March 7, 2008

By Carolyn Braff

CSTV.com

CAROLYN BRAFF
Carolyn is an assistant editor and writer for CSTV.com.
E-mail         ---   Column Archive   --- SOFTBALL 3/7: Return Of The Terps 2/29: (Two And) Oh, Canada 2/15: Throwing Off The Rust 2/8: Northeast Conference Preview 2/8: Summit League Preview 2/8: Planning The Pre-Conference Season 2/8: Bringing The World To The Series 2/8: Bruin Magic In Numbers 2/7: Horizon League Preview 2/5: ACC Preview 2/5: MWV Preview 2/2: Backing Up The Best 2/2: Defense Will Anchor Hofstra's Next Title Run 2/2: Tech Going For Seventh Straight OVC Title 2/1: Getting Better Without Age 2/1: Crowding The Mound 2/1: Sun Belt Preview 2/1: Cold Weather Winners 1/31: New Name, Same Game 1/29: Arizona Is One Man Down 1/28: It's Not Baseball For Girls 1/24: Modeling The Right Role FOOTBALL 01/15: Getting Somewhere 1/7: The Home Team vs. The Road Warrior 1/1: Singing The Maize And Blues 12/27: Up-Downs For Texas 12/18: Lying In Wait 12/11: Warrior Green: The New Boise Blue 12/8: Best Of The Rest 12/4: A Winning Preparation 11/27: Easy Road To The Big Easy 11/20: Running The Backup and Crashing 11/13: Least Common Denominators 11/6: Throw The Ducks A Bone 10/30: Boise Is Back 10/23: They've Got Guts 10/16: Kansas Full of Cupcakes 10/9: Pay Attention To The Men Behind The Curtain 10/2: Not-Such-Surprises 9/25: Irish Inflation 9/18: The Star and The Slump 9/11: Four's No Crowd 9/4: Unmatched Matchups 8/22: No Peterson, No Problem For Oklahoma 8/22: Catch Him If You Can 8/21: Running A Reverse 8/20: Big 12 Conference Preview 8/8: Still No Cigar 8/8: Going and Coming 8/8: C-USA Conference Preview 6/17: Pennsylvania Wins Not-So-Big 33 LACROSSE 5/5: Tigers Limp Into Playoffs 4/7: Home, Sweet Home 3/3: Hoyas Hold On For Another Win 2/16: Accelerating Development 2/15: One More Chance For This Mid 2/12: Wildcats Favored For Three in a Row BASKETBALL 3/16: Bubble, Bubble, Teams In Trouble 3/21: Winona State Still Streaking in Postseason 3/19: Cruising to Perfection 1/14: Penn Has The Tempo To a T 1/12: Columbia Thwarts The Three, Downs Princeton FENCING 3/25: A Rematch to Be Remembered 3/23: Columbia Hopes to Take Two CROSS COUNTRY 9/7: Luck Be A Lambie 9/4: Bringing Charm To The Farm 9/4: Breaking In 9/3: Room to Run GOLF 6/13: Looking The Part

Laura Watten is not surprised to see Maryland ranked in this week's Top 25, and her team shouldn't be surprised, either. The head coach has had confidence in her Maryland program since she arrived in College Park for the 2005-06 season, and although the Terps have finished their last two campaigns a mediocre 32-27 (7-13 in the ACC) and 33-26 (8-12), this year's 15-1 start and the team's No. 25 ranking are no shock to Watten.

"It's not surprising to me," Watten said. "It's not something that I feel is a miracle; I feel like we are what we're supposed to be. We've gotten the team to buy into taking one day at a time and just focusing on ourselves. I think the success is a result of that."

That success comes in the form of the team's first national ranking since the final poll of the 1999 season, a 12-game winning streak and the program's first weekly conference honors since 2006. Freshman Kerry Hickey, who leads the ACC in hitting (.442), was named ACC Player of the Week last week, while junior pitcher Meredith Nelles was ACC Pitcher of the Week. A perfect 5-0 on the season, Nelles has a 1.32 ERA with 44 strikeouts in 42.1 innings of work.

The biggest difference between last season's sixth-place conference team and this season's squad is simple: Chemistry.

"We're a tight-knit family," said senior catcher Brittany Bessho. "Not a lot of people are believers in team chemistry but in my opinion, that's one of the most important things that you can have. We might not be physically stronger than our opponent, but if we can depend on each other, that makes all the difference in the world."

Watten, for one, is a believer in chemistry. The coach believes that the biggest difference between last year's team and this year's is its unity, which she credits to the Terps' ability to come from behind and win five extra-innings games so far this season.

"There are no individuals on this team," Watten said. "They've accepted that it's not going to be one person that's going to carry this team. They all have a role to play regardless of where they are in the system, and I think that's something that they're really taking ownership for. That's why they stay so tight through games."

Three different Maryland pitchers have at least four wins this season, and with Maryland standing as the only ACC team with an ERA below one (0.96 through Wednesday's games), there is no single pitcher the team is forced to lean on.

On the offensive side, Hickey is clearly a star hitter, leading the team with a .420 batting average, 21 hits and 16 RBI in 16 games, but she has plenty of backup -- three other players are hitting over .300 and two others have a .500 slugging percentage or better.

With Watten in her third year as head coach, her own recruits now dominate the roster, enabling her philosophy to dominate the program she can now truly call her own.

"Being with her for three years now, my class has a better understanding of how our coach's philosophies are," senior OF Jenny Belak said. "It's easier for us to relate all of that down to the underclassmen, so they have a better understanding as well. Our team feels more like a family now."

Thanks to this week's ranking, that family is now branded with the Top 25 bull's eye, and Watten wants to make sure her players understand just how much of a target they are.

"I think that this is where they expect to be, so it's not something that's going to go to their heads," Watten said. "I feel like any team can beat any team on any given day, so my biggest focus is to absolutely focus on us and not worry about who we're playing. We need to do our best at every single at-bat and every single situation, and we also need to keep in mind that the target can only get bigger."

Bessho, for one, is no stranger to having a target on her back. A transfer from Tennessee, Bessho started 64 games at catcher as a Lady Vol, helping her team reach the Women's College World Series in 2005. The competition she saw in the SEC unquestionably outweighs that of the ACC (the SEC has six teams ranked in the Top 25, including three in the top five while the ACC has two), but Bessho believes the ACC is catching up.

"The SEC is really intense," Bessho said. "Every team that you play is just as good as you are if not better, and I'm noticing that in the ACC it's getting up to that level. It's getting to be where every game matters."

After facing Michigan to open the season -- the Terps split two games with the then-No. 12 Wolverines in their first tournament of the year -- Maryland will not play another team in the Top 25 until hosting defending ACC champion Virginia Tech on March 29. The challenge for this team is to not look past their non-conference opponents, as guaranteed as the wins may seem.

"These teams will come out and try to beat you, and those are the teams that you definitely can't lose to," Nelles said. "Staying up for seven innings is a really big goal that we have against teams that may not be as strong as a Michigan. It's great to be ranked in the Top 25, but that just puts a mark on us that people are going to come out against us even harder."

"There's a long time between February and May," Watten said. "There are going to be teams that are going to surge. I've been there and done that on the other side of it [as head coach at Bethune-Cookman], so on this side of it, I know it can happen. The number one thing is we've got to take care of ourselves and not worry about anybody else."

The Terps will do their best not to worry when they host the Maryland invitational this weekend, starting with a doubleheader Friday night against Stony Brook and Seton Hall.