Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/22/22 – From Press Release
No. 1 Maryland is returning to the Final Four for the 28th time in school history as the Terps dominated Virginia for the second time this season, beating the Cavaliers, 18-9, on Sunday at Ohio Stadium.
Head coach John Tillman has now led Maryland to the NCAA Semifinals for the ninth time in 11 tournaments since taking over as head coach in 2011. At 16-0, the Terps are off their best start in school history.
The Terps will face No, 5 seed Princeton in the NCAA Semifinals next Saturday, May 28 at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field at 2:30 p.m., and will air on ESPN2.
Luke Wierman (Henderson) won 20-of-29 face-offs and corralled 12 groundballs while dishing two assists.
Fifth-year Logan Wisnauskas tallied three goals and two assists as he recorded his 39th career hat trick to set at Maryland career record.
Fifth-year Anthony DeMaio, posted a hat trick for the fourth postseason game in a row — after not having one in the first 12 games of the season — as he finished with three goals and two assists for five points. Graduate student Jonathan Donville scored twice with one assist.
Owen Murphy scored four goals for the fourth time this season.
Maryland’s other goals came from Eric Malever, Kyle Long, Keegan Khan, Daniel Maltz, Roman Puglise and Daniel Kelly as 10 different Terps scored goals. Overall 14 players had points with 10 different players recording at least one assist.
In the cage, Logan McNaney made 14 saves leading a Terps’ defense that held Virginia to nine goals.
On defense, Ajax Zappitello shutdown Virginia’s leading scorer Connor Shellenberger (76 points entering the game) as he has held without a point for the first time in his 33-game career. Brett Makar had four groundballs and limited Matt Moore (Garnet Valley) to one goal. Short-pole Bubba Fairman and Puglise each had three groundballs. John Geppert also had three groundballs and his first assist of the season. Matt Rahill (Springside Chestnut Hill Academy) had two groundballs.
Virginia finished the season at 12-4 as Jeff Conner (Strath Haven) had three goals and an assist.
Breaking Down The Action
DeMaio scored three of the Terps’ first four goals as Maryland raced to a 4-1 lead after the first 15 minutes. After Virginia scored the game’s opening goal, the Terps ripped off four in a row with a Donville tally wrapped inside the hat trick by DeMaio.
After Virginia scored the first goal of the quarter again, the Terps tallied the next two with Daniel Maltz and Donville to make it 6-2, 3:45 into the second quarter. After Virginia scored to make it 6-3, Maryland reeled off three in a row including a pair six second apart by Kyle Long and Owen Murphy with 5:14 left in the half pushing the score to 9-3. The Terps led 9-4 at the half.
After being held without a goal in the first half, Wisnauskas scored the first two goals of the second half as Maryland scored the first four goals of the period to take a commanding 13-4 lead as Puglise and Murphy scored. Wisnauakas scored his third goal of the quarter (and the game) and Murphy scored his third of the game to put the Terps up 15-5, those two goals came in the span of six seconds.
Khan got on the board early in the fourth quarter to make it 16-7. Murphy tallied his fourth late in the quarter and Daniel Kelly finished rthe Terps’ scoring.
NCAA Numbers
Maryland is playing in its 44th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history and its NCAA-best 19th straight appearance.
Maryland is now 68-40 all-time in NCAA Tournament games with three National Championships (1973, 1975, 2017). Only Johns Hopkins (71) has more wins.
The Terps are now making their 28th trips to the Final Four, second-most ever, behind Johns Hopkins (29). Maryland’s NCAA Semifinals appearances: 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022.
John Tillman is now 26-9 in NCAA Tournament games at Maryland with nine Final Four appearances. The 26 wins are tied for sixth all-time in NCAA men’s lacrosse history with Dave Pietramala.
The Terps are 28-12 all-time in NCAA Tournament Quarterfinal games, winning nine of its last 10 quarterfinal games.
Maryland is now 20-6 all-time as the top seed, advancing to the NCAA Semifinals on all 20 occasions.
The Terps are 9-0 in quarterfinal games as the No. 1 seed
Numbers To Know for Luke Wierman
9: Wierman had his ninth game with double-figure groundballs this season with 12 groundballs.
143: Wierman now has 143 to move to second in single-season groundballs, second only to Andy Claxton with 171 in 1991.
272: Wierman continues to add to his school record for face-off wins in a season, with 20 wins Sunday to give him 272.
419: Wierman also added to his school record for face-offs taken of 419.
Up Next
The Terps return to the NCAA Semifinals, where they will play No. 5 seed Princeton next Saturday, May 28 in East Hartford, Conn., at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field at 2:30 p.m., and will air on ESPN2.
Maryland beat Princeton earlier this season, 15-10, on Feb. 26 in College Park.
The Terps lead the all-time series with the Tigers, 32-12-1, a series that dates in 1927. Prior to this season, the teams last played in 2016.
In the NCAA Tournament, Princeton won the first five meeting before the Terps won the last match-up in the 2006 Quarterfinals, 11-6.
This will be the first time the teams play in the NCAA Semifinals as they have played twice in the NCAA Championship Game (1997, 1998) and three times in the Quarterfinals (1992, 2004, 2006).