NCAA men’s Division I semis: Amato (La Salle), Blye (D-town East), Schmidt (U. Dublin) lead Maryland past Duke; Haldy (Haverford School), Hill (Malvern Prep) help Virginia top Denver

Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/28/11

Redshirt freshman Niko Amato (La Salle) made 13 saves and Owen Blye (Downingtown East) had a goal, an assist and three groundballs to help Maryland defeat Atlantic Coast Conference rival and defending national champion Duke, 9-4, tonight in the semifinals of the NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse championships before 45,039 fans at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium.

Senior All-American defenseman Brett Schmidt (Upper Dublin) added a groundball for the Terps and played a key role in keeping the Blue Devils offense under wraps.

The Terps (13-4) will face fellow ACC foe Virginia in the championship game Monday in the first NCAA finals between two ACC teams since 1986 at 3:30 p.m. The game will be televised live on ESPN in HD.

Duke, which got nine saves from sophomore goalie Dan Wigrizer (Haverford School), finished 14-6. Freshman attackman Jordan Wolf (Lower Merion) was held scoreless, but had three groundballs and sophomore defenseman Billy Conners (Malvern Prep) had two groundballs.

The Cavaliers (12-5) advanced by downing Denver, 14-8, as senior John Haldy (Haverford School) scored one goal and freshman Bobby Hill (Malvern Prep) contributed three groundballs and a caused turnover.