The NCAA Field Hockey Championship Final Four begins today in Winston-Salem.  The #1 ranked Terps face #4 Princeton this afternoon.  Should they advance they’ll face the winner of the #3 UNC vs #2 UVA game.  The 22-0 Terps are looking to complete a perfect season this weekend, but the tournament has played out as it was seeded and they face their greatest tests of the year.

Maryland beat AU 6-1 and Drexel 5-0 in the first two rounds.   In the hunt for their seventh NCAA title, Maryland is looking to repeat as National Champions and pick-up their fourth title in five years.  The Terps also beat UVA a couple weeks ago to pick-up their eighth ACC Championship title.

Katie O’Donnell, Emma Thomas, and Nicole Muracco continue to lead the team on its march through the schedule.  The Terps will have to stop Princeton’s Kathleen Sharkey, who leads the team with 21 goals on the season including 6 game winners, in what should prove to be a tough match-up.  A bigger test will come out of the winner of the UVA vs UNC game.  Despite the fact that UVA is the higher seed, UNC seems better on paper to me, scoring about one goal per game more than UVA and allowing about 1/2 goal per game less than UVA.  They’re also playing what amounts to a home game on the campus of Wake Forest.

I’m going to predict a UMD vs UNC final in Winston-Salem.  Let’s hope enough of our fans travel there to make it at least somewhat neutral.  That game takes place Sunday at noon, and Shell Games will be following the tournament throughout the weekend.  GO TERPS!