Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/18/24
From Press Release
Luke Wierman (Henderson) dominated at the faceoff X and No. 7 seed Maryland men’s lacrosse advanced to the NCAA semifinals for the third time in four years by rallying to defeat No. 2 seed Duke, 14-11, today at Shuart Stadium.
Maryland (10-5) will make its 29th Final Four appearance, tying for most by any program in history with Johns Hopkins.
Maryland will play the winner of No. 6 seed Virginia and No. 3 seed Johns Hopkins on May 25. The game will be played in Philadelphia at Lincoln Financial Field. The time will be announced later and will be televised on ESPN2.
The Terps battled back after falling down 5-1 in the opening quarter. They outscored the Blue Devils 13-6 for the remainder of the game, led by Wierman’s efforts. Daniel Maltz scored the game-winning, go-ahead goal at 5:01 in the fourth quarter. He added another score, his team-leading fourth of the game at 3:03 to put the game away.
After adding eight groundballs today, Wierman became the program’s leader in career groundballs. He now has 456, passing Andy Claxton (1989-92), who had 451 career groundballs. Wierman won 20-of-29 faceoffs to add to his other career program record. He also added two goals in the game to match his career-high output. His performance was pivotal to the victory.
Braden Erksa scored the first go-ahead goal at 10:16 in the fourth to give Maryland its first lead of the game. The score capped off four consecutive by the Terps. Erksa added another go-ahead goal at 7:50.
In coming back from down four goals, Maryland had its largest comeback in an NCAA Tournament game since also trailing Towson by four goals (7-3) in the 2019 NCAA First Round, before coming back to win 14-13 in overtime.
Ryan Siracusa (three goals and an assist) recorded his first career hat trick, finishing with a career-high four points. Erksa added two scores and an assist. Zach Whittier supplied two assists.
Defensively, Ajax Zappitello held Josh Zawada, Duke’s second-leading point scorer to one assist. Colin Burlace caused a turnover and picked up two groundballs. Logan McNaney made 11 saves at goalie. Will Schaller (Hill School) was a key on defense and had a groundball. Attackman Eric Spanos (Malvern Prep) had three groundballs and a caused turnover.
For Duke, defenseman Henry Bard (Lower Merion) had two groundballs.
Despite Dyson Williams and Brennan O’Neill combining for nine goals, Duke was eliminated. They end their season with a 13-6 record.
