COLLEGE PARK, Md. — On paper, a field hockey penalty corner seems a simple enough scoring opportunity.

The offense hits the ball from the goal line out to a group of players positioned around the circle. Then the offense needs to get by four defenders and the goalie to score.

In practice, it is pure chaos. With the ball flying out to the top of the circle just before the defenders come crashing in and the goalie diving horizontally to cover more of the goal, the result looks like a battle scene.

“The defenders are right on top of you,” Maryland junior midfielder Susie Rowe said. “They’re running at your face. That creates pressure, and sometimes your skill goes off. There’s such little time and margin for error that your skills have to be spot on.”

Amid the turmoil, the top-ranked Terps have found success employing a variety of plays on penalty corners resulting in at least nine goals this season.

They generally work on penalty corners at the end of each practice, and Rowe said the team has worked on them even more this season than in her previous two.

The team has 10 or 11 different plays they can run on any corner, freshman forward Katie O’Donnell said.

Sometimes it’s as simple as the “injector,” usually either Janneke van Leeuwen or Bri Davies, playing the ball to O’Donnell for a stick stop and a quick shot by Rowe. Other times the play involves fake shots or additional passes.

Coach Missy Meharg said she’s happy her players take the challenge of executing the plays as perfectly as possible.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Meharg said. “We’re very fortunate to have a group that loves that intricate stuff.”

Rowe likes penalty corners because, as a defender, they are one of the few times she has an opportunity to be involved in the scoring. She has to decide quickly whether to rip a shot or dish off to a teammate who may have a better angle.

“I love to score, so I want every corner that I’m involved in to score,” Rowe said.

So far this season, the strategy has been very successful. Rowe has scored six goals and also assisted on O’Donnell’s game-winning goal against Michigan off a penalty corner. In the past two games, the Terp offense has converted six of 18 penalty corners into goals.

“In the beginning of the season we were a little iffy about them,” O’Donnell said. “Now that we’ve worked on them so much, I think we’re pretty confident in our corners.”

But O’Donnell said the team has to continue to improve its execution of the plays because they provide a “safety net” if goals are hard to come by in the flow of play.

“If we can’t seem to get up there and get a shot on goal, I think our corners are really what’s going to save us in the long run,” O’Donnell said.

As the season continues and ACC play begins, penalty corners will become even more important. The Terps will probably not have as many penalty corner opportunities against the highly ranked opponents as they have so far, putting a premium on efficiency.

“If you can get one in a big game, it’s like, ‘Great, this is our time to score,’ so they’re going to be really important against stronger teams,” Rowe said.