A Tradition Of Sisterhood

On an away trip earlier this season, Maryland field hockey fifth-year Rayne Wright noticed her freshman roommate, Ella Gaitan, was fighting a cough. Wright helped her underclassman teammate like a big sister would. 

“Rayne walked into the room, and without me even asking, she made me a cup of tea and was like, ‘Drink this, you'll be fine,’” Gaitan said. “And in that moment, I was just like, this is exactly where I need to be. She just showed me that this is a best friend I'll have for life. She’s not just a teammate right now.”

A powerful sense of sisterhood is behind Maryland field hockey’s 50 years of excellence. Former and current players stay connected to the storied Terps program by passing down advice, traditions and support beyond the field.

Gaitan and Wright were rooming together as part of Maryland field hockey’s Top Terps tradition. Top Terps connects upperclassmen to underclassmen as soon as they join the team. The upperclassmen serve as mentors and supporters to their underclassmen teammates for on and off-the-field matters. The relationship is similar to that of a big and little sister. 

Once the younger players reach upperclassmen status, they become Top Terps for incoming players, creating a continuous chain of support among current and former field hockey student-athletes. 

Wright is Gaitan’s Top Terp, a connection that the freshman couldn’t be more grateful for in her first year as a student-athlete. 

“Rayne has been one of the best people to look up to,” Gaitan said. “She's become the best friend and teammate I could have ever asked for. If I’m struggling with something, I go to her, and she immediately picks up my calls.” 

Wright, one of Maryland’s team captains, has had a different Top Terp every semester. She’s taken advantage of the tradition to create a web of support across academic years, especially for matters outside of field hockey. 

“I'm able to reach out to those people again after the fact and either ask them about personal stuff or about work things,” Wright said. “And even if it's a field hockey question and they've been through a certain situation, you're able to go through all these people and have that same connection that was so close when they were there with you on the field.”

Top Terps has existed for many years under Maryland’s Hall of Fame head coach, Missy Meharg. She considers it an integral part of the Terps' field hockey experience. 

“It’s the beginning of a sisterhood before you even know somebody,” Meharg said. “And I think that's taken a breadth of power [in] the program over time.”

Kristy (Palchinsky) Dignan (‘01), a defender on the Terps’ 1999 national championship-winning team, described the value of Top Terps during her early years at Maryland, particularly without the connection capability of social media. 

“I don’t want to date myself, but there wasn’t a lot of technology and communication,” Dignan said. “You really didn’t know who your teammates were coming in. So having somebody that I was paired with and had a conversation with before even stepping on the field for the first preseason practice was amazing.”

Dignan still remembers some of her activities and conversations with her Top Terp Karin Freeswick (‘97).

“I remember Karin calling me and giving me a lay of the land, some support,” Dignan said. “I had questions about simple stuff for her, like dorms and where to go for places on campus. And it was just so helpful for her to be able to tell me things before I got there and for her to make me feel comfortable.”

Dignan also identified the common connection gap between underclassmen and upperclassmen on college sports teams and how Top Terps effectively bridges that gap. 

“Sometimes those connections aren’t always there, especially if you’re not a starter on the field,” Dignan said. “Karin told me, ‘Things were going to get hard, but that’s ok. That’s the program, and that’s what happens here. It’s a successful program. If you need anything, I’m here for you.’ And it was really reassuring.”

Top Terps is just one tradition that contributes to Maryland field hockey’s positive team culture and legacy of success. Meharg shared how sisterhood is foundational to her program and even inspired the design of the new Maryland Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex. 

“When we moved into the facility in January, we spent over 25 hours together really talking about the definition of Maryland field hockey,” Meharg said. “We kind of redefined it, and we really came down to that word sisterhood. We talk about it with the girls and are able to feel it because of the nature of the new complex. Being in the team room together, migrating to the family room and out to the field, and coming upstairs for real conversations with coaches.”

Gaitan participated in the conversations about tradition and program identity that Meharg described. She resonated with interconnectedness and attested to its influence on her team’s on-field results. 

“Tradition is deeply rooted in our program,” Gaitan said. “With that, we hold ourselves to a higher standard of being great people, being great friends, great teammates, being coachable. All those factors need to be put in together. Being great friends will ultimately help us win, and it’ll help our connection on the field. We're so interconnected in everything that we do and in everything we want to be.”

Carrie Hanks (‘17), a former All-American defender and four-year starter with the Terps, discussed feeling even more connected to the Maryland field hockey legacy as an alumna. She recalled interactions with multiple generations of former players at a recent field hockey alumni event, reinforcing the idea of Maryland field hockey’s life-long sisterhood. 

“It's just incredible that people continue to come back,” Hanks said. “Everybody you talk to talks about how the players that they played with made them better as people, made them better as players, that Missy made them better as a person [and] as a player. I think it just really speaks to that motto: once a Terp, always a Terp. That will never leave you.”