Maryland women’s soccer takes on Rutgers in season finale

On Sunday, Maryland women’s soccer will look to end its season on a high note. The Terps (6-11-0, 2-8-0 Big Ten) will try to avoid ending their season on an eight-game losing streak against a Rutgers team (4-7-4, 2-7-1 Big Ten) that has also been disappointing in Big Ten play this season. 

Maryland is coming off a 3-1 loss to Ohio State. Despite leading the Buckeyes 1-0 at half after redshirt junior forward Kelsey Smith’s goal in the 30th minute, it was a different story for the Terps in the second half. 

Entering the second half, Maryland coach Michael Marchiano elected to put sophomore goalkeeper Maya Cheeseboro in goal for the first time this season. Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Faith Luckey had played every minute of the season up to that point. 

Because Maryland was mathematically eliminated from postseason contention entering the match, Marchiano felt it was important to give Cheeseboro her deserved playing time.

Cheeseboro struggled in her debut, allowing a goal on her first shot ever faced in the 48th minute. Maryland’s defensive issues made Cheeseboro’s debut even tougher, as they allowed 15 second-half shots and six corner kicks to be taken against the sophomore. Cheeseboro allowed three goals in her debut, which Maryland’s attack had no response to, ultimately leading to its seventh straight loss.

“In the end, the better team won and we made too many mistakes to give ourselves a chance to win the game, but we have one more week together and my hope is that our approach will be right,” Marchiano said.

Rutgers enters Sunday’s match coming off a 3-1 victory over Michigan, which ended its six-game losing streak. 

The Scarlet Knights were able to fire 12 of their 19 shots on goal, while limiting Michigan to four shots on goal.. Forward Ashley Baran – who is tied for the team lead in goals with four – scored two of Rutgers’ three goals. The juniorgot the scoring started in the 24th minute to put the Scarlet Knights up by one and later sealed the win in the 86th minute with her second goal.

Leading the charge offensively for the Scarlet Knights are their leaders in points and goals scored, graduate forward Nata Ramirez and Baran. The two have almost identical stats on the season with four goals, two assists and 30 shots attempted. Baran holds the advantage in shots on goal with 17.

On the other side of the pitch for Rutgers is starting goalkeeper Olivia Bodmer. In 14 games played,  the redshirt junior has notched 62 saves, a 1.36 goals against average, a 76.5% save percentage and has posted four shutouts. 

The redshirt junior sits just behind Luckey with the fourth-best saves per game average in the Big Ten with 4.43 per game.

On attack for Maryland, Smith has been hot as of late, scoring in each of Maryland’s last two games. The redshirt junior will look to continue her end-of-season success as she leads the team with 14 points, six goals and 15 shots on goal. 

Similar to Luckey’s unexpected departure against Ohio State, it’s unclear which players will and will not receive playing time for Maryland, and for how long on Sunday. 

“I think how this week of training goes will dictate some of those decisions that are made,” Marchiano said. “I think as a staff we are prepared again to try to reward some players with opportunity who have not been given opportunity yet.”