No older than 10 years old, Faith Luckey sat by the net. Suddenly, she dove, and with the tips of her three fingers, she made her first-ever save.

Her coach put it simply to Luckey’s father.

“She’s a goalkeeper.”

The position stuck. Now in her collegiate career, Luckey has logged 82 saves this season for the Terps  — more than any Maryland goalie since 2018.

It’s also the first season she’s played as a full-time keeper.

“You have to be focused for the whole 90, no matter what the score is,” Luckey said. “As a goalkeeper, you never know when that time or moment [when] you have to come up big is going to be.”

She takes a moment and prays before each game. She reminds herself she’s part of something bigger. Written on her leg is Psalm 46:5 — “God is within her, she will not fall.”

Luckey began playing soccer at 4 years old. Her father, Brian Luckey, recalled her “crying on his leg” on the sidelines of her first game.

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“She slowly, kind of walks on the field, and she scores seven goals, crying the entire time,” Brian Luckey said. “It was the craziest, wildest thing that I’ve ever seen in my life, and everyone on the field couldn’t believe it.”

Many tearful practices later, his daughter grew to love soccer. She developed the agility and focus similar to a football quarterback, her father said.

But when Luckey was a preteen, she tore ligaments and broke bones in her foot and leg from an accident driving a golf cart. She had screws and a plate put into her leg, as she hoped to stay competitive during the soccer recruiting season.

Remarkably Luckey still racked up accolades in high school, eventually committing to the University of Georgia. But when the Bulldogs’ goalkeeping coaches moved to Maryland, Luckey followed them.

“The coaching staff changed, so the goalkeeper coach came to Maryland, and she was like, ‘come check it out,’” Luckey said. “And I toured the campus and went on a visit, and I really fell in love with it.”

But her injury lingered. Luckey was forced to take a redshirt season in 2024 after complications in her healing process led to a bone growing over the metal plate in her leg from years ago.

“Now it doesn’t bother her for the most part, but it took quite a while,” Luckey said. “It definitely reshaped her playing and getting back to it, and a mindset over injuries.”

After not seeing the field in her first two seasons, Luckey waited patiently to make an impact for the Terps. First-year coach Michael Marchiano noticed this year, and now sees the calming effect Luckey has on the team when she’s in the net.

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“Faith is a good example of somebody who’s been sort of quietly preparing for her opportunity,” Marchiano said. “It’s the most important thing when players feel reliability from the goalkeeper that’s behind them, and they know what they’re going to get out of that person.”

In the practices leading up to Luckey’s first start in the net, she said she was aware of the competition between her and the other goalkeepers. Despite never starting, Luckey said the offseason practices were about “growing individually and helping the people next to me grow each and every day.”

“I’ve been here for three years, and I’ve been able to play in goal this season for our team, and it’s been really fun,” Luckey said. “I’m glad that I get to do it with a family and a group of sisters next to me.”

She earned the starting job and hasn’t given it up since. Luckey’s been one of the top goalkeepers in the Big Ten this season, partially due to her own play, but also because the Terps’ defense has struggled mightily.

Maryland’s defense contributed to Luckey facing a record number of 29 shotsagainst Nebraska. But even in the face of those issues, Luckey has persisted. Her best game came against Illinois, when she blocked free kicks and made several diving saves.

“She kept us in the game,” Marchiano said. “Hopefully, as we move forward, we can protect her a little bit better.”

Maintaining her cool and carrying the demeanor of the team can be a daunting task, but Luckey says she’s built for it.

“You have to be a little crazy to play goalkeeper, and I think that’s the most exciting part of it,” Luckey said.“I know that my team and our teammates are going to be able to lift each other up in any time, and knowing that and playing for something bigger than yourself, playing for people next to you, it makes it easy to play and to be excited.”