COLLEGE PARK, Md. — With less than five minutes in the first overtime period and North Carolina tied 2-2 with Maryland in the NCAA field hockey national championship game, Terrapin Katie O’Donnell prepared for Maryland’s first post-regulation penalty corner.
Usually, it would be an easy chance for the Maryland offense to score a goal and put the game away in sudden-death overtime. But when facing a tight UNC defense, no score is guaranteed.
A successful shot would make the Terrapins the 2010 national champions. At the sound of the whistle, O’Donnell passed to Harriet Tibble, who reared back her stick and sent a rocket toward UNC goalkeeper Jackie Kintzer and the defenders standing before her.
But the sound heard next by the near 2,400 fans in attendance was not the ball hitting the back of the net. Instead, it was the loud thud of Kintzner’s orange pads blocking what would be the game-winning score.
“I’m very confident in our entire defensive group and particularly on the penalty corners,” coach Karen Shelton said. “But you know, we’ve got Jackie Kintzer in goal, and she’s the secret weapon. It doesn’t take any strategy to have her in goal.”
But that wasn’t the Terrapins’ only easy chance to seal the deal. Maryland took four penalty corners in almost 28 minutes of overtime, but in all four, Kintzer and the Tar Heel defenders prevailed.
“I wouldn’t be where I am without my defense,” Kintzer said. “When you have a good defense, your job is pretty easy as a goalkeeper.”
In order for the Terrapins to win against North Carolina, they would have to have to resort to another strategy.
The Maryland offense pressed hard for nearly ten minutes in the second overtime, holding onto possession for most of the period. Because overtime is played seven-on-seven instead of the usual 11 players per team, the Tar Heel defense relied on an experienced Kintzner as an extra defender on the field.
