics, schedules and results, and other Maryland athletic department information, please log-on to www.umterps.com on the Internet.

• GameTracker: Follow Terps games live in 2009 on your computer with GameTracker. Links for all games that will be available can be found at www.umterps.com.