Match Preview: Maryland vs. No. 16 Northwestern

Maryland (1-4-2) vs. Northwestern (7-0-2)

September 29, 2023

Ludwig Field

7:00 p.m.

B1G+

COLLEGE PARK, MD - Maryland returns to Ludwig Field to face off with No. 16 Northwestern Friday night. The Terps and the Wildcats will kickoff at 7 p.m., and the match will be show on B1G+.

Match Day Promotions

Maryland Dad and Maryland Mom Shirt: The first 200 fans will receive a free Maryland Dad or Mom shirt.
VOYCENOW: fans will be able to donate to VOYCENOW via QR codes on the match day programs.
Terrapin Club Night: Terrapin Club donors may claim complimentary tickets.
Kids Club Day: Testudo's Kids Club members will receive free admission and parents will receive a discounted rate.

setting the stage

The Terps are 7-3-2 against Northwestern, with all those matches coming since Maryland entered the league. The two teams played to a 1-1 draw in Evanston last season.
Maryland is 40-19-16 overall in Big Ten matches.
Freshman Kimani Stewart-Baynes leads the Terps in assists with three. The Terps have gotten five goals from five different goal scorers this season.
The Terps dropped a pair of road conference matches last week by 1-0 scorelines to Wisconsin and Northwestern. They will look to win their second match against a top-20 team this season after defeating then No. 10 UNC-Greensboro, 1-0, on Aug. 27.
Three Terps made their first career starts against Penn State: Joe McDaid, Mack DeVries and Cameron Gerber. Nine Terps so far this year have made first career starts.
The Terrapins enter the 2023 season following a 2022 campaign in which they won the Big Ten Regular Season Championship and made the NCAA Tournament for the 40th time in program history. The Terrapins boasted an 11-4-5 record and went unbeaten in conference play (4-0-4).
Maryland has notched 28 consecutive fall seasons with 10+ wins. Maryland's last fall season without 10+ wins was Sasho Cirovski's first year as head coach in 1993.
The Terrapins were chosen as the Big Ten favorite in a preseason poll of the conference's coaches. Alex Nitzl, Stefan Copetti and Bjarne Thiesen were chosen as the Terps' Big Ten Players to Watch.
Northwestern defeated Ohio State 4-2 in its last match. The victory improved Northwestern's record to 7-0-2 overall and 1-0-1 in Big Ten play, giving Northwestern its first unbeaten start through nine games since 2008. Justin Weiss notched two assists, bringing his season total to a Big Ten-leading six.
The Wildcats are unbeaten through their first two Big Ten games for the first time since 2019.
Northwestern has been as high as No. 13 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, its highest ranking since Oct. 1, 2013 (No. 5).

Stefan Copetti is a Big Ten Player to Watch in 2023. He has scored a goal and added two assist in 2023.

Meet the 2023 Terps

The Terrapins return a group that includes four returning starters and five key contributors. They also add 10 freshmen and a transfer.
Maryland will be led by senior captain Alex Nitzl, a three-year starter and the men's 2022 Big Ten Sportsmanship Award winner for Maryland. Last year, he started all 16 matches he played and recorded four assists. He was also an Academic All-Big Ten selection. The Munich, Germany native enters 2023 with 39 starts and will be featured as a midfielder or on the back line. Read more about Nitzl.
Fellow senior Stefan Copetti will anchor the Terps' attacking set up. The Canadian (6g/3a in 2022) is a Big Ten Player to Watch after scoring Maryland's most important goal of 2022, a final minutes header that clinched the Big Ten Regular Season Championship for the Terps on the final day of the regular season.
Senior Jamie Lowell will step in between the sticks following the departure of All-Big Ten pick Niklas Neumann, Lowell has made 18 starts as a Terp and will be backed up by a pair of talented local keepers in Mikah Seger and Saxon Wolcott.
Bjarne Thiesen, a 2021 All-American at WVU, headlines Maryland's back line. He will be joined by fellow center back William Kulvik, who was named a Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week twice last season, left back Luca Costabile (2022 Big Ten All-Freshman Team) and right back Kento Abe, the Terps standout player in their foreign tour to Portugal.
The combination of sophomores Brian St. Martin, Mack DeVries and freshman Joe McDaid will give the Terps cover at center back. Freshman Tyler Prebenda, who enrolled in the spring, will factor in as an outside back option, along with Dalton Hass.
Maryland's midfield will be anchored by Nitzl and sophomore Albi Ndrenika, who came on late for the Terps with a pair of goals in the NCAA Tournament in 2022. Redshirt junior Joe Suchecki provides experience for the Terps in midfield having played 30 matches in his career. Speaking of experience, Justin Harris and his 60 career matches returns for a fifth season as an option in the midfield and attacking wide positions for the Terps.
A number of younger players will factor in to the midfield for Maryland. Sophomore Matias De Jesus, and freshmen Jack McDaid, Kenny Quist-Therson, Leon Koehl, Cameron Gerber and Henrik Sakshaug will all battle for minutes at the position.
Joining Copetti in the more advanced positions is a pair of sophomores in Colin Griffith and Max Riley, who both tallied game winning goals for the Terps last season. An infusion of freshmen in Kimani Stewart-Baynes and Luke van Heukelum gives the Terps new looks in the attack. Senior and former JUCO All-American Seungeon Kim gives Cirovski another experience option up top.

Senior captain Alex Nitzl is among Maryland's influential players.

Sensational Sasho

Hall of Fame head coach Sasho Cirovski is on the sidelines for his 31st season as the head coach of the Terps. Cirovski has led the Terps to a trio of national titles (2005, 2008, 2018) and 16 conference titles.
Cirovski was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2022 after leading Maryland to its first conference regular season title since 2016.
Cirovski's 29 NCAA Tournament appearances rank him first in the history of NCAA Division I soccer (27 at Maryland, two at Hartford). He has guided the Terps to nine appearances in the College Cup.
Cirovski has won 452 matches and is the second winningest active coach in Division I. He has the 13th-most wins in Division I history.

Sasho Cirovski, one of the greatest coaches in NCAA men's soccer history, captured his 16th conference title last season

Sustained Success

Maryland has made 22 straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament, the second longest active streak in the nation, and has made 40 appearances in the NCAA Tournament overall.
The Terps have won four national titles (1968, 2005, 2008, 2018) in school history and reached the round-of-16 in 19 of the last 29 years.
Maryland is 61-32-8 all-time in its 101 NCAA Tournament games, the 61 wins is fifth all-time in Division I history.
The Terps are 48-21-7 under Sasho Cirovski in the NCAA Tournament. The Terrapins have won three national titles since 2000, tied with Stanford and Indiana for the most in the nation in that span.
The Terps have won six total Big Ten trophies since entering the league in 2014. The Terrapins captured the 2022 Big Ten Regular Season Championship on a dramatic final day of conference play. Stefan Copetti's 87th minute header gave the Terps a 1-1 draw against Indiana and lifted them to the title.
The Terps finished the conference season unbeaten for the first time since 2016, which was also their last Big Ten Regular Season title.

Maryland is among the best program's in men's college soccer history, capturing three national titles, the last coming in 2018.

World travelers

The Terps enter the 2023 fall season following a spring season in which they traveled to Portugal for a 10-day tour of the country in March.
The Terps explored the historic cities of Porto and Lisbon. They also played matches against reserve/youth sides of Vitoria S.C., Braga and Benfica.
To read more about the Terps' trip to Portugal, check out the Terps in Portugal daily blog.

The Terps took a 10-day trip to Portugal, highlighted by three matches and cultural immersion experiences.

A legacy of excellence

Maryland is the preeminent producer of professional soccer talent among college teams in the United States. Maryland is the only school with alums that have been rostered in the last four FIFA Men's World Cups.
Seven players have been named to FIFA World Cup squads: Dayne St. Clair (2022, Canada), Rodney Wallace (2018, Costa Rica), Omar Gonzalez (2014, USA), Graham Zusi (2014, USA), Maurice Edu (2010, USA), Clarence Goodson (2010, USA), Desmond Armstrong (1990, USA).
22 Terps have appeared for full national teams. Four Terps have appeared in the Olympics. Thirteen Terps have appeared for the US Men's National Team.
Maryland has had 53 players selected in the MLS SuperDraft, including three No. 1 overall selections, since the league's inception and has become the best producer of professional soccer talent in the United States among men's college programs.
Head coach Sasho Cirovski has developed seven MLS homegrown signees, eight MLS All-Stars, six MLS Best XI selections and winners of all of Major League Soccer's major individual awards.
Maryland currently has 12 alums playing in MLS and 22 alums playing professional soccer at various levels worldwide.

2018 national champion Dayne St. Clair, pictured at the 2023 Gold Cup, was Maryland's last player to be included a FIFA Men's World Cup Roster.

Ludwig Field

Since its opening in 1995, Ludwig Field has been the home of the Terrapin men's and women's soccer teams.
The Terps routinely rank among the top-five in the nation in attendance, including ranking No. 1 in attendance in 2016 and 2019.
Friday Night Light matches at Ludwig Field has become the best home environment in the nation. The since 2010, the Terps have had ten crowds of over 7,000 in those big stage affairs.