COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The third-ranked Maryland field hockey team held off a late push by No. 24 Penn State for a 3-1 win Friday in front of a crowd of 980 at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex. The Terps won their first game in Big Ten play this year.
 
Maryland (7-1, 1-0 B1G) controlled most of the game, outshooting Penn State 14-3 through the first three quarters. The Nittany Lions (0-6, 0-1) found a spark of energy in the final quarter, but senior goalkeeper Noelle Frost and the Terps' defense made seven saves in the remaining minutes to thwart the comeback.
 
"All in all, I am super pleased," head coach Missy Meharg said. "Penn State is so athletic. They are very, very young. They are not an 0-5 team coming in here. They have a wicked schedule and I know that we will see them again, maybe at their place in the Big Ten Tournament. Good job for Noelle Frost and our corner defense. I thought we held strong with that."
 
After a scoreless first quarter, senior Madison Maguire, Maryland's leading scorer, tipped in a pass from senior Kelee Lepage for the first goal of the evening, 21:07 into the match.
 
Just over six minutes later, junior co-captain Bodil Keus sent in a spot-on drag flick shot for a 2-0 lead for the Terps. Senior co-captain Jen Bleakney and junior Hannah Bond assisted on the play. Maryland held a two-goal lead at half.
 
The Terrapins made it a three-goal lead 8:26 into the third quarter when redshirt sophomore Mayv Clune deflected in a shot off Maguire's stick on another penalty corner.
 
Penn State was awarded three straight penalty corners in the fourth quarter. The Nittany Lions got their lone goal when Madison Hutson scored off the rebound on a penalty corner with 5:57 to play.
 
Penn State got four more penalty corners in the final minutes, but Frost and the Terps' defensive unit stopped them all.
 
Frost, the current Big Ten and Division I Defensive Player of the Week, finished with a career-high seven saves. Freshman Nathalie Fiechter made a defensive save in the fourth quarter as well.
 
The Terrapins outshot the Nittany Lions 19-14 and had 10 penalty corners to nine for Penn State.
 
Madison Maguire leads the Terps with five goals this season and Keus has four. Four other Terrapins have notched three goals, including Emma DeBerdine, Jen Bleakney, Kyler Greenwalt and Riley Donnelly. Ten total Terps have found the goal line.
 
Maryland is ranked No. 3 in the Penn Monto/NFHCA Division I Coaches poll released Sept. 17. The Terrapins have been ranked in the top 5 in 184 of 216 polls, dating back to 1999.
 
Next, Maryland will host No. 6 Princeton (3-2) Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex. Admission is free for Tuesday's game.
 
Lot 11b, the lot directly next to the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex, will open for fan parking at 4 p.m. Fans should please read and follow all posted parking signs in the surrounding lots.
 
The Terps-Tigers game will be streamed on BTN Plus. Fans around the world can watch with their BTN Plus subscriptions, which start at $9.99 a month. Live stats will also be available for all four games  
 
For the latest information, follow the Terrapins on Twitter at @terpsfh and on Instagram at @terpsfh. 
 
DEFLECTIONS… Since joining the Big Ten in 2014, the Terps are 47-8 in conference play…The Terrapins are 45-3 vs. Big Ten teams at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex…Maryland is 183-20 all-time at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex…head coach Missy Meharg is 572-139-9 (.801) in her 32 years as head coach.
 

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Head Coach Missy Meharg

On their performance in the fourth quarter:
"I think in the fourth quarter we kind of fell apart. I think we were looking at the outcome of the game before the game was done. We had a lot of errors, and one of the things was passing and receiving. We tried to pass it to somebody's right foot and we just got really sloppy and Penn State capitalized on that. Good job for Noelle Frost and our corner defense. I thought we held strong with that. We may have made some tactical errors in how we played corner defense, which would've changed on the next one but thankfully, we didn't need a next one. All in all, I am super pleased. Penn State is so athletic. They are very, very young. They are not an 0-5 team coming in here. They have a wicked schedule and I know that we will see them again maybe at their place in the Big Ten Tournament." 

On getting her players' heads back in the game in the fourth quarter:
"When you make rotations or substitutions in your back four, things can be very very different. I am still getting used to a stop clock on penalty corners and also not having a time out. So, I have to keep these events in check and remember game-management wise that my staff is making the right decisions. I think I would've done a few different things looking back at the first five minutes of the fourth quarter."

On Mayv Clune's performance today:
"Mayv is a phenomenal field hockey player. Having that PCL her first year here and spending a whole year in surgery and then recovery, Mayv is just starting to get her balance and learning how to re-train her body down and to accelerate and change angles. She's being patient and doing a great job. She's a goal scorer so I am not surprised."

On their focus of the game:
"Every day is a focus on penalty corners. Every single day, and we have powerful, potent players in their spot giving us a good outcome."

On what to take advantage of in the second quarter:
"I like these quarters because I can get a little more impact in coaching. Right in the break between the first and second quarters I said two things, 'Take your restarts as fast as you possibly can, even in the block zone, even in defense. They are not ready, so get up and go forward with the ball." We were playing too much inside, outside and you don't want to do that with such an athletic team. And 'Get up off the seams and go forward.' I thought that the women responded very well."

On Noelle Frost's saves in the fourth quarter:
"Noelle is a Terp. She's scrappy - she's mentally scrappy and physically scrappy. She's very humble and very hardworking and she's doing exactly what she has worked so hard to do."

On what to expect with the next game against Princeton:
"Well, some great athletes on that field. They've got some national team level players pn the Under 21, Under 19 teams, as we do. They know each other and we are looking forward to it. We need a lot of R&R- some rest, recovery, rejuvenation and making sure we do it the right way." 

Senior Goalkeeper Noelle Frost

On their thoughts on the fourth quarter:
"I would say composure and communication [was most important in the fourth quarter]. Especially for me and Bo in the back, when our forwards have the ball we aren't really a part of the play. We stay a part by communicating with our midfielders and forwards to stay in the game"

On what they see in the back of the field:
"Well I see all the players, so I will communicate to Bo where her girl is, and then we will move from there. When Bo knows 'Okay, I have this girl', she's gonna look for her midfielder and and say 'Okay, she needs to get that girl.' It's just line by line marking the dots."

On athleticism being related to natural talent or something that is worked on:
"It is a mix of growing up I was a dancer so I did a lot of weird acrobatic stuff in that field so it kind of translates into goalkeeping really well." 

On if losing to Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament was in the back of the mind and what it was like getting the win of first Big 10 play against them:
"It was in the back of my head during warmups because I just remember Bam coming up to me and he was discussing the corners that we went over. He said, 'Remember last year when they scored on us on this corner?' and I was like, 'Yeah,' and he was like, 'Are you gonna let it happen?' and I was like, 'No.'"

Junior Defender Bodil Keus

On how they started and ended on defense during the game:
"I think we started off pretty well, we were very composed in our defense in the first quarter and had really good passing combinations. Towards the end, we did get a little uncomposed when it came to the number of corners we gave up. However, once we got the corner, we just looked at each other and said 'Okay, forget what just happened. We just need to get it in the goal and make our saves,' and then we won."

On the fourth quarter:
"The first three quarters we kept our focus. I think what really helped the defense was the need to be focused.Tthe fourth quarter was really difficult and we had to go back to our basics and do simple things."

On what they see in the back:
"We go line by line because our back cannot reach the forwards so our midfielders have to do that for them. If our midfielders don't do that, they don't know where their man is so it starts from the defense and goes up to the forwards."

On seeing something that could be taken advantage of on the fourth corner following the third corner goal:
"Yeah, we just most of the time played the corners where we think we need to and then after our coach says what needs to happen and we just go and we just do it. It is not necessarily us but it is our coach who is giving us advice and feedback."

On what will be applied from tonight's game to the Princeton game next week
"I mean mostly we will need to do is, we say it over and over, keep on coaching her and being calm and communicated. We really need to do that and we keep on improving from game to game and game but the next Princeton game it needs to be better and level up."