It’s international day here at Terp Talk as we report on some Maryland graduates who will take to the pitch this week in international competitions in field hockey and women’s soccer. Two Terrapins will play for Team USA in the Hockey World League semi-final in Valencia, Spain and one will compete for the Colombian National Team in the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.
The field hockey duo
Since I’m more a field hockey fan (my Twitter handle is @TCarton_isFHFAN) amd I’ll assume that more of you are interested in happenings that involve Team USA rather than the Colombian National Team, I’ll open with field hockey despite this competition starting later than the World Cup and despite it being of lesser importance.
Two of the three Terps on Team USA, Jill Witmer and Katie O’Donnell, are on the roster that traveled to Spain to take part in the Hockey World League Semifinals.
Witmer, a 2013 graduate in Family Sciences, played on two Final Four teams and helped the Terps to National Championships in 2010 and 2011. She finished her career at Maryland fifth on the all time goals scored list with 67 and fourth with 163 points.
As for O’Donnell, whose playing career ended in 2010, her bio page on USA Field Hockey’s website calls her “the most decorated field hockey athlete in the nation.” Maryland has had any number of great field hocke players over the years but O’Donnell stands head and shoulders above them all and I wrote about that in a story you can read here.
O’Donnell’s name is all over the Maryland record books. All four of her single season point totals are in the top 15 all-time and she holds three of the top four spots. The same is true for her single season assists totals. She scored only 19 goals as a freshman – the only season that leands her outside the top 15 in that category.
For her career, O’Donnell is the Terrapins’ all-time leader in goals, assists and points. Her totals of 108 and 306 in the latter two categories are all the best in NCAA history. In her four seasons at Maryland, the Terps compiled a record of 86-7, won two NCAA titles and reached the finals in her junior year.
The Hockey World League is a relatively new concept, which allows more nations a chance to qualify for the Olympic Games. Teams that have made it through Hockey World League Rounds One and Two move on to compete in the Semifinals. Teams with a world ranking of 1-11 have an automatic bye to the Semifinal round. Ranked fifth in the world, Team USA received one of those byes.
The Tournament begins with pool play on June 10th and Team USA will first take the pitch on June 11th. The US is in Pool B with Uruguay, South Africa (#11), Germany (#6) and Ireland (#14). Play will continue through June 21st and the six highest placed teams will be offered Olympic spots.
On the soccer pitch
Nataly Arias, who played for Maryland from 2004 though 2008 and is a graduate of Bishop O’Connell High School in Alexandria, Virginia where she was the All-Met Player of the Year in 2003, will be making her second FIFA World Cup appearance for Colombia. She first donned the jersey of her mother’s native country in 2011.
This second time around Arias, who works as a human resources manager for an IT firm in Atlanta, had to gain a two month leave of absence from her job to allow her to compete for Colombia in both the World Cup and upcoming Pan American games.
Arias a center back midfielder, who needed to take a redshirt season due to knee surgery in her junior year, scored 13 goals and added seven assists while playing for the Terps. She was named to the ACC All-Freshman Team in 2004 and helped the Terps reach the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament.
Current Maryland head coach Jonathan Morgan, who was an assistant when Arias played for the Terrapins said this about her,
“She’s always been just a competitive kid and every ball matters and just has a really great fight and spirit about her. I think what’s gotten her to this next level is that she has taken that same competitiveness and same spirit and she’s brought it to her training as well. It’s not just on game day, it’s within her training, whether it’s by herself or whether it’s with her team. She’s grown up quite a bit.”
Colombia is in Group F and opens play Wednesday afternoon (June 10) against Mexico. The game kicks off at 17:00.
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