Maryland leads U.S. Olympic field hockey team

Kelly Lepage found out when she woke up and Emma DeBardine had already been up for four hours.

Lepage, DeBardine and their sisters Brooke and Leah Close learned on June 10 that they had been selected to represent Maryland on the 16-person U.S. national team for this summer's Olympics, while Maryland assistant coach and goalkeeping coordinator Jenny Rizzo was also named interim and will travel with the team to Paris.

Maryland has the most players on the U.S. roster, while Northwestern, North Carolina and Penn State each have two players.

The opportunity to compete and represent the United States on the world's biggest sporting stage is not something the athletes take lightly.

“I feel like it's such an honor and a privilege to be able to represent the United States,” defender Lepage said, “and for most of us on the team, this has been a dream come true for a long time. When I got the news I was just shaking. I felt like I was shaking for a while, and I expected to cry or do something else, but I was just like, 'Wow.' This is no longer a dream, it's reality.”

Emma DeBardine, a midfielder like her sister, was so excited the night before the national team rosters were announced that she couldn't sleep, so she woke up at 4 a.m. at her parents' house in Millersville, Pennsylvania, to stay busy until the 8 a.m. announcement.

“I was so nervous because I knew what was coming,” she said. “I guess I was just nervous and a little anxious because I knew I had to wait. It felt so far away but it was only a few hours.”

Crows, another defender, was also up early and jet lagged after returning from London a few days earlier, and when she heard the good news her father, Brad, opened the front door of their home and shouted to the neighbours: “We're going to Paris!”

“So I don't know who was more excited, me or my dad,” she joked. “My dad was crying and I was crying. It was an amazing moment.”

All four Terrapins players are no strangers to the international game, having played a combined 184 games for the national team: Crows and Emma DeBardine helped the U.S. win a silver medal at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, and all four have spent at least one season in the International Hockey Federation professional league.

But they recognized that participating in the Olympics meant something different.

“I feel like the Olympics has that in its name,” said Lepage, 26. “It's the Olympics, but what we're trying to do is obviously play field hockey, so I feel like we're pretty prepared for the Olympics.”

All four players enjoyed stellar careers at Maryland, with Brooke DeBardine becoming the first player in school history to start 100 games from 2017-2021 and holding the school record with 104 career starts.

Emma DeBardine, who will be playing in her final year of eligibility this fall at College Park, has started 75 of 76 career games and has 23 goals and 23 assists for 69 points. Lepage started 70 of 91 games from 2016-19 and had 11 goals and 21 assists for 43 points. And in 2022, her only season at Maryland after transferring from Duke, Close started 22 games and had 10 goals and five assists for 25 points, leading the team with five game-winning goals.

All four said playing for longtime coach Missy Meharg and her staff helped them hone their skills and motivate them to reach higher goals. Under Meharg, who took over in 1988, Maryland won seven NCAA Tournament national championships (the last time coming in 2011) and was runner-up six times.

“In Maryland field hockey, excellence is what's required. Every day, every practice, you have to go out there and compete and do your best,” said Clowes, 24. “There's a tradition of success that you want to uphold, and being a part of that really makes you want to continue that.”

Five other Maryland players were selected last month to the under-21 national team that will compete in next month's Junior Pan American Championships in British Columbia, Canada: forwards Maci Bradford and Ella Gaitan, midfielder Hope Rose, defender Josie Hollamon and goalkeeper Alyssa Crevasco, an Odenton resident and Garrison Forest High School graduate.

Meharg said it was thanks to his coaching staff and their love for the sport that he was able to produce world-class players.

“I want Maryland field hockey to be a place where young women can earn great degrees, play great field hockey and become champions,” she said, “but I have just as much of a responsibility to provide an environment where they can play for their country, become world champions and go to the Olympics. That's always a big plus for me, and it's a big part of it, especially in recruiting.”

The ties to Maryland that bind the players run deep, but they stressed they are eager to blend talents with their U.S. national team teammates.

“We're from America, and we're all united as America now,” Lepage said. “I feel like there's a strong culture and friendship and connection between everyone, regardless of where you went to school.”