For three quarters Thursday night in Evanston, Illinois, it was all No. 1 Maryland field hockey. For the final period, it was all Olivia Bent-Cole.
The Northwestern senior registered a pair of fourth-quarter goals to complete both a hat trick and the No. 2 Wildcats’ comeback to stun the top-ranked Terps, 4-2. The loss snapped Maryland’s 14-game unbeaten streak.
For a while, the first quarter was evenly-matched, as neither team claimed the upper hand. A mere one shot had been taken through the first 10 minutes. Eventually, both offenses woke up.
On Maryland’s first set piece of the match, it drew first blood. Francisca Eschoyez’s drag flick from the top of the circle caught the stick of freshman Ella Beach, who ricocheted the shot past Northwestern goalkeeper Juliana Boon. In her homecoming game, the Northbrook, Illinois, native gave Maryland the lead eleven minutes in.
It wouldn’t take long for Northwestern to respond. Despite failing on their first set piece, the Wildcats stayed persistent and found the back of the net. Bent-Cole collected a bouncing ball on the right wing and snapped a shot past Alyssa Klebasko to knot the score at one with less than a minute to play in the opening quarter.
The second quarter nearly mirrored the first, as through 13 minutes, a single shot had been registered. Yet again, that changed with Maryland’s only penalty corner of the period. This time, Jordyn Hollamon did the honors, whacking a rocket to the back of the cage to put the Terps back up by a goal. It was the sophomore’s seventh tally of the season but just her second on a penalty corner. That gave Maryland a 2-1 halftime lead.
The third quarter had similar tension, but this time, neither side cracked the code. Maryland had a trio of set pieces in the frame but Northwestern learned from its mistakes and held the Terps off the scoreboard. Immediately after the flurry of corners, Babs van Hest was whistled for a yellow card, rejuvenating the home side.
The penalty corner department was a major area of focus for both sides entering Thursday night’s showdown. Prior to the game, Northwestern averaged an otherworldly 9.13 corners per game, by far the most in the Big Ten. The Terps turned the tables on Thursday, topping the Wildcats by three in corner attempts.
Eventually, the Terps paid the price with the yellow card. Bent-Cole’s second finish of the night was the first of a three-goal onslaught in the fourth quarter – the last of which came via a redirection from Ella Kokinis.
Northwestern was a changed team in the fourth quarter. Within the opening 6:30, the Wildcats had six shots, tripling the amount they had when the period started. By the end of the frame, the Wildcats had outshot the Terps, 8-2. Remarkably, they did that with minimal production from Ashley Sessa and Ilse Tromp, their two top offensive contributors coming into the match.
The road doesn’t get any easier for the Terps. No. 13 Indiana awaits in Bloomington on Sunday.
Three things to know:
1. Quality over quantity, this time for the opposition. Maryland held Northwestern to 10 shots, its second-lowest total of the season. Unfortunately for the Terps, the Wildcats converted on four of those 10 shots.
2. Challenged the Wildcats. Maryland joined Duke and Princeton as the only three squads to score multiple goals against Northwestern. But the Big Ten’s second-best offense was held to just nine shots, nearly tying its season-low. Boon registered just one stop Thursday.
3. Tournament check-in. Maryland now finds itself second in the Big Ten standings with two games to play before the conference tournament. For the Terps to earn the top seed and a bye to the semifinals, they’d have to win out and Northwestern would have to lose out – a relatively unlikely scenario considering the Wildcats’ dominance. For now, the Terps have their sights set on the No. 2 seed and a likely matchup with Michigan or Ohio State if they can clinch that second spot.