Preview: Maryland women’s soccer looks to end season on bright note against Purdue

Maryland women’s soccer (3-8-5, 2-7) will wrap up its season on Sunday, as the Terps travel to Purdue (3-10-3, 0-6-3) for their final match of the fall.

Both sides enter having been eliminated from Big Ten postseason contention, as the Terps and the Boilermakers both enter as a bottom-three team in the conference. 

The Terps will enter with momentum, having finally righted the ship as the Terps snapped their seven-match losing streak. This stretch occurred in the midst of the Big Ten portion of their schedule, sending them to the basement of the conference standings.

Maryland’s long-awaited third victory came against Indiana on Thursday, as forward Alina Stahl scored the night’s lone goal in the 86th minute. The match posed as perhaps the most evenly played contest of the season, not a surprise considering at the time these teams stood as the worst two in the conference. 

What looked to be an offensive match turned into a defensive impasse, as the shooting from both teams came to a halt halfway through the first quarter. 

This pattern continued deep into the second half, as neither team broke through until five minutes remained. Stahl’s tiebreaker marked her fifth goal of the season. The assist from forward Alyssa Poarch that made the play possible was her first of the season.

Prior to the Indiana match, Maryland had experienced seven straight dropped bouts, including four shutouts in a five match span since its last win, which came in its Big Ten opener against Michigan. That, combined with Maryland’s recent victory, are what prevents the Terps from being at the very bottom of the standings. Neither Indiana nor Purdue have won a match against a conference opponent, putting them at the bottom-two spots in the standings.

The Boilermakers are coming off their tenth loss of the season, standing as the only Big Ten team to have hit double figures in the loss column.

Purdue lost 2-0 to Minnesota in its final away match of the season its last time out, its fifth shutout defeat of the season. This can largely be attributed to Minnesota firing off a whopping 27 shots, as the Boilermakers managed to attempt just seven themselves. The Golden Gophers also took 14 corner kicks, 13 more than Purdue.

Their match got off to a tough start with a goal at the 8’ mark from Sophia Romine, who also striked first when the Golden Gophers played the Terps last week.

At the 23’ mark, Purdue had yet to respond, and Romine took advantage of the lower seed by scoring again.

The Boilermakers’ defense buckled down in the second half, but the damage was done and Purdue’s offense never closed the gap as the Boilermakers were handed yet another loss.

Forward Gracie Dunaway leads the offensive charge for Purdue, as her six goals and 14 points leads the team. Fellow-forward Kayla Budish ranks second in both those categories, albeit tied in points.

Purdue holds a 4-2 all-time lead over Maryland in the head-to-head series, and was victorious the last time these teams met, downing the Terps 3-2 in West Lafayette.

Kickoff will occur at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Folk Field in West Lafayette.