By Joe Santoliquito
For Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/26/24
Somehow, Eric Spanos and Luke Wierman have been able to juggle it all. Calls and texts, and arrangements, followed by more calls and texts checking for times, and pickups. And yet more calls and texts, compounded by more schedule changes.
Everything that has come at the pair of stalwart Maryland players this weekend has been met and conquered, from the countless tickets for family and friends to see them play in the NCAA Final Four this Memorial Day holiday, to beating a rising Virginia team in the NCAA semifinals.
Spanos, a junior combo attack/middie out of Malvern Prep, and Wierman, a fifth-year senior faceoff specialist out of West Chester Henderson, played significant roles in Maryland’s 12-6 defeat over No. 6 Virginia in the NCAA Final Four on Saturday before 32,269 at Lincoln Financial Field.
Wierman, Spanos, an additional group of Philly contributors, and the rest of their Maryland teammates will now face No. 1-seed and defending national champion Notre Dame (15-1) on Monday at 1 p.m. at Lincoln Financial Field.
It is the 16th time Maryland has been to the national championship, and a healthy dose of credit has to go to Spanos, who had two goals and three assists for a game-high five points, and Wierman, a member of the Terps’ 2022 national championship team who won 15 of 22 faceoffs and scored once against Virginia.
More Philly guys made big contributions Saturday. Defenseman Will Schaller (Hill School) had two caused turnovers and a groundball while midfielder Eric Kolar (Hill School) had two groundballs and a caused turnover. Middies Eric Redd (Wilmington Friends) and Geordy Holmes (Haverford School) also saw time.
One of the first things out of Virginia coach Lans Tiffany after the game was, “Give Luke Wierman credit in that first half where it was really lopsided. And we were generating a lot of shots but we just weren’t putting them on cage and we played too much defense as it went on. So on one of those days where we needed the ball more, Luke Wierman wouldn’t allow that to happen.”
It was Wierman who set the tone when he won the game’s first five faceoffs.
“I thought the game plan was very well executed in the beginning. I thought we had a good game plan and we just kind of stuck to that,” Wierman said. “I think the offense scoring, like (Maryland) Coach (John Tillman) said, and capitalizing on those opportunities definitely helps that. Gives confidence to the whole team, confidence in myself and our wings and the chemistry we had kind of building.
“We just stuck to that game plan. Have been working on it all week.”
It also helps having a little added motivation. Neither Wierman nor Spanos played before such huge hometown crowds before. The Terps’ 2022 national championship came over Cornell just off the pandemic in East Hartford, Conn.
“It’s really unbelievable being home,” Wierman said. “It is something I know that always dreamed about doing is coming back here and playing in a Final Four at the Linc, especially this time of year. I have a lot of people here. I would say in upwards of 50 people. It’s probably the same for Spanos.
“I remember coming to the Final Fours at the Linc when I was a kid with my parents. Right now, we are playing really well. We are just clicking. We have been building that chemistry all year and it is coming together at the right time. It may sound cliché, but we have been working to get one step better.”
As recent as three weeks ago, Maryland (11-5) was struggling. The Terps were beaten by a combined score of 26-14 in losses to Johns Hopkins and Penn State. But Maryland has rallied once the NCAA Tournament began, beating Princeton (16-8), No. 2 Duke 14-11, and now No. 6 Virginia in dominating fashion, 12-6.
During this run, Spanos has scored six goals in three games.
“Eric has been great,” Tillman said. “We had him playing midfield for a good part of the year, and when we started making some switches, we moved him down and I just think he is more comfortable, he is more confident. He has been great for us, but I think even better back where he is now.
“With has happened to us recently, (Spanos) has been really good for, getting him back down there that gives a lot of the other guys confidence. Even the other guys moving around, they have been more confident, because they have adapted and it seems to be working so far.”
On Monday, Wierman gets to go out a national champion and Spanos has the chance to be a part of a national title for the second time in three years. Just three weeks ago, not many outside the Terps’ locker room thought any of this was possible.
What changed?
“I wouldn’t say it was one thing that changed or one message that changed this team,” Wierman said. “We just knew that we needed to keep working. It was not just going to happen overnight. That was really the message that we focused on, was it’s not going to happen overnight.
“New guys in new spots. We lost a lot of guys over the last couple of years. We just needed to keep chipping away at things, chipping away, really sticking together. Early in the season against Penn State we were down big there at their place.
“We stuck together and came back and found that identity. And coaches have been putting us in great spots. That’s really what it is.”
