Saylor Poffenbarger is no stranger to undefeated starts in women’s college basketball. When she was a member of the 2020-21 UConn program, that team opened the season with 10 consecutive wins before suffering its first setback. And when she played at Arkansas in 2022-23, that squad rolled through its first 13 games before its first loss.

So the redshirt junior shooting guard has a practical view now that Maryland is 14-0 for the first time since the school went 16-0 to open the 2011-12 and 1982-83 seasons and is one of just five teams in the country without a loss.

“I think you can get a little hot and heavy when you sit there and think like you’re one of the few undefeated teams,” she said on a video call Tuesday afternoon. “But I think going into every game, you don’t really think about the games prior to that. They build confidence, but every game is just as important as another.”

Athletes like to emphasize that the next game is the most important one. If that’s the case, Wednesday’s game at 8:30 p.m. at Xfinity Center in College Park looms as the most significant of the season as the No. 8 Terps (14-0, 4-0 Big Ten) welcome No. 4 Southern California (14-1, 4-0) to town.

Maryland has disposed of No. 14 Duke, No. 20 Michigan State and No. 23 Iowa. But the Trojans, led by Player of the Year candidate JuJu Watkins and Stanford transfer Kiki Iriafen, represent perhaps the stiffest challenge.

Coach Brenda Frese did her best to keep a lid on any simmering emotions heading into Wednesday.

“I think our approach is the same,” she said Tuesday. “It’s the next game on our calendar on Jan. 8. Everybody knows what it is to have JuJu coming into town and a really talented team. But in the scheme of everything and where we’re at, this level of play will help make us better in our pursuit. It’s no different than our nonconference. We’ve had the likes of UConn and South Carolina and all of these big opponents, and we embrace it. We’re a top-10 opponent ourselves. I know this team is highly competitive and excited. They love playing in games like this.”

As critical as the game against USC appears to be, it kicks off a difficult gantlet for the Terps. After a pair of league tilts with Wisconsin and Minnesota, they will then face No. 5 Texas (15-1) on Jan. 20 at the Coretta Scott King Classic in Newark, New Jersey, travel to meet No. 9 Ohio State (14-0) on Jan. 23 in Columbus, Ohio, and then play host to No. 1 UCLA (15-0) on Jan. 26.

That’s four top-10 matchups in 18 days. And it’s a stretch that Poffenbarger, a Middletown resident who leads the Terps in rebounds per game (9.3) and total blocks (14) and ranks fifth in points (9.6), has embraced.

“It’s definitely going to be a test,” she said. “It’ll show what we’re made of. I think it’s only going to prepare us for the NCAA Tournament. Yeah, it’s tough, but we also play in one of the best conferences — or the best conference — in the country. So I think these are the nights that prepare us for April and March, and that’s ultimately where we want to be.”

Frese quipped that she hadn’t thought about the next six games until prompted by a reporter’s question to Poffenbarger. But Frese said a win or loss during the upcoming span shouldn’t impact the direction of the season that greatly.

“We’re not going to get too high or too low out of any of it,” she said. “It’s Jan. 7 and for us, it’s just continuing to get better every single time we step out. We love the way our conference is built and to add the nonconference game of Texas into that, but they’re all just going to be opportunities for us here in January to see where we’re at, learn a lot of lessons, and help us for February and March as we go through it.”

For now, the focus is on USC — and for good reason. Watkins, a sophomore shooting guard, leads the Big Ten in points per game (25.1), ranks second in steals (2.5), and is tied for second in field goals (8.1) and fifth in blocks (1.9). And she has help from Iriafen, a graduate student power forward who ranks sixth in points (17.9) and eighth in rebounds (9.0), and Rayah Marshall, a senior center who is tied for third in blocks (2.1) and ranks ninth in rebounds (8.7).

On the flip side, the Terps have already tangled with their fair share of potent opponents. Rutgers freshman point guard Kiyomi McMiller, who ranks second in the conference in scoring at 19.9 points, compiled only 14 points — the third-lowest output of her fledgling career — on 4 of 13 shooting in Maryland’s 78-61 romp on Thursday.

Iowa senior point guard Lucy Olsen, a Villanova transfer who ranks ninth at 17.1 points, scored 19 points, but went just 6 of 17 from the floor in the Terps’ 74-66 win against the No. 23 Hawkeyes on Sunday. And Michigan State graduate student shooting guard Julia Ayrault, who ranks 11th at 16.2 points, finished with 17 points on 6 of 18 efficiency in Maryland’s 72-66 victory on Dec. 29.

Frese is hoping her players can similarly limit Watkins and help the Terps, the No. 2 rebounding team in the league at 45.6 per game, outperform the Trojans, No. 3 at 43.6 rebounds per game.

“You’re not going to stop JuJu,” she said. “I think you’ve got to make her work to take difficult shots. And there’s no question, these are two elite-level rebounding teams. They are really big inside and on the glass. So that mentality on the glass is going to be big for both teams.”

While one game doesn’t usually define a campaign, a victory over a USC team that was voted the preseason favorite to capture the Big Ten regular-season title might go a long way to casting Maryland in a different light. And Poffenbarger agreed that she and her teammates are eager to alter the discourse on the contenders for that coveted national championship.

“I think every night we want to send a message to the country,” she said. “Every game we play, we want to send something out to the people watching, and I think it’ll show our resilience and our toughness and, no matter the outcome, our ability to bounce back. I have no doubt and a bunch of confidence in this team.”

Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at eklee@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun.