Nov. 19, 2009

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The No. 4-seeded Maryland Terrapin women's soccer team (14-5-2, 4-4-2 ACC) heads to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2004 when it travels to Chapel Hill, N.C., to take on No. 1-seed North Carolina (19-3-1, 7-3-0) on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 1 p.m. at Fetzer Field.

• Maryland advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 4-0 shutout of Monmouth in the first round and a 1-0 shutout of Washington State in the second round. Carolina advanced with a 1-0 win over High Point in the first round and a 4-0 victory over Georgia in the second round.

Championship Links
• Championship Bracket
• NCAA Women's Soccer home page
• NCAA Women's Soccer blog

Event Multimedia
• Fans will be able to follow listen to the game live on the internat at WMUC Sports.com. Fans will also be able to follow all of the action on umterps.com via Gametracker.

Maryland Returns To The NCAA Tournament For 10th Time
• The Terps are in the NCAA Women's College Cup for the first time since 2004 and 10th time overall. Maryland holds a 10-8-1 record in tournament play and is 0-2 all-time in the third round.

• The last time Maryland advanced to the second round was 2004. That season the Terps stunned No. 2-overall seed Penn State on its home field with a 1-0 victory to advance to the Sweet 16 before falling at Washington, 1-0.

Maryland's Individual NCAA Records

Maryland's Team NCAA Records

Scouting The Terps
• After going a perfect 8-0 in its non-conference schedule the Terps went 4-4-2 in the ACC and dropped a 3-0 decision to No. 3 North Carolina in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament. In the first round of the NCAA tournament Maryland shutout Monmouth 4-0. The Terps then followed that up with a 1-0 victory in the second round over Washington State.

• Maryland opened its 2009 season with a two-game road trip to New York for games at Army and Fordham. In the season opener at Army, the Terrapins dominated the Black Knights en route to a 3-0 shutout victory. After a scoreless first half, sophomore Ashley Grove got the Terps on the board with the team's first goal of the year off an assist by senior Megan Watson. Less than two minutes later, sophomore Jasmyne Spencer tallied her first collegiate goal. Senior goalkeeper Mary Casey started the play with a good punt, which was then flicked on by junior Caitlin McDowell. The third goal came was an unassisted blast by freshman Caitlin Mooney.

• After the Army win, Maryland moved to the Bronx to challenge the Fordham Rams. This time the Terps got on the board midway through the first half when freshman Olivia Wagner played the ball through to Spencer, who beat her defender and finished from 20 yards out with a low shot. Fordham tied the game at 1-1 in the 53rd minute, but it took Maryland less than 30 seconds to score the go-ahead goal. Once again it was Spencer scoring the goal, with the assist going to Grove, to give Maryland the 2-1 victory.

• The Terps continued their winning ways in their home opener on Friday, August 28 against Seton Hall. Freshmen Olivia Wagner and Caitlin Mooney scored goals for Maryland, leading the Terrapins to a 2-0 victory over the Pirates. Wagner scored the first goal on a 25-yard blast that was too much for the Seton Hall keeper to handle in the 51st minute. Mooney added the insurance goal on a quick turn-and-shoot effort in the 81st minute.

• The undefeated streak was in jeopardy for a half in the Terps' game against Loyola. The Greyhounds took a 1-0 lead into halftime, but that didn't stand up for long. Sophomore Sade Ayinde, who was inserted into the line-up at the beginning of the second half, scored in the 51st minute to knot the score at 1-1. Less than a minute later freshman Danielle Hubka gave Maryland the lead with a 30-yard shot into the upper right 90. After the Greyhounds tied the match in the next minute, the Terps regained the lead in the 53rd minute on another Ayinde goal. Ayinde was on the giving end of Terps' fourth goal,playing a give-and-go with freshman Caitlin Mooney, who finished from 15 yards into the lower left corner. SophomoreAshley Grove finished off the scoring with a 40-yard rip from the far left side of the field, giving the Terps a 5-2 victory.

• Maryland faced its toughest test so far on Sept. 4 in traditional powerhouse Santa Clara, but a goal by sophomore Ashley Grove propelled the Terps to a 1-0 victory. Senior keeper Mary Casey made five stops to earn her third shutout of the season.

• The Terps were not sharp when they played at American on Sept. 9, but Maryland still found a way to win the game - a 1-0 decision. Jasmyne Spencer scored the lone goal of the game in the 49th minute with the assist going to Caitlin McDowell.

• Maryland won its third-straight 1-0 decision on Sept. 11 when it defeated James Madison, an NCAA Sweet 16 team from 2008. For the fourth time this season the game was 0-0 at the half, but the Terps came out fast in the second half, putting pressure on the Dukes. Maryland had a goal taken off the board when the referee blew an early whistle in the 47th minute. The Terps were awarded a penalty shot on the play, but JMU goalkeeper Diane Wszalek came up with the stop to keep the game scoreless. That's how it would remain until the 60th minute when junior Molly Dreska put in her first career goal. Sophomore Ashley Grove made a hard run down the left side and crossed the ball back to the middle of the field to Dreska. Dreska then tried a fake to buy some space, but the JMU defender played her tightly. That didn't matter, because Dreska created a sliver of space and rifled a shot to the back post, past a diving Wszalek, to give the Terps the 1-0 lead.

• The 1-0 victory-streak came to an end, but the winning streak stayed alive with a 3-1 win over Brown in the Terps' non-conference finale. The victory gave the Terps (8-0-0) their first undefeated record in non-conference play since 1996. That season Maryland was 13-0 in regular season non-conference games. Molly Dreska continued her hot streak, scoring the first two goals for the Terps. Sophomore Jasmyne Spencer, who picked up an assist on Dreska's second goal, scored the insurance goal for Maryland.

• Maryland opened its conference schedule with the difficult five-day road trip to Florida. The Terps showed they can hang with the nation's elite by giving the No. 5 Florida State Seminoles all they could handle. In the end, FSU came away with a 2-1 victory, but Maryland showed its mettle. After falling behind 1-0, sophomore Jasmyne Spencer scored her sixth goal of the season to tie the game. The Seminoles got the go-ahead goal late in the first half to seal the win. After that the Terps went to Miami and gave up two set-piece goals to the Hurricanes and dropped a 2-0 decision in Coral Gables.

• Four different goal scorers gave Maryland its first conference win of the season, a 4-0 drubbing of Duke in Durham, N.C., on Oct. 4. Freshman Danielle Hubka scored the first goal for the Terps for her first career game-winning goal. That score was followed by first-half tallies by junior Molly Dreska and sophomore Jasmyne Spencer and a 90th-minute goal by sophomore Sade Ayinde. Sophomore Lydia Hastings had two assists on the day, while junior Caitlin McDowel, sophomore Domenica Hodak and sophomore Kristen McAfee also had helpers.

• After a scoreless first half the Terps got on the board first when redshirt sophomore Mallory Baker scored her first collegiate goal in the 56th minute. Virginia tied the match at 1-1 a few minutes later, but junior Caitlin MdDowell scored in the 79th minute to give Maryland a 2-1 lead. Virginia tied the match at 2-2 on a 90th-minute goal and that's the way things would end, giving each team a point in the conference standings.

• Maryland finally returned home to host No. 6 Virginia Tech and the Terps put together another statement game in a 3-1 win over the Hokies. Freshman Danielle Hubka scored to give Maryland a 1-0 lead, but a controversial penalty kick was awarded to VT and it tied the match at 1-1. But less than two minutes later sophomore Ashley Grove got on the end of a Jasmyne Spencer cross to put the Terps back on top. Sophomore Becky Kaplan added her first career goal to lock the game away for Maryland.

• On a rainy, cold night the Terps battled No. 7 Boston College to a 1-1 tie. Sophomore Becky Kaplan got Maryland on the board in the 75th minute off assists by sophomore Sade Ayinde and freshman Caitlin Mooney. BC knotted the match in the 83rd minute on a 30-yard shot into the upper right 90 by Kristen Mewis.

• For 81 minutes it looked like "Lady Luck" was going to overlook the 10th-ranked Maryland women's soccer team in its game against NC State Sunday afternoon at Ludwig Field. Posts, crossbars and a stingy Wolfpack defense stifled the Terrapin offense for much of the afternoon, but the Terps rallied from a two-goal deficit in the final nine minutes of regulation and won the game, 3-2, six minutes into the first overtime. Sophomore Ashley Grove finished a cross from sophomore Jasmyne Spencer to cut the Wolfpack lead to one in the 81st minute. Then, with two minutes remaining in the game, junior Molly Dreska got on the end of an Olivia Wagner corner kick and headed it into the far upper corner to send the game into overtime. It was another set piece in the sixth minute of the first overtime that gave Maryland the victory. A foul by the Wolfpack gave Maryland a free kick near midfield. Wagner sent the ball into the box, but the ball didn't find a Terrapin player. Instead the ball found NC State defender Gia Cipollini and her header went into the Wolfpack goal, giving the Terps the 3-2 win on an own goal.

• After a scoreless first half, the Terps came out fast and scored three times in the final 45 minutes to top Clemson, 3-0, on the road on Oct. 22. Sophomore Jasmyne Spencer continued her breakout season with two goals, the first on an assist from freshman Danielle Hubka and the second on a rebound put-back off of an Ashely Grove shot that found the post. Grove scored the third goal for Maryland. Senior All-ACC goalkeeper Mary Casey tied her season high with five saves in the team's seventh shutout of the season.

• The Terps' home unbeaten streak of nine matches, dating back to last season, came to an end on Oct. 29 with a 3-1 loss to No. 11 Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons took a 2-0 lead into halftime, but Maryland got back into the game with an Ashley Grove goal in the 75th minute. Despite a valaint effort, the Terps could not complete the comeback and Wake got a late goal from Kaley Fountain to round out the scoring.

• Maryland closed its 2009 regular season with a valiant effort on "Senior Day," but it wasn't enough as the Terps fell to No. 4 North Carolina, 1-0, on a Maria Lubrano header off a corner kick in the eighth minute. Senior goalkeeper Mary Casey set her career high with nine saves on the day.

• The Terps' first trip to the ACC tournament in four years ended like the previous two trips ... with a loss to North Carolina. The fourth-ranked Tar Heels, who won the tournament in dominating fasion with a 3-0 victory over No. 3 Florida State in the finals, topped No. 13 Maryland, 3-0.

• The first round of the NCAA tournament saw the Terps matching up with a stingy Monmouth team that had allowed only 10 goals all season, but Maryland rolled to a 4-0 win to advance to the second round. Redshirt-sophomore Mallory Baker put back her own rebound off of a saved PK to give the Terps a 1-0 lead in the first half. Freshman Danielle Hubka scored an unassisted goal early in the second for a 2-0 lead. Junior Colleen Deegan finished a Caitlin McDowell corner kick into the upper right 90 to make it a 3-0 Maryland lead. Freshman Olivia Wagner assisted on fellow freshman Caitlin Mooney's goal in the 84th minute to round out the scoring.

• Sophomore Jasmyne Spencer's goal in the 33rd minute was the difference in the Terps' 1-0 victory over Washington State in the second round of the NCAA tournament.Senior Megan Watson and junior Molly Dreska earned assists on the goal. Senior goalkeeper Mary Casey earned her ninth shutout of the season, tying a senior-class record, with five saves.

• Sophomore Jasmyne Spencer continues to lead the team in points and goals with 25 and 10, respectively. Junior Caitlin McDowell leads the team in assists with six. Senior All-ACC goalkeeper Mary Casey has played every minute for Maryland in net and has a goals-against average of 0.98 with a save percentage of .767 and nine shutouts.

Scouting The Tar Heels
• North Carolina enters Saturday's game with a 19-3-1 record overall and boast a seven-game winning streak.

• The defending NCAA champions opened the 2009 season with seven straight non-conference wins before finishing up its non-conference slate with a 0-0 tie with Auburn in Durham, N.C. The Tar Heels went 7-3-0 in the ACC and was the third seed in the conference tournament. But UNC swept through the ACC tournament, winning the title without allowing a goal. UNC earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and breezed into the Sweet 16 with a 1-0 win over High Point, during which the Panthers did not even get off a shot, and a 4-0 shutout of Georgia.

• Senior midfielder Casey Nogueira is UNC's leading scorer with 25 points on eight goals and nine assists. Junior forward Jessica McDonald also has eight goals for the Tar Heels. Defensively, senior goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris has started 21 of the Tar Heels' 23 games and has a 0.40 goals-against average and a .826 save percentage with nine shutouts.

The Last Time vs. North Carolina
• Maryland has faced Carolina twice already in 2009. In the regular season finale Carolina took a 1-0 decision at Ludwig Field. The two teams then met three days later in the first round of the ACC tournament. TUNC came out on top again, this time by a 3-0 margin.

The North Carolina Series
• The Maryland-North Carolina series dates back to the start of the Terps' varsity program in 1987. In fact, UNC, along with Virginia and NC State are the only teams to have played Maryland at least once in each varsity season for the past 20 years. UNC leads the all-time series with the Terrapins 30-0-1.

• The Terps and Tar Heels have never met in the NCAA tournament and this will be the first time the two teams have met three times in a season.

ACC Proves Dominant, Sends Seven Into Sweet 16
•A league-record seven Atlantic Coast Conference women's soccer teams are among the Sweet 16 of the 2009 NCAA Division I Championship field after all posted second-round wins on Sunday.

• Five nationally-seeded ACC teams - No. 1 North Carolina, No. 1 Florida State, No. 2 Boston College, No. 3 Wake Forest and No. 4 Maryland scored home-field wins, while No. 3 Virginia Tech and unseeded Virginia won on the road. The seven wins by the ACC teams came by a combined margin of 22-3.

• UNC, Florida State and Boston College are now set to host third-round games on Friday and Saturday.

• Virginia delivered perhaps the most remarkable victory on Sunday in defeating fourth-seeded host Penn State, 6-2. The Cavaliers trailed 2-0 at the half before scoring six unanswered second-half goals in a span of roughly 20 minutes. Virginia, which lost at Penn State, 1-0, in its season opener Aug. 21, is headed to the Sweet 16 for the fifth straight season.

• In other action Sunday, North Carolina blanked Georgia, 4-0; Florida State shut out California, 3-0; Boston College downed Connecticut, 2-0; Wake Forest shut out West Virginia 3-0; Maryland blanked Washington State, 1-0, and Virginia Tech scored a 3-1 win at Dayton.

Looking Ahead
• The winner of the Maryland-North Carolina game will play the winner of the South Carolina-Wake Forest game that will be played in Columbia, S.C., on Friday at 7 p.m. The Gamecocks, the No. 2 seed in the North Carolina bracket, are 19-3-1 on the season and advanced with a 1-0 win over Rutgers in the second round. The No. 3-seeded Demon Deacons, now 15-5-2 on the year, got through to the Sweet 16 with a 3-0 win over West Virginia.

Spencer & Hubka Earn All-ACC Honors
• Sophomore Jasmyne Spencer was named to the All-ACC first team, while Danielle Hubka earned a spot on the All-Freshman team.

• Spencer has enjoyed a breakthough season in her second year in the Terrapin program. The Bay Shore, N.Y., native started the year with the game-winning goal in the 3-0 win over Army and hasn't slowed up since. She leads the team with 23 points on nine goals and five assists. Her 23 points are already the most for a Terrapin in a season since 2003 when Kimmy Francis finished with 24. Her nine goals is also the most since 2004 when Mallory Mahar also had nine in her All-America season.

• Hubka has been solid for the Terps in her first season in College Park. After missing the first two games due to injury, the Strongsville, Ohio, native scored her first career goal in her second game, the Terps' 5-2 win over Loyola. She earned a starting spot in the midfield in the team's 1-0 victory over No. 22 Santa Clara. She was moved from the midfield to forward early in the conference season and responded with the game-winning goal in the 4-0 win at Duke. Overall on the year Hubka has eight points on three goals and two assists. She is the first Maryland field player to earn All-Freshman honors since Nataly Arias was selected in 2004.

Baker Latest Terp To Be One Of CollegeSoccer360.com's Primetime Performers
• Redshirt-sophomore Mallory Baker was selected as one of collegesoccer360.com's Primetime Perfomers for the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament. Baker was selected after scoring the game-winner in the Terps' 4-0 win over Monmouth and playing every minute in that game and Maryland's 1-0 win over Washington State in the second round. Baker is the third Terps this season to earn the honor.

• Junior midfielder Molly Dreska was named a Primetime Performer for her game-tying goal in the Terps' 3-2 overtime victory over NC State on Oct. 18.

• Sophomore Jasmyne Spencer was the first Terp to be named to the team with her three-point performance in Maryland's 3-1win over No. 6 Virginia Tech on Oct. 11.

Ranked Terps
• The Terps dropped to No. 20 in the latest Soccer America Top 25 after losing to No. 1 seed North Carolina, 3-0, in the ACC tournament quarterfinals. The final NSCAA poll of the regular season finds the Terps as the No. 19 team in the country with 213 points.

At Ludwig Field
• Since its opening in 1995, Ludwig Field has proved to be a tremendous home-field advantage for the Terps women's soccer team. All-time Maryland is 99-46-16 (.665) at Ludwig Field.

• Through the seasons, the Terps have had a knack for shutting teams out at Ludwig Field. Maryland has won 68 of its 99 victories (68.7%) at Ludwig Field via shutout. Add in the nine 0-0 ties the Terps have had at Ludwig Field and it totals 77 times that Maryland has shutout its opponent in 161 games (47.8%).

Youth Movement
• So far this season the Terps have scored 40 goals, it highest season output since 2003 (36), but of those 40 goals 33 have come from either freshmen or sophomores. That means that more than 83 percent of Maryland's goals have come from freshmen or sophomores.

• The impact of the underclassmen is also evident when looking at assists. Maryland has 44 assists on the year with 32 of those (72.7 percent) coming from freshmen or sophomores.

• Leading the way for the younger Terps is sophomore Jasmyne Spencer, who after going pointless as a freshman in 2008, is enjoying a breakthrough season this year. She started the year with the game-winning goal in the 3-0 win over Army and hasn't slowed up since. She leads the team with 23 points on nine goals and five assists. Her 23 points are already the most for a Terrapin in a season since 2003 when Kimmy Francis finished with 24. Her nine goals is also the most since 2004 when Mallory Mahar also had nine in her All-America season.

Head Coach Brian Pensky
• Brian Pensky is in his fifth, and finest, season as the head coach of the Maryland women's soccer program. After helping lead the Terrapin men's program to three-straight appearances in the College Cup, Pensky took over the women's soccer program prior to the 2005 season. He has steadily built the program back to prominence and has it on the verge of its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2004. Pensky owns an overall head coaching record of 37-44-13 (.463).

Deeg's Diary
• Throughout the 2009 season Colleen Deegan is filing "Deeg's Diary" on umterps.com. Log on for her latest insights on Terps women's soccer.

Media Information
• Email Straight To You: If you would like the latest Maryland women's soccer news emailed directly to you as soon as it breaks, email women's soccer contact Patrick Fischer with "Women's Soccer E-Mail" as the subject and you will receive every update.

• Terps on the Web: For up-to-date game stories, statistics, schedules and results, and other Maryland athletic department information, please log-on to www.umterps.com on the Internet.

• GameTracker: Follow Terps games live in 2009 on your computer with GameTracker. Links for all games that will be available can be found at www.umterps.com.