Terps add some international spice

College Park (Map, News) - Most teams like to think of themselves as a big family. For the University of Maryland field hockey team, their family consists of lots of distant relatives.

With six international players on the roster, the defending national champion Terps are their own melting pot.

“It definitely is [an experience], and I feel that has helped our team,” said Kim Ziegler, a redshirt sophomore forward from Fallston High. “Having people from different areas, it helps us learn more about the world.”

Of coach Missy Meharg’s 21 players, six are from outside the U.S. — Paula Infante (Chile), Kathryn Masson (Vancouver), Ameliet and Berber Rischen (Netherlands), Susie Rowe (England), Janneke van Leeuwen (Netherlands).

The international recruiting has worked well. The Terps enter Saturday’s road game at Wake Forest with a 9-0 record and a No. 1 national ranking. The entire group has started every game this season with the exception of Ameliet Rischen, the only freshman of the group who has seven starts under her belt. Infante and van Leeuwen are both tied for second on the team with six goals apiece.

The Rischens, who hail from the city of Rotterdam, are thrilled to be playing together for a season. Berber, a three-year letter-winner at Kent State and the 2004 Mid-American Conference player of the year, got the notion of playing in the U.S. after a former teammate in the Netherlands played stateside. A graduate student with one year of eligibility remaining, Berber chose to go to Maryland to work on her Master’s and play with Ameliet.

“I applied to the school of business and I got in,” Berber said. “[Ameliet] would go wherever I would go, because she wanted to play with me.”

Said Ameliet: “Everyone here is so much more fun. We are part of the family.”

The international flavor at Maryland also brings world-class talent. Infante, the reigning national player of the year and a three-time All-American, is the current captain of Chile’s national team. Teammate Christina Restivo, a senior goalie and Hereford High graduate, has gotten to know her foreign teammate well by rooming with her.

“The backgrounds really enhance our relationships with each other because I live with Paula,” Restivo said. “I just [get to know her and] her background of how she lives.”

Restivo is also very close with Masson. She recently traveled with Masson to visit her family in Vancouver.

“I’ve never been to Canada before,” Restivo laughed. “Vancouver is a little different than America.”

With the foreign players adapting to a new lifestyle, they are in many ways like a college freshman — looking for directions to the dinning hall or a class. Their Maryland teammates tend to be their best friends. They look out for one another.

“It’s hard making friends your first year,” Restivo said. “We are a family anyway, having movie nights or little dinners.”