Maryland field hockey faces roster turnover, hopes touted freshmen can fill gaps in 2025 season

After winning 13 of its 20 games last season, Maryland field hockey aims to start a new era, having lost 11 players from last year’s roster. 

Last year ended earlier than usual for the Terps. After losing to Michigan in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament, they subsequently lost to Duke in the First round of the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Devils handed the Terps their first loss in September, and their last loss of the season. 

Despite massive turnover to Maryland’s roster, the Terps’ incoming freshmen show promise as seven rank inside Max Field Hockey’s Top 50 Player Rankings. 

The team also has some familiar names joining. Freshmen Jordyn Hollamon, Brinkley Eyre and Faith Everett are all younger sisters of current Terps. 

“[It’s] like a dream come true,” junior defender Josie Hollamon said on playing with her sister this season. “It’s so much fun to see her on the forward line and [I] try to give her the ball and make her work her magic.”

All three sisters rank within the top 50. Everett earned her spot partly because of her achievements as the third all-time leading scorer at her high school, with 72 points (47 goals, 25 assists). Eyre also had an impressive scoring record, tallying 52 goals in her last high school season.

The Terps’ recruiting class focused on their midfield and defense, as a combined five midfielders and defenders graduated from last season. One of those losses was Hope Rose. The midfielder was a key figure in Maryland’s offense last season, leading the Terps in goals and points.

Defensively, Maryland suffered similar losses with the graduation of Rayne Wright. The defender was a staple in Maryland’s stout defensive unit, routinely drawing the opposition’s toughest opponent and limiting their production with her tight stick-on-stick defense.

To help alleviate those losses, Maryland focused its recruitment on the midfield and the defense.

It secured four midfielders and two defenders, as well as the multi-faceted Jordyn Hollamon, who is denoted in the roster as both. 

Maryland also turned to the transfer portal to fill gaps, snagging Ella Fehr from VCU — a Second Team All-Atlantic 10 honoree. The midfielder logged over 1,000 minutes of field time as a freshman, scoring a team-leading nine goals and finishing second on the team with 19 points.

“[She] uplifts the speed of play,” defender Ericka Morris-Adams said.

In addition to Maryland’s recruiting class, the Terps brought in three international freshmen.

Midfielder Maia Adamson won Player of the Tournament last year at the New South Wales Combined High Schools Carnival in Australia. 

Feliz Kuhne — who was a part of the U18 Dutch National Team that won a European Championship — and Djuna Eikelboom, who played for the second-place European Championship team in the EHL, also joined the Terps. 

Eikelboom is adept at tomahawk shots and hard, high shots into the goal, which are key to throwing off the goalie and getting the ball in quickly.

Defensively, the Terps also recruited Freshmen Sarah Walker and Erin Callahan. Callahan enters College Park as Maryland’s most touted freshman, ranking as the No. 2 incoming freshman according to Max Field Hockey. With Wright’s graduation last season, Callahan has the opportunity to cement herself amongst Morris-Adams and Josie Hollamon as an every-game starter.

The lone position where Maryland did not experience dramatic turnover was in goal, returning goalkeeper Alyssa Klebasko. The junior enters the season with nearly an .800 save percentage over her first two seasons, and will look to continue her strong play heading into the team’s season opener.

A Homestand to Begin the Year

Maryland Field Hockey will begin its season this weekend as hosts of the Conference Cup, playing two home games in three days. The first game is against Stanford. Maryland enters with a 10-0 all-time record against Stanford, with the most recent meeting having taken place in 2023. The Terps won 4-0.

Maryland finished thirteenth in the country by RPI last year while Stanford was ranked thirtieth at the end of the season.

This year, there are some glaring differences in the collegiate experience levels of these teams. Two-thirds of Stanford’s current roster is upperclassmen, while 65 percent of Maryland’s team is lowerclassmen. 

On the offensive end, Stanford’s top two players are redshirt senior midfielder Cara Sambeth and junior midfielder Star Horlock. The duo were the two leading goal scorers last season and accounted for about 46 percent of their team’s goals.

On the defensive end, Stanford is guided by goalkeeper Daisy Ford. The senior was named Preseason All-ACC and boasts a save percentage of 0.722.

Stanford heads into its fifth season with coach Roz Ellis, who has gradually improved the program. Stanford secured 10 wins in 2022, up from its four victories the year before, and further improved in 2024 with a 5-1 record to start the season.

The second game is against Villanova. Maryland has only played Villanova three times, with the most recent contest happening 14 years ago.

Villanova head coach Joanie Milhous heads into her 31st year as a coach of the field hockey team. In her recent seasons at the helm, she helped the team achieve an 11-6 record in 2022 and return to the Big East Conference Tournament in 2023 for the first time since 2018. 

Offensively, the Wildcats are led by forward Ava Borkowski. The graduate student transferred to Villanova ahead of the 2024 season after spending three years with North Carolina and winning consecutive national championships.

She made the All-BIG EAST Second Team and started every game last year, along with teammate and fellow All-BIG EAST Second Team member Gemma Lysaght. The junior played a team-leading 964 minutes last season, while netting the third-most assists on the team.

In net, Villanova is led by goalkeeper Maddi Sears. The junior struggled last season, sporting a .667 save percentage. The Wildcats’ struggles in goal could bode well for a young Maryland offense seeking to gain confidence.