No. 13 Virginia Plays Friday at No. 5 Maryland in NCAA Sweet 16

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 13 Virginia field hockey team (12-8) opens the 2021 NCAA Field Hockey Championship by taking on No. 5 Maryland (13-6) on Friday, Nov. 12 at 2:30 pm at Maryland’s Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex in College Park, Md.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

• The game will stream online on Big Ten+ (free- no subscription required)
• Live stats be available
• Links for both are posted on VirginiaSports.com

NOTING THE CAVALIERS

• Virginia heads into the NCAA Championship having won five of its last seven games, its only setbacks being two losses to UNC (3-2 overtime, 1-0 regulation)
• Virginia is 12-8 this season. Four of those losses, including ones against Penn State and Maryland, came in overtime. The other four losses were by a one-goal margin, including a 1-0 loss to North Carolina in the ACC Championship game
• Virginia avenged two of its one-goal losses in the ACC Championship, topping BC and Louisville
• Virginia has a balanced attack with 14 different players having scored at least one goal this season. There are only three players who have appeared in 10 or more games that do not have a goal or an assist this season
• Virginia has had eight players score game-winning goals this season. Amber Ezechiels has three. Laura Janssen also has three, including both games in the ACC Championship
• Grad student Rachel Robinson scored two goals in the ACC Championship, including converting a penalty stroke against Louisville. She has three goals in the last five games
• Junior forward/midfielder Laura Janssen scored the game-winning goal in the quarterfinal win against Boston College. She converted two penalty shots in the shootout, the very first to set the tone and the crucial sixth shot that won the game
• Janssen and fellow Dutchwoman freshman Noa Boterman are tied for second on the team in goals with five apiece
• Senior back Amber Ezechiels, another native of The Netherlands, leads the team in scoring. She has scored seven goals this year after scoring eight in the previous three seasons combined
• Ezechiels has a team-leading 18 points this season and 46 in her four-year career
• Ezechiels was named First Team All-ACC, her third time with a postseason All-ACC honor and her second first team recognition
• Ezechiels has been named both the ACC Offensive Player of the Week (Oct. 5) and the ACC Defensive Player of the Week (Oct. 26) this season
• Senior forward/midfielder Annie McDonough also earned All-ACC honors, being named to the second team. It was her first career All-Conference honor
• Ezechiels, Robinson and McDonough were named to the All-ACC Tournament Team
• Senior midfielder Greer Gill ranks fifth in the ACC in assists per game (0.40). She had four assists and a goal in the last four games of the regular season
• Freshman back Jans Croon is one of three players to have started every game this season
• Grad student Makayla Gallen played her 100th game in a Virginia uniform during the ACC Championship (the final vs UNC). She has started the last 68 consecutive games, a streak reaching back to her sophomore season. The 100 games is the most by any player in program history
• Gallen began her career as a striker, was moved to a back, then back up to forward, and back to defense before returning to the front line where she has played for the last 10 games
• Freshman goalkeeper Tyler Kennedy has started the last 16 games for the Cavaliers and has appeared as the team’s lone goalie in 12 of those contests. She has a .750 save percentage (2nd in the ACC). She has an 8-7 record with two shutouts. She has a 1.18 goals-against average (3rd in the ACC) and is making 3.16 saves per game
• Kennedy had a shutout (vs BC) and a shootout victory (vs Louisville) last week in the ACC Championship and allowed just one goal against UNC in the final

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES

• The winner of the Virginia/Maryland game will face either 4-seed Penn State (14-5) or Syracuse in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Sunday, Nov. 12 at 1 p.m.
• The quarterfinal winner will head to Ann Arbor, Mich., for the national semifinals hosted by the University of Michigan. The NCAA semifinals and title games will be on Friday and Sunday, Nov. 19 and 21
• Virginia earned one of eight at-large bids into the field of 18 teams for the 2021 NCAA Field Hockey Championship
• This is the 25th trip to NCAA Championship for the Cavaliers and their 13th in head coach Michele Madison’s 16 seasons at Virginia
• Virginia did not make the field of the 2020 Championship after advancing to the NCAA Semifinals in 2019
• Virginia has advanced to the NCAA Semifinals five times, making back-to-back trips in 1997 and 1998 and again in 2009 and 2010 as well as 2019
• Virginia also advanced to the AIAW semifinals in 1978
• In 2019, UVA defeated Maryland 1-0 in overtime to advance to the semis. Annie McDonough deflected in a shot from Rachel Robinson 5:28 into the overtime period for the lone goal of the game. The game was played in Charlottesville
• The Maryland regional features four of the top eight winningest active coaches in the sport: Missy Meharg (3rd, 604 wins), Charlene Morett-Curtiss (4th, 558 wins), Michele Madison (6th, 431 wins) and Ange Bradley (8th, 364 wins). They have a combined 1,957 wins. In the first game, Morrett-Curtiss and Bradley have combined for 922 wins while Mehrag and Madison have a combined 1,035 wins

NOTING MARYLAND

• Maryland is the host for the regional, but Penn State is the seeded team at the site
• Former ACC foe Maryland leads the all-time series 43-22-2
• Bibi Donraadt leads the team with 28 points (11 goals, 6 assists)
• Hope Rose has 21 points on nine goals and three assists
• Maryland was edged 3-2 by Penn State in the Big Ten quarterfinals, snapping a four-game win streak that included a 2-1 win at No. 2 Michigan
• UVA assistant coach Alyssa Parker played for the Terrapins (2012-15), earning All-Region honors her junior and senior seasons
• Maryland won the regular-season meeting between the two teams in overtime, 2-1
• Laura Janssen deflected in a shot from Cato Geusgens off a penalty corner with 5:43 remaining in the fourth quarter.
• Maryland pulled its goalie right after the scoring, a choice that almost proved costly when UVA was given another penalty corner with five minutes left in the game. The Terps defended the corner and headed into the offensive end, earning their own corner. Tyler Kennedy saved the first attempt off the corner, but Maryland’s Kyler Greenwalt scored on a second-chance attempt. With the game tied, the Maryland goalie returned to the cage.
• Hope Rose scored the game-winner for the Terrapins with 30 seconds remaining in the first overtime period