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Sports

Bowie Goalkeeper Part of a Maryland Revival

City resident was a standout at Eleanor Roosevelt and is now in her last season with the Terps, who host No. 1 Stanford on Friday.

In 2006, the year before Yewande Balogun arrived at the University of Maryland, the women’s soccer team posted a record of 5-9-4 overall. The Terps were just 1-6-3 in the tough Atlantic Coast Conference.

But that lack of success did not stop Balogun, who is from Bowie, from picking Maryland as one of the top high school goalkeeper recruits in the region.

“When we first came in, the program was not anywhere where it is now,” said Balogun, a graduate of in Greenbelt. “That is one reason that our class wanted to come here. We wanted to be part of that. We wanted to change the culture of the team.”

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Well, then, mission accomplished for the Terps, who host No. 1 Stanford on Friday in College Park at 7 p.m.

Maryland was 6-9-3 in 2007 when Balogun was a freshman, then improved to 7-10-1 the next year, 14-6-2 in 2009 and then went 18-2-3 last year under head coach Brian Pensky, who was 5-11-3 in his first season in 2005.

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The Terps were ranked No. 5 in the nation when they opened this season at home Friday with a 1-0 win over the University of Minnesota, which was ranked No. 22 in the nation. Balogun had three saves.

Maryland played its second game on Monday at Loyola in Baltimore and won, 9-0, as Balogun played the first 60:30 in goal before being replaced as the Terps, now ranked No. 4, had a big lead.

"She has grown up a ton, not only as a leader on the field but a leader off the field," Pensky told Patch on Tuesday. "She is one of our tri-captains."

"She is a sweet person and when you think of Yewande you think of that big smile," Pensky added. "A lot of her growth and development has come in our leadership."

The coach added that Balogun has had to become aggressive as a leader.

"She was terrified to do that two or three years ago. Nothing we do here is personal," he said. "We want to win. This is her last run. She is feeling that sense of wanting to do something special. She has certainly come a long way. Her confidence and swagger in the goal is outstanding."

Last year Balogun, now a redshirt senior who missed the 2009 season with an injury, started every game in goal for the Terps.

“It was a roller coaster for me. I did not have as much confidence going into the season,” she said. “As the season went on I got more and more confident of being a leader on the team.”

“This year I see no reason why this team could not win a national championship,” she said. “We are all on the same page. That is what we are working towards.”

Balogun, who led Roosevelt to the state title in 2003, is on track to graduate in December with a degree in marketing.

She would welcome the chance to play pro soccer, and realizes she may have to go overseas to do so. “There are so few teams (in North America). It is already difficult to make a pro team here, especially as a goalie,” she said.

Pensky also noted there are few pro women's soccer teams in North America but feels Balogun has a chance to play at the pro level, perhaps in Europe or North America. "I think she can. Athletically, she is off the charts," he said.

Annesia Faulkner, who played at in Laurel, came off the bench and had an assist at Loyola on Monday. It was her first appearance in a game for the Terps since 2008, due to injuries.

She entered Maryland as a freshman the same year as Balogun and has been impressed with the work ethic of the Maryland goalie. "She has really improved," Faulkner said.

"She has come out of her shell," Laurie George, the goalkeeper coach for Maryland, said of the Bowie resident. "She knows this is her last year. She is a pure athlete. The saves that she makes are outstanding. Against Minnesota she made an outstanding diving save on a ball that was going in the goal."

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