Maryland Holds Fall Sports Media Day
8/30/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country, Volleyball, Terrapin Athletics
COLLEGE PARK, Md.- Maryland Athletics held its annual Fall Sports Media Day on Tuesday in the Tyser Tower Press Box at Maryland Stadium.
Following football Head Coach DJ Durkin's weekly press conference, coaches and student-athletes from five different fall programs spoke and answered questions from local, regional and national media.
Fall sports media day kicked off with men's soccer head coach Sasho Cirovski, who is in his 23rd season at the helm. Cirovski's club is ranked seventh in the nation and stands at 1-0-1 through two games.
Cirovski had this to say about the 2016 season:
“I'm excited again for another great season. Last year our season ended in dramatic fashion with a tough loss to Clemson and from the first day we got back, our seniors decided that wasn't good enough. We've got five seniors that played in the 2013 finals and lost so they're highly motivated this year. We've worked extremely hard throughout the spring; we've challenged them to play a number of professional teams, Major League Soccer teams. We've had a great summer. The incoming kids and transfers came here early and worked hard. We had a great preseason. This is a very good team.”
Following Cirovski was field hockey head coach Missy Meharg and senior forward Welma Luus. After two games, the sixth ranked field hockey team is 1-1, with a loss to No. 2 Syracuse. Syracuse isn't the only top team Meharg's squad will face, as the field hockey team has a daunting slate:
“I'm just really excited to play the best of the best,” said Meharg. “I always say to the women, if you want to be the best, play the best. When you have a history of winning championships, the expectation sits there. For me it's just about staying present, working hard, being grateful for everything and entitled to nothing.”
Welma Luus believes this team is special:
“I think this team from the beginning was a little special,” said Luus. “We have so many new players. I think that actually is what's special about this team. We play together. We're a team where there are no real stars. We're all playing together, we're all passing the ball.”
The Maryland volleyball team opened their season 3-0 last weekend to kick off head coach Steve Aird's third season in College Park. Aird and junior middle blocker Hailey Murray took part in Tuesday's media day.
Both Aird and Murray talked about the strides the program has made since Aird arrived.
“When we got here two years ago we were 184th in the country and this preseason they have us at 39th,” said Aird. “We had 700 people at our opening scrimmage last week. We're moving in the right direction. We have a really young team. Ten underclassman, they're talented, they're fun and they play hard. We started out the right way going into this weekend.”
“We've grown a lot in the last three years,” said Murray. “Right now we're at a point where every single person on our team is a really important piece of the puzzle. You'll see a starting six obviously, plus a libero. Everybody on our team is capable of playing in this conference. You'll see us on the court and we just really love what we're doing and we love each other. That's going to help us improve a lot on the court in terms of scores.”
Women's soccer head coach Ray Leone got to experience his first Maryland Athletics Media Day on Tuesday, as the first year head coach from Harvard and senior midfielder Hope Gouterman talked about the versatility this year's squad shows.
“Coming from where I'm coming from, people have to play a lot of different positions,” said Leone. “If you're a good player, you can do that. We're trying to teach our players that you can adjust on the fly and we did that these past couple games, moving crazy positions because that's what we have to do now. “
“I think that every single person that's come has really joined in easily and we've been able to stay together,” said Gouterman. “Each person that's come or returned has brought something different to the table and I think that's what has made us come together so quickly.”
Wrapping up the 2016 Fall Sports Media Day was cross-country head coach Andrew Valmon and Junior Alexandra Lucki. Lucki is coming off a 2015 qualification for the NCAA Championships in the 1500-meter run.
Valmon had this to say about the upcoming season:
“We look forward to this season. We learned a lot last season from the Big Ten. We're hoping that Alex's season from cross country and track springboard her to some great success this season coming up. Making the NCAA Finals was a big thing and the next sport for us right now is seeing what she can do in cross country.”
