Maryland is the No. 2 overall seed in the 2018 NCAA Field Hockey Championships and will host the first two rounds of the tournament in College Park this weekend.
The Terrapins will take on Albany at noon Friday, and the winner of that game will play the winner of defending-champion Connecticut and Rutgers on Sunday for a chance to advance to the Final Four in Louisville, Kentucky.
As the season wound down and things shaped up, this seeding started to become clear. North Carolina finished its season 19-0 and earned the No. 1 overall seed, but the Terrapins’ 19-2 record and head-to-head wins put them ahead of No. 3 Princeton and No. 4 Duke.
#Terps are the No. 2 overall@seed!
— Maryland Field Hockey (@TerpsFH) November 5, 2018
They host Albany in the NCAA First Round Friday afternoon.
Rutgers and UConn will also play in College Park.#BestOfTheBest pic.twitter.com/RLu2FIIVlZ
This tournament field includes five Big Ten programs—Maryland, Penn State, Iowa, Michigan and Rutgers—marking the first time any conference has controlled more than four of the 18 tournament spots.
The Terrapins have also prepared themselves for this part of the season, as they played nine of the 17 other selected teams during the regular season, only losing to Penn State and Virginia.
Connecticut being placed in Maryland’s section of the bracket really stands out as odd. The Huskies finished the season 18-3 and captured their seventh straight Big East tournament title on Sunday. If they face the Terrapins in a week, it will be a second rematch of the 2017 national championship game as Maryland pulled out a stunning 4-2 victory in Storrs earlier this season.
#NCAAFH DI championship bracket released for 2018
— NCAA (@NCAA) November 5, 2018
➡️ https://t.co/pzQJpsx0YX pic.twitter.com/EQEmAXHuyg