Maryland women’s soccer seeks to bounce back in Big Ten matchup vs Indiana

Photo by Kevin Snyder/Maryland Terrapins. Photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics

Maryland Women’s soccer started the 2025 season, sporting a 4-1 record – its best since 2021. 

Since then, the Terps have lost three straight games. Their first of three losses came in a 3-1 defeat at home to Florida, followed by shutout losses on the road against James Madison and Penn State. 

The Terps’ (4-4, 0-1 Big Ten) most recent loss came against No. 8 Penn State, falling 4-0 to the Nittany Lions on Sept. 11. Their repeated struggles with maintaining possession and severe shot disparity persisted. Maryland allowed 27 shots to Penn State while taking just eight shots of their own. Despite averaging 11.6 shots per game so far this season, the Terps have not taken more than eight shots a game over the course of their three-game losing streak, and have scored once over that time period.

“Our expectations need to get to a point where we’re just focused on putting on the best performance that we possibly can,” head coach Michael Marchiano said. “We can be and should be disappointed because I don’t think we did that against Penn State.”

Maryland now returns to Ludwig Field on Thursday for a Big Ten match against the Indiana Hoosiers (3-2-2, 0-0-1) with hopes of turning its poor stretch of play around. 

The Terps most recently faced the Hoosiers (3-2-2, 0-0-1 Big Ten) during the 2023 season at Ludwig Field, which resulted in a 2-0 loss. 

Shot disparity also proved to be a significant factor in the 2023 match. Maryland surrendered 17 shots, with seven reaching the goal, while producing five shots with only one on target. 

Historically, the Terps have struggled against the Hoosiers with a record of 2-4-4 against them. Maryland has also struggled at home against Indiana, going winless in seven matches against Indiana at Ludwig. 

The Hoosiers themselves are coming off a 0-0 draw in their Big Ten opener at Illinois. 

While Indiana’s attack was only able to take six shots, its goalkeepers, graduate Sally Rainey and senior Dani Jacobson, stopped all six shots on goal. 

Four of Indiana’s six shots in their previous outing came from senior forward Marisa Grzesiak. Grzesiak has yet to score a goal on the season, but is tied for second on her team in total shots with 12. 

Sophomore midfielder Maggie Ledwith is the leading shot taker for the Hoosiers with 19. Ledwith is tied with four others in the team lead in goals with two. Ledwith’s two goals on the year both came in Indiana’s season opener against Youngstown State, and she has been scoreless in her last six matches. 

As a team, Indiana is averaging a positive shot differential on the year, unlike Maryland. The Hoosiers average 15 shots taken and 12 shots allowed per game, while the Terps average 11.6 shots taken and 12.4 shots allowed per game. 

One of the biggest strengths of Indiana is its defense. On the season, they allow 0.86 goals per game and a 0.071 shots percentage. 

For Maryland, its defense has struggled with generating takeways. At times, the Terps play stifling defense but often lack quality when pressing their opponents and maintaining possession of their takeaways. Even during times when they do appear to control their takeaways, the Terps’ attack has turned the ball back over shortly after.

“We haven’t done well in retaining position after that and allowing us to progress,” Marchiano said. “We’ve given the ball back quickly in transition, whether it’s a technical breakdown or it’s a tactical error, a bad decision on the ball.”

One of the stars on the defensive side for the Terps continues to be goalkeeper Faith Luckey. The redshirt sophomore ranks fourth in the Big Ten in saves with 29, adding four more saves to her total against Penn State. 

Offensively, Maryland will look to leading goal-scorer redshirt junior Kelsey Smith and leading shot-taker Ellie Egeland to get the Terps back in the scoring column. Smith had the team’s only shot on goal in their loss to James Madison, and Egeland led the Terps with three shots in the recent outing against Penn State. 

“I hope that [the players are] just focused on being present and their mind is not in last season or two seasons ago or next season or Christmas Break,” said Marchiano. “We have to be process-driven and our full concentration has to be on getting the next thing right.”