Before a ball is even hit, the 2024 season promises to be important for Maryland field hockey. The program celebrates its 50th season this fall, and head coach Missy Meharg will hope to crown this milestone season by adding a ninth national title to her glittering resume.

Now in her 37th season in College Park, Meharg has led the Terps to 27 of the last 28 NCAA tournaments, including a loss in last year’s quarterfinals to Virginia. However, time has passed since Maryland last reached the postseason pinnacle; it has not won a national title since 2011, the longest dry streak since the Terps’ first championship in 1987.

However, Maryland has sustained more success in conference play. The Terps won the Big Ten regular season championship in 2022, but a defeat in last year’s regular season finale to then-No. 1-ranked Northwestern lost the Terps a repeat share of the conference title.

That same Northwestern team delivered a heartbreaking double-overtime goal in the Big Ten tournament championship, denying Maryland its 13th conference tournament title and first since 2018.

If there were to be a year for Maryland to summit the Big Ten, this would be it. With renovations complete at College Park’s Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex, the Terps will host the 2024 Big Ten tournament championship in a bid to avenge last season’s losses.

However, results will not come easily, as Maryland went 5-3 against ranked opponents last season. Ten of their 17 regular season matches are against teams that finished in the top 20 of the NFHCA (National Field Hockey Coaches Association) end-of-season poll last fall.

Key losses

Meharg’s task of reasserting Maryland’s superiority will be made harder by the loss of several experienced sticks. Last year’s fifth-years Maura Verleg and Margot Lawn and graduate students Nathalie Fiechter, Sammy Popper and Ashlyn Carr all left, taking with them 51% of Maryland’s assists and 39% of its goals from last season.

Lawn and Popper in particular will be difficult to replace offensively. Lawn led Maryland with 12 assists and 30 total points, with the midfielder’s assist mark tied for eight-highest in Division I. Popper was tied for second on the team with 10 goals, five of which were game winners. For a team that went 7-4 in one-score games last year, finding somebody else to produce when the margins are slim is critical.

Newcomers

Meharg has been active in addressing Maryland’s concerns in the recruitment process, though, pursuing quality over quantity in the transfer portal and recruiting several intriguing freshmen.

Junior forward Fleur Knopert played her first two years at Ball State, leading the team with 13 goals and 28 points last year. Knopert, who has two first-team All-Mid Atlantic Conference selections, finished 31st in Division I in points per game last year.

The other transfer coming to College Park this fall is Alina Gerke, who spent three years playing midfield at Vermont. Gerke was an NFHCA All-Northeast Region first team midfielder after posting a career-high 10 goals and 22 points last year. She was also named to the America East All-Conference first team twice and second team once.

The Dutch and German natives continue Meharg’s tradition of recruiting players with roots overseas. Having each scored three game-winning goals for their respective teams last year, the Terps can only hope they continue this.

Maryland also has some highly coveted recruits from the class of 2024 joining the team this season.

Freshman AJ Eyre, who hails from nearby Glenelg, Md., led all Maryland high schoolers in points last year and was a three-time 2A state champion. She will be joined in the midfield by Callie Rogers, a Richmond, Va., native who MAX Field Hockey named the class of 2024’s eighth-best prospect in June 2022.

Freshmen Adèle Jardemar and Annemijn Klijnhout also join the Terps from France and the Netherlands, respectively. Jardemar anchored the U-18 and U-20 French defense to bronze medals in 2022 and 2024, while Klijnhout has made several appearances for the Dutch U-18 team.

Up top, the trio of Ella Gaitan, Kristina Johnson and Ellie Goldstein will look to add depth and firepower to the Maryland offense. The three freshmen — from New Jersey, Texas and Connecticut — were all ranked in MAX Field Hockey’s class of 2024 top 100 players.

Notable retuners

It is the returning core that will bring Maryland to the top, though. Seniors Carly Hynd, Hope Rose, Kylee Niswonger, and Paige Kieft and fifth-year Rayne Wright look to replace the experience of their graduated teammates.

The biggest burdens will fall on Hope, a first-team NFHCA All-American who led Maryland last season with 13 goals, and Wright, who amassed almost 1300 minutes of playing time in the back line as a captain. Their leadership will be key in guiding the newest rendition of Maryland field hockey.

Former freshman phenom Alyssa Klebasko will seek to improve upon her sensational debut season in goal. Klebasko, an Odenton, Md., native, had a 14-3 record last season with the second-best save percentage (83.8%) and third-best goals allowed per game average (1.0) of all qualified Division I goalies.

These numbers earned Klebasko a call-up to the 2024 US U-21 Women’s National Team, alongside teammates Rose, Gaitan and Josie Hollamon.

Hollamon, who was a consensus top-10 recruit two years ago, also enters her sophomore season ready to pick up where the Terps left off.

And while she was not on the team last year, the Terps’ will likely rely heavily on returning graduate student Emma DeBerdine. The two-time All American midfielder was one of four current and ex-Terps on the US Olympic field hockey team in Paris last month. Having taken last year off at the collegiate level to train, DeBerdine is using her final year of eligibility to push her Terps toward a championship.

Looking forward

The road to lifting the trophy in Ann Arbor, Mi., starts in familiar territory for the Terps. Having just won their final preseason game against William & Mary, 13-1, they open the season at home against Louisville on Aug. 30 at 8 p.m. and Drexel on Sep. 1 at noon, before traveling to Evanston, Ill., where Northwestern is hosting the Big Ten/ACC Cup.

Maryland will play Boston College on Sep. 6 at 4 p.m. and Duke on Sep. 8th at noon in rematches of games from last year in the event. The Terps lost to Duke, 2-1, and beat Boston College, 1-0, in overtime.

The Big Ten/ACC Cup is the only trip away from College Park until October for the Terps, who need to build momentum early on to cement their title aspirations in the most challenging conference in the country. But with Meharg’s track record of excellence and a promising group of players, the Terps are equipped with all they need to make the program’s 50th anniversary even more special.