Failing With Chopsticks - Winston Salem Wacky

By: Andy Gripshover

It's 11:39 PM on Christmas Eve as I type this. In just over 12 hours, it's national championship time. I'm a total ball of nerves right now. So how do we unwind? Relive all the wild and crazy stuff Brian and I got ourselves in to on this trip!

-We left College Park on Wednesday afternoon at about 3:45. We rolled in to our Marriott hotel here in Winston Salem at about 11:45. That's EIGHT HOURS, folks. Boy, did it drag. To be fair, part of it was spent eating dinner at Uno (excellent pizza, fantastic chocolate cake which the picture tells you I enjoyed, absolutely epic and unprintable dinnertime conversation) but a big shout out goes to my friends Mike and Olaolu for texting with me for much of the trip. Unfortunately I won't have that luxury on the trip home but I'll hopefully have a national championship game story to work on. And some celebrating to do. Hopefully.

-Thursday lunch was at Dill Pickle, a very nice little lunch place where I got a fried chicken sandwich, some chips, and an epic cookies and cream slice of cake. It didn't fill me up enough however and I had a massive headache almost all day which prevented too much happy fun times. It was cured by night though and I got to see FlashForward as it aired, which is rare for me because I usually have a Thursday night class. Show was awesome, as usual. Unfortunately, I missed an absolutely epic banquet for the Final Four teams because there was only one ticket and Brian got up earlier than me to claim it (there had better be video of Emma Thomas from this particular evening.) Ah well. I dragged him to Mellow Mushroom though, where I threw down an 11 inch meatlovers pizza. Yes, I ate pizza for dinner two nights in a row. Nice healthy diet I have going on.

-Friday was game day. Silly me nearly made us late and got us mock applause from Missy and Marybeth for being the last ones on the bus. Gotta step my game up tomorrow. You know about the game by now (hopefully) so I won't go in to that. Instead we need to discuss Friday's lunch before the game, which inspired the title.

-Prior to this trip, I only knew "Pho" from Moses Malone's "fo, fo, fo" Sixers in the early 80's. Not anymore. "Pho" is the Vietnamese soup place where I learned to use chopsticks after, well, failing miserably. A little backstory: I am from Carroll County, which is about 40 minutes west of Baltimore and basically lily white. "Pho", to be quite frank, was culture shock. I went in scoffing at $10 for soup...and then I saw the size of the bowl of soup that we got. Holy goodness. It was solid and I can only imagine how epic it would've been if I were sick. And then of course there was the chopsticks. I first used them by holding one in each hand and like converging them together to literally "pick up" the noodles which...did not go well. Then I just followed Brian's lead, which worked a little better. It took me a while to pick up though and I think that in part almost made us late as you read above. I was just on fire on Friday as you can tell.

-Friday dinner was basically Chik-Fil-A that we copped from the media room when we came back with the team for the second half of UVA/UNC. Dressed in jeans and a long sleeve fleece blue shirt with a media pass around my neck, I threw down Chik-Fil-A, a bag of Fritos, a soda, and like four Rice Krispy Treats (not counting the two I had before the press conference after the Maryland game.) Basically, I was the walking stereotype of the lazy sports journalist. That combined with the "Fo" paux from earlier and nearly making us late...my family must be so proud. They'll also be proud of the following.

-Friday night was spent exploring around downtown Winston Salem (no, not an oxymoron, to the disbelief of both Brian and I.) The highlight: we found a place with a pink neon sign that read "GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS" with an arrow. It was called "Harper's Cabaret" and it was like two blocks down from our hotel. Also, it was sandwiched between two dark alleys. We weren't trying to die. We exited stage left very quickly. We ended up getting some snacks from a place called "Kernal and Kustard." I got a hot fudge sundae with caramel and rainbow sprinkles to keep up my ungodly diet, Brian got a North Carolina hot dog that had chili, cheese, hot sauce, coleslaw, relish, and mustard on it.

-Oh and we also discovered that the local CVS closes at 6 PM every night. Winston Salem night life, everybody!

-Went to practice this morning and met the CBS College Sports (which I call CBSCSTV since it used to be CSTV and "CBS College Sports" takes too long to say) broadcasters, who were very nice and very in awe of the Terps. With good reason. Can't tell you too much of what we saw at practice; that's what our broadcast tomorrow is for :) After practice, we came back here and got some lunch at a place called Namo (I guess you could say...*puts on sunglasses a la Caurso from CSI: Miami*...we were finding Namo. YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.) I got an absolutely unreal fried chicken sandwich that was so big that, combined with my fries, basically put me out of commission for the afternoon. BK's pizza also knocked him out as he took a nap for most of the afternoon. Too bad for him, he missed Charlie Weis almost surely losing his job as UConn beat Notre Dame in double overtime. We both saw that crazy LSU/Ole Miss finish though where the Tigers couldn't get the final play off after converting the 4th and 26. Ahh, college football is awesome. Then we prepped, talked with Missy, and went out to dinner (Mellow Mushroom again; I got a chicken parm hoagie, BK got a take home pizza.) Got home in time for the epic Oregon/Arizona finish (again, college football = good) and now I'm writing this.

-And to wrap up: Just now, BK notices that Katie O'Donnell is the "Terp of the Week" on our website (www.wmucsports.com) Without missing a beat, I respond with "shouldn't she be like the Terp of Our Lives?" Kind of sums up the weekend. Hopefully. Go Terps! Bring the 'ship home tomorrow. Take care, everyone.

Terps Beat Princeton in Winston-Salem Shootout 7-5, Advance to Title Game

Missed the game? Listen to a replay of the first half here and listen to the second half here. Listen to HIGHLIGHTS here

By Brian Kapur

“We are up for the challenge,” that’s the Terps have expressed all season and on Friday, Princeton provided a challenge, and the Terps rose to the occasion and won 7-5 to advance to the national championship game.

Princeton scored the first goal of the game, but the Terps answered back with three unanswered goals. The Terps surged ahead of the Tigers 3-1 in the first half on the strength of two Emma Thomas drag shots and a goal by Katie O’Donnell, going into the locker room with a two goal lead.

After halftime, goal keeper Alicia Grater took on two Tigers and made two saves with no defensive help. The Terps took the ball immediately down the field and Nicole Muracco fed O’Donnell the ball and the ACC Offensive Player of the Year did the rest by scoring the goal to blow the game open 4-1.

“The transition today was really what put us above them. From playing defense to automatic attack,” O’Donnell said.

But the Tigers would not back down. Princeton scored three goals to tie the game at four with about 17 minutes to go in the game.

“We settled a bit and they were not going to be embarrassed, there was no way that team was going to get blown out,” coach Missy Meharg said. “They have a vengeance mentally, they are strong players. I am not surprised that it happened. I would have liked to control it a little bit more.”

“When it was a tied score and the pressure was really on to perform again and finish, we have players that like that challenge,” Meharg said.

The Terps answered the challenge as freshman Megan Frazer scored the go-ahead goal with a rocket shot. Then O’Donnell put a perfect pass on Ameliet Rischen’s stick. Rischen did the rest as she put the Terps up two goals.

O’Donnell put the final touches on the Terps win with a knockout punch goal, and her NCAA tournament signal game record ninth point, to secure a date with North Carolina for the national championship.

“It’s my teammates...It’s not about me or my points. It’s about my (teammates) finishing them," O'Donnell said. "I can only do what I can do. I can put the ball in the net as much as I like to. But the assists don’t just come, it’s your teammates putting the ball in the net for you. Its great to have nine points, but I am just a single player on an entire field of a huge group of girls.”

The Terps will play the Tar Heels on Sunday at noon looking to repeat as national champions.

“For me this year is more important," O'Donnell said. "You have been through the process, you know what its like to win a national championship and you drive to win another one. Its definety not taken for granted. Nothing is taken for granted.

Terps set to take on Princeton in final four

by Brian Kapur

The Terps will take on Princeton, the first team to survive 70 minutes of field hockey with the Terps and push them into overtime.

Meanwhile ACC rivals UNC and UVA will battle to face the winner in Sunday's national championship game.

Terps Route Drexel Enroute to Winston-Salem, Final Four

By Brian Kapur

In the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the Terps sent a message to the field hockey world with a 5-0 drubbing of Drexel.

From goalkeeper Alicia Grater at one end of the field to the Terps' all-time leading scorer Nicole Muracco on the other end of the field, the Terps were firing on all cylinders as they shut out the Dragons.

Muracco got the scoring started by challenging the Dragons' goalkeeper and getting the ball through after battling with her. Muracco struck again moments later on an assist from Ameliet Rischen to give the Terps a 2-0 lead at half.

Katie O'Donnell, Janessa Pope and Megan Frazer each had a goal in the second half to balloon the score to 5-0.

Alicia Morowski did not play due to an injury sustained against American.

Drexel made 16 saves on 33 Maryland shots. Meanwhile the Dragons could only take three shots, all of which happened in the second half and one was saved by Grater.

Terps to play Drexel

Drexel upset UConn to advance to Sunday's game against the Terps. Game time is 2pm. Listen live on WMUCSports.com

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.

Field Hockey Bracketology

by Brian Kapur

The Terps are riding a wave of momentum after a comeback for the ages in the ACC Championship game. The momentum continued during the NCAA selection show when the Terps potential road to back-to-back NCAA championships was paved.

-A road paved perfectly for the Terps
>The Terps will be playing the first two rounds at home, a perk which may have been in doubt.
>The Terps are the top overall seed
>UVA, UNC, and Wake Forest are on the opposite side of the bracket. Great news meaning the Terps will only have to face one of them on the road to the championship. And that would be in the title game itself.
> The Terps would only face one of two tough teams on their side of the bracket Princeton and Syracuse. They still have UConn to deal with and the always tough American.

There is little to dislike about the way this bracket shaped up for the Terps.