No. 4 Maryland field hockey (2-0) heads north to Boston this weekend for the seventh annual B1G/ACC Cup, where some Terps will see familiar faces.
Maryland opens the weekend against No. 14 Boston College (1-1) on Friday evening before grad transfer midfielder/forward Leah Crouse will take on her former team in No. 18 Duke (2-0) on Sunday.
Maryland’s other grad transfer, midfielder Danielle van Rootselaar, travels back to her home from the previous four years. Van Rootselaar played three seasons of field hockey at Brown, which is only about an hour away from Boston College. Some of her friends from the New York and Boston areas are expected to attend.
“I’m very much looking forward to having a lot of familiar faces in the stands and playing for the first time Duke and Boston College,” van Rootselaar said.
The familiar faces help ease the mind of van Rootselaar as she adjusts from going to school with 10,000 students to 40,000 students.
“[Brown] is a small school; you know everybody,” van Rootselaar said. “When I walk through the class I’ll probably run into 25 people I know whereas here, I walk into class, I will see 200 people, but I won’t know a single one of them.”
No. 1 Northwestern (2-0) is the other Big Ten team participating in the annual Labor Day weekend tournament.
The tournament gives Maryland a chance to face some of the top teams in the country as the Big Ten and ACC are the two best field hockey conferences in the country.
The Terps come into the tournament undefeated after trouncing Drexel 7-1 and squeaking by Stanford 1-0.
Stanford was in the shooting circle for the final few minutes while up two players, but the Terps’ defense preserved the shutout.
Goalie Christina Calandra played the full 60 minutes in Monday’s game and played well. Calandra recorded her first career shutout with two saves.
“She had to make four saves; she secured the shutout in her first competitive game ever,” head coach Missy Meharg said. “Calandra was so strong (Monday) along with our backfield.”
The Terps took 23 shots with 12 on goal, but only one found the back of the net, courtesy of van Rootselaar’s stick.
“During this week’s practice, we’re just going to work on them a little harder to make sure that we’re in the right position for each other to finish those goals,” midfielder and captain Bibi Donraadt said.
As part of the weekend festivities, all four teams head to Fenway Park on Saturday to participate in the Red Sox’s Field Hockey Day. Fans also have the opportunity to participate in a meet and greet with all four teams.
“I think it’s going to be fun to do a cool team activity with the girls but also the opportunity to be around the girls from the other teams,” Donraadt said. “Obviously, a lot of the girls know girls on other teams from USA Field Hockey and Dutch hockey, so that’s always very exciting.”
