Nov. 18, 2006

By Caitlin O'Grady

Special to CSTV.com

	CAITLIN O'GRADY Caitlin O'Grady is a CSTV.com correspondent from Wake Forest. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- 11/19: Maryland Wins Fifth National Championship 11/18: Maryland, Wake No Stranger to NCAA Champ. 11/17: Maryland Downs UConn, Moves to Finals 11/17: Wake Forest Moves On 11/15: Hofstra Deserves Respect

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons will be taking on the University of Maryland Terrapins in the NCAA Field Hockey Championship game.  Both teams are no stranger to being heralded NCAA Champions.

Last year, the Terps won the Championship after defeating Duke in the final match.  Wake Forest fell to Duke in the NCAA semifinals, thus putting them out of contention for the Championship.

Prior to that year, Wake Forest had won three consecutive national championships, from 2002 through 2004.  During the 2005 regular season they went undefeated, but they were unable to pull through when it came to the Final Four.

In order to advance to the NCAA finals, Wake defeated Duke 5-4 after two overtime periods.  The Deacons were leading the Blue Devils 4-2 until the last minute of the game, when Duke managed to tie the score, sending the game into overtime.

In the second overtime period the Deacons scored, thus ending the game and advancing themselves to the NCAA Championships.

"Our whole motto is to play on Sunday's," said Wake Forest coach Jen Averill. "We played on Sunday for the ACC Championship. We played on Sunday for the first and second round [of the NCAA Tournament], and now we've put ourselves in a position to play this Sunday."

Maryland advances after defeating Connecticut in penalty strokes.  Connecticut scored an early goal that Maryland managed to equalize on later in the first half.  Neither team was able to score in the second half, thus the game went into overtime.  Both teams were unsuccessful at putting the ball in the net in overtime, so with the game still tied, it was forced to go to penalty strokes to determine a winner. 

Both teams made their first two penalty strokes, but the Huskies missed their third and fourth strokes, while the Terps made theirs, therefore Maryland emerged the winner.

The Deacons and Terps are very familiar with each other.  They've already faced one another twice this season.  In regular season play Maryland slipped by Wake Forest 3-2 on Sept. 23.

Throughout most of the regular season Maryland held the top ranking while Wake Forest held the No. 2 spot.  Not until the Deacons handily defeated Duke 3-0 and Louisville 5-1 did they come to share the No. 1 ranking with Maryland.  After the loss to the Terps, Wake Forest fell back to the No. 2 spot, while Maryland maintained the No. 1 ranking.

The teams met again in the ACC Championship in Chapel Hill, N.C. on Nov. 5, but this time the outcome was different.  The Deacons managed a one-goal victory over the Terps, winning 1-0 and claiming the No. 1 ranking, as Maryland fell to the No. 2 spot.

In the overall series, the Terps lead the Deacons 17-10.  Just two years ago, in 2004, Wake Forest played Maryland in the NCAA Championships, and defeated the Terps 3-0.

"We've had some great hockey with them and we'll need to kind of reevaluate and kind of figure out how we want to play this game with them, this kind of rubber match," said Maryland coach Missy Meharg. "But we were against Wake two years ago here in the finals so it's kind of a pretty familiar place for our juniors and seniors."

In 2001, the Terps snuck past the Deacons in the semifinals of the NCAA Final Four, defeating Wake Forest 3-2 after two overtime periods were played.

The meeting of these two teams marks the fifth meeting between Wake Forest and Maryland in the NCAA Championship game.

The game will be played Nov. 19 at Noon in Winston-Salem, N.C.