COLLEGE PARK — Megan Gibbons and Sade Ayinde each had three points to lead the No. 1 seed University of Maryland women's soccer team to a 4-1 victory over High Point in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday night at Ludwig Field.
The Terps (18-2-2) advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament and will face Georgetown, a 5-1 winner over Siena Friday night, on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Ludwig Field.
"First thing, I want to take my hat off to High Point, as they made it difficult for us, especially by getting an early goal," said Maryland head coach Brian Pensky. "But I'm proud of our quick response and our commitment to plugging away. Sade's free kick was special, and it forced High Point to come out and play a bit more, which allowed us to open the scoring up and put the game away."
The Panthers got on the board first in the eighth minute. But that lead didn't hold for long as Jasmyne Spencer got the Terps even again just 21 seconds later.
The game remained 1-1 until the 71st minute. Once again it was Spencer initiating the Maryland attack. She was fouled at the top of the High Point dfense giving the Terps a free kick. Ayinde stepped up to the ball and ripped a shot past the Panther wall into the upper right for the 2-1 Maryland lead.
High Point tried to push forward to possibly get the game-tying goal, but that opened the Panthers up to a counter-attack and that's how the Terps broke the game open over the final 10 minutes.
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