Terps advance, race past American 6-1

By Brian Kapur

All week long the Terps had great practice sessions, coach Missy Meharg and the players talked about taking their game to another level for the post season.

Against the American Eagles on Saturday, the Terps did just that as they lit up the stingy Eagle defense and won 6-1 enroute to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

"We are so pleased to be moving on in the tournament," Meharg said.

The Terps scored on three of five penalty corner attempts, showing new looks, while also executing on their go-to-play, the Emma Thomas drag shot.

"Our execution with our penalty corners was right on," Meharg said.

Meghan Frazer started the scoring just under eight minutes in on a penalty corner strike to give the Terps a 1-0 lead. Moments later, Thomas nailed a drag shot to put the Terps up 2-0.

The Terps offensive barrage continued as Katie O'Donnell scored the Terps' third goal just under 24 minutes into the game.

As the first half came to a close, the Eagles took their first shot on a penalty corner and scored to cut into the Terps lead 3-1.

But they would never come any closer.

"At halftime we got recomposed and we came out and stepped it up." Bri Davies said.

Nicole Muracco scored a goal off an assist from O'Donnell. Then later in the final stanza, O'Donnell put the finishing touches on the Terps dominating performance by using fantastic stick work to fake the American goal keeper out, making her dive the wrong way, and scoring the final goal to give the Terps a 6-1 win.

Muracco and O'Donnell tied the ACC and Maryland single season goal scored and assist records respectivly.