F. Hockey shut out by No. 16 Terrapins, 1-0

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- No matter how deep the Penn field hockey team dug into its bag of tricks, it could not fool Maryland's all-American Aussie goalkeeper last night. Terrapin senior Irene Horvat, a native of Australia, celebrated Senior Night by befuddling the Quakers offense, as No. 16 Maryland held off Penn 1-0 to win its final home game of the season. Horvat singlehandedly preserved the Terrapin victory when she foiled a breakaway by Quakers junior forward Amy Shapiro, preventing a sure goal. "Give her some credit," Penn senior defender Mandy Kauffman said. "She's incredible. She's the best goalie I've seen." Horvat's performance overshadowed an excellent defensive effort by the Quakers. Mental errors and Penn senior defenders Kauffman, Melissa Sage and Rani Bajwa frustrated Maryland's pinpoint passing attack throughout the first half. But the Terrapins (9-7-1) opened the second half with fury, forcing four corners in the first five minutes to corral the Quakers (8-4-1) in their own circle. Though Penn survived Maryland's initial onslaught, the Quakers ultimately ran out of chances on the Terrapins' seventh and final corner. Maryland sophomore forward Megan Callahan followed up a blast from senior Laura Harmon, slipping the rebound into the lower left corner of the cage for the game's lone score. "They always have good corners and I know one of our goals for this game was to keep the number of corners down," Shapiro said. "I guess they had a bunch, or one too many." Offensively, Penn had trouble finding a hole in the Terrapins defense, managing only two stray shots in the first half. The Maryland defenders stifled any semblance of a Penn passing game near the circle, holding the Quakers to a paltry three shots from within the arc. And on those rare occasions when Penn did get a scoring chance, Horvat was a rock. With the score deadlocked, Shapiro anticipated a crossing pass between the Terrapins defenders and swiped the ball off the stick of Maryland junior defender Marla Makela. Shapiro then broke downfield with a dumfounded Makela trailing her by 15 yards. Horvat came charging out of the cage and met Shapiro with a sprawling slide at the edge of circle. As Shapiro tried to cross over, Horvat expertly poked the ball away, and sent it out of bounds. "They were sliding the ball across the field, and we were pressuring them a lot," Shapiro said. "When I picked it off, I didn't even realize right away that I was by myself. She just made a great play on the ball." The loss to Maryland all but eliminates Penn from postseason contention. Only a victory over the Terrapins and No. 11 Princeton could have given the Quakers a chance for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. For now, the Red and Blue will have to take solace in a quality performance against the defending national champions. "It was well played on both sides," Kauffman said. "We can't be disappointed because a one-goal difference in playing a team like that is great. It was a good game for us defensively, but we have to take advantage of our opportunities and score." With Horvat lurking ominously around the cage, Penn coach Anne Sage may need to teach her team some new tricks.