Fairfield University Preview

Just two days away from the first of two games to tune-up for the NCAA Tournament. Maryland made a strong case this past weekend for a potential #2 seed. With the 3rd highest RPI and the toughest schedule in the nation, the Terps, although they have 3 losses on the season, are in a great position if they can take care of business against Fairfield University and Colgate in the upcoming weeks.

Fairfield (8-4, 4-2 MAAC) is coming of a 9-8 loss to #16 Denver on April 24th. That loss dropped them out of the rankings. The Stags were previously ranked #17 in the country. Away from their home field, they have an impressive 3-1 record, while they are close to .500 at home with a 4-3 mark on their own turf.

As a team, the Stags score 8.83 goals per game while they only give up 7.42 goals each contest. In fact, the highlight of their team is Senior Goalkeeper Joe Marra. He sports the nation's best statistics while standing between the pipes, giving up a stellar 7.09 GAA. His save percentage is an astounding 61.6% as he has given up just 81 goals on the season. Marra has 130 saves which is just 12 shy of the Stags single-season top-10 list. With a game against the high-powered Terrapin offense which normally out-shoots their opponent, Marra should be well on his way into the top spots in his school's record books.

Fairfield University's offense has scored 106 goals while the entire team has yielded just 89 scores to opponents. Leading the way up top on attack is a freshman. #24 Sam Snow (15G, 12A), is the only Stag who has more than 20 points this season. The 6-3 200 pound force has been named ECAC rookie of the week 4 times this season. Against Denver, he notched his second career hat trick. An assist gave him 4 points on the game which was also the second time he has accomplished that feat since getting to college.

There are 8 other Stags with at least 11 points on the 2010 season. #13 Max Trunz (7G, 11A) and #6 Matt Plominski (10G, 6A) follow Snow on Fiarfield's current team. Snow does lead the team in each scoring category. #37 Steve Golmont takes most of the Face-Offs for coach Andrew Copelan. He has won 93 of the 182 face-offs he has taken this year (good for a .511 win percentage) while the team as a whole wins .494 of the pure 50/50 balls. Fairfield holds a 347-322 advantage according to the ground ball statistic. Maryland's newfound focus on playing a more physical brand of lacrosse should benefit them in this game. Bryn Holmes has the advantage on paper and the toughest player Cottle has ever coached has the chance to get Maryland's offense off to a great start.

The EMO story is one of two distinct tales. Maryland leads the country when they play with a man-up while Fairfield has converted on 16 of 36 chances when they have an extra man on the field. Fairfield has out-shot their opponents on the season, 240-224.

As we just saw last night in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, a hot goalie can change a game and easily win one for a team. If Marra plays lights out, the Terps will have trouble getting on the scoreboard. However, the level of competition clearly favors the Terps. Fairfield has played just 3 teams that are currently ranked in the top 20. The Terps seem to have a top 5 or 10 show-down every week these days. If the Terrapins can play up to their ability and come out strong, they might be able to win the battle on the field as well as the mental one.

Listen to wmucsports.com for all the action. Go Terps!

2010 All-ACC Team

Before the ACC-Tournament, the 2010 All-ACC team was announced and your Maryland Terrapins had 4 players represented on the team...the most of any ACC school. 2 more than #1 Virginia, 1 more than #5 Duke, and 1 more than #4 North Carolina.

Leading the way were Junior Tewaraaton Nominees Grant Catalino and Brett Schmidt. Schmidt's best game was this past weekend against UNC when he held 2010 ACC player of the year, Billy Bitter to just 1 shot and 0 points; the first time Bitter was held scoreless in 30 games.

Junior Ryan Young was also on the team. He is 7th in the nation with 2 assists per game which is good for 2nd in the conference. Senior Goalie Brian Phipps rounds out the All-ACC honorees who wear red and white.

Congratulations to all the Terps on the team and the rest of the team who play for the 9-3 Terps. Their average ranking of opponents is 13.8. They easily have the toughest strength of schedule in D-1 Lacrosse.

Seniors Fran Gormley, Dan Halayko, Dean Hart, Bryn Holmes, Brian Phipps, Adam Sear and Will Yeatman will all be honored before the game this Saturday against Fairfield.

One more note about the game from Patrick Fischers blog on the Maryland Athletics website: "Saturday's game will also be the Terps' Power In Pink game to help Under Armour in the fight against breast cancer. The Terps will not be wearing pink uniforms, which is the norm for many of the women's teams, but will sporting pink shoelaces and wristbands to show their support for those fighting breast cancer. All proceeds from sales of Under Armour's Power in Pink items go to national breast cancer charities."

Tune in to wmucsports.com to catch all the action! Go Terps!

Terps Fall to UVA, Rise in Rankings

The Maryland Terrapins showed that they belong in the national title discussion this weekend. After dropping regular season contests to UNC and UVA earlier, they battled back and defeated the Tar Heels by 8 in the ACC Semi-final and played Virginia close before the new #1 team in the country went on a 5-0 run to close out the game and beat the Terps 10-6. But Coach Dave Cottle showed that he can change his game plan and adjust to an opponent after UNC frustrated UMD in the 9-7 loss in March.

With their impressive showing in the ACC Tournament, they moved up to the #3 spot in the country in the first RPI rankings of the year. Maryland actually leapfrogged Syracuse according to the computers yet remained behind ACC foe UNC. Virginia is now the #1 team again after losing the top spot to the Orange, with resounding wins over Duke and your Terps.

In the Nike Division 1 Top 20 Poll, Maryland was ranked 3rd behind UVA and Syracuse. Duke rounded out each poll and the RPI rankings at #5. The USILA Division 1 Coaches Poll has the same top 5 spots as the Nike poll.

Following the ACC and Syracuse, who have separated themselves as the clear-cut favorites as the NCAA tournament nears according to Quint Kessenich, are Loyola University, Princeton University, and Stony Brooke University. Cornell and UMass occupy the #9 and #10 spots respectively in each poll, with the Coaches putting the Big Red at #10.

The ACC Tournament was a great weekend and showed how strong a league it really is. Syracuse is the other team in the top 5...a top 5 that is head and shoulders above the rest of the Lacrosse world. Hopefully the Terps can win their last two tune-ups before the big dance. Catch all the action right here on wmucsports.com. Go Terps!

Terps Fall Short in ACC Tourney

Earlier this season, the University of Virginia came to Byrd Stadium as the unanimous #1 team in the country. They came out on fire and took an early 6-0 lead, stunning the Terps who were coming off a loss at North Carolina the week before. Building a massive lead at halftime, UVA almost collapsed completely as Maryland almost tied the game up at 10-10 late in the 4th quarter before Ryan Young's goal was waved off due to a controversial crease violation. Instead, Shamel Bratton raced down the field while the fans the players in red were celebrating to ice the game and give UVA an 11-9 victory. Maryland had not lost since that night and got wins over Johns Hopkins. They won their semi-final game in dominating fashion, 13-5 over the Tar Heels.

On Sunday, in the clash for the ACC crown, UVA (13-1, 2-1 ACC) did not need to hold off a furious comeback by Maryland (9-3, 1-2 ACC). Adam Ghitelman was superb in goal and held the Terrapins to just 6 goals after giving up the first 3 before making a single save. Will Yeatman didn't play because of a mild concussion and Grant Catalino and Travis Reed scored 1 goal apiece. Ryan Young couldn't find the back of the net either.

Maryland out-shot the Wahoos 36-27, won just as many face-offs (each team had 10 in the game), and kept the ground ball battle close , with UVA holding a 32-28 advantage in that department.

The game resembled the scoring of a basketball game with both teams going on runs throughout the day. Maryland started the scoring off with a 3-0 streak, getting goals from Owen Blye, Drew Snider, and Michael Shakespeare. Virginia responded with a 4-0 run of their own led by their talented midfield with Brian Carroll and Rhamel Bratton scoring a goal apiece in the run. Reed tied things up with his only goal.

Steele Stanwick put the Cavaliers up 5-4 before the half and then Catalino responded with his only goal. After that UVA put the game out of reach with a 5-0 run. The Terps were held scoreless for 28 minutes. Catalino's two points, he had an assist in the game as well, tied him with Dave Dempsey for 22nd on the all-time scoring list.

Stanwick and Rhamel Bratton led UVA with 3 points each (2G, 1 A). Virginia's close defense also helped hold Maryland's EMO unit, best in the country, to 0-2 on the day. But Ghitelman took home the MVP trophy. He had 16 saves against the Terps in the final and 28 overall, while only giving up 18 goals.

Maryland got 4 players on the All-ACC-Tournament team. Grant Catalino, John Haus, Brett Schmidt, and Brian Farrell grabbed the honors.

Maryland will close out it's regular season home schedule this Saturday against Fairfield. It will be the final home game for the seniors.

Quick shout-out to the Maryland Women's Team. They beat #1 UNC in their final and should take over the #1 spot in the country themselves.

Terrapins Run Over Tar Heels

The ACC tournament was bound to have some high scoring. In the first contest, Duke and UVA took the field at Byrd Stadium in a rematch of a game from 1 week ago in which the Blue Devils handed Virginia their first loss of the season, 13-9. In the second meeting between the two schools, the Cavaliers prevailed, 16-12. Duke had won the previous 8 games with UVA. They won with face-offs [22 of 32 went their way in the contest]...the key to success in any lacrosse game. Brian McDermott won 17 of his 19 battles in the middle of the field. He dominated Bryn Holmes in the game at Byrd with Maryland earlier in the season. Coach Dom Starsia said "the ground ball play in the middle of the field was really good."

Thanks to Maryland's own hustle in the middle of the field, the Terps were able to play a high-octane game and defeat North Carolina 13-5 after dropping the regular season game in Chapel Hill 9-7. Grant Catalino had a career high 6 goals in the game, giving him 23rd place on the all-time scoring list at Maryland with 132 points, passing Pat O'Meally and C. Rennie Smith. He is only 2 points away from tying Dave Dempsey for 22nd place on all-time scoring list.

Bryn Holmes was incredible in the middle 1/3 and his 5 ground balls puts him in 5th place with 223 career ground balls. Face-offs were a big part of the 13-5 win for UMD. He won 13 of the 20 that he took for the game.

The Terps never trailed in this game, much different then the game at UNC where they were playing catch-up for much of the game. Down in Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels defense stunned the Terps and really took them out of their comfort zone. with such great size, they don't need to double Catalino or Yeatman, who are both at least 6-5. Brian Farrell scored a couple transition goals. Some analysts have said that his return to the team is a big reason why Maryland has a legitimate shot at getting back to the Final Four...which just happens to be at M&T Bank Stadium this year. Maryland already has two victories against quality opponents (Duke and Johns Hopkins) there this year. They know how to win close games and now have a conference blowout under their belts.

For the first 22:44 seconds of the game, UNC could not get a shot past Brian Phipps. The senior keeper helped keep an offense that was scoring over 11 goals a game at bay. With 13 saves on the day, he has 427 career saves and passed Steve Kavoit for 4th place on the all-time saves list. Much of the success in front of Phipps was with junior defenseman Brett Schmidt. He checked All-American attackman and Tewaraaton Nominee Billy Bitter to 0 points for the first time in 30 games. Bitter was injured last game against the Tar Heels. Traditional thought would have given the edge to #3 UNC especially now that they had their squad completely healthy. But Schmidt and the defense won the battle on the ground, 42-33. Bitter was held to one shot and 6 turnovers while being shadowed predominantly by Brett Schmidt. It was truly an All-American performance [with teammate Max Schmidt earning those honors last year].

Freshman John Haus tallied his first hat trick ever against UNC. It must have been a very emotional game for the talented second-midfielder as he grew up in Chapel Hill and almost committed to the school before his dad was fired a couple years ago. He recruited many of the players that Coach Joe Breschi is leading at the moment. Haus came to UMD despite the family ties and outscored everyone on the field...aside from Catalino who finally had a HUGE game against a HUGE opponent.

Maryland will play UVA at 3:30pm Sunday at Byrd Stadium for the ACC crown. Although not every team in D-1 plays in conference tournaments, they do carry some heavy meaning. If Maryland can continue their winning ways and beat Virginia the second time around, then they might be in line for the #1 overall seed. Even if Syracuse wins the Big East, which they recently joined, I think that getting wins over the #3 and hopefully #2 teams in the country would give Coach Cottle and his players a reasonable chance at taking over the #1 spot in the nation.

Catch all the action on wmucsports.com! Go Terps!

Terps Get Set for Rematch with Tar Heels

For the first time in 10 years, the ACC Tournament makes its way back to College Park. Byrd Stadium will host three games this weekend featuring the #2-#5 teams in the country in what should be the best weekend in lacrosse this season [yes, better than the Big City Classic which featured the top 4 teams at the time]...why? It's the ACC baby.

Back on March 27th, Maryland went down to UNC for a match-up of two undefeated teams. The Terps were clicking on all cylinders, especially on offense, yet were dominated on both sides of the ball in Chapel Hill. Carolina didn't even have their best offensive player, All-American Billy Bitter. Freshman Marcus Holman [a product of Baltimore powerhouse, Gilman] scored 4 goals to pick up the slack. UNC was also without the services of Sean DeLaney for much of the game after he left with a hand injury.

Maryland's fantastic EMO offense was 3-4 on the day, but they never really got into a groove. Grant Catalino was held without a goal until he made the score 9-7 with just about a minute left; the game was well out of reach by then. UNC's towering defense (Ryan Flanagan stands 6-6, Michael Jarvis is listed at 6-5, and Kevin Piegare is the "shortest" of the bunch at 6-2). They were more physical and out-hustled the Terrapins...two of the keys for Maryland's late success.

Senior Bryn Holmes has stepped up in a big way. Coach Dave Cottle described him as the "toughest son of a booger" he has ever coached. He took virtually every face off against Johns Hopkins in the 10-9 victory. Ever since the back-to-back losses to UNC and UVA, Maryland has gotten back to its lacrosse roots. Being the tougher team on the field, winning with effort and not just talent.

UNC is coming of a 17-14 shoot out with Robert Morris. Gavin Petracca scored a career best 6 goals and Bitter, Holman, and Cryder DiPietro each had 2 goals in the win. Their only loss since the UMD game was against UVA as well. Virginia prevailed 7-5 over the Tar Heels on April 10th. After falling behind 5-0 (UVA seems to play extremely well against their ACC foes in the first half; remember the 6-0 lead they took over Maryland and this past weekend versus Duke, they were outscored 8-3 in the second half as the Blue Devils won 13-9). Steele Stanwick of UVA notched a hat trick while UNC was led by Bitter who had 2 goals. Both coaches admitted they held a little back with the strong possibility of playing 2 more games against each other.

On the season, UNC is led by Bitter (19G, 20A) and Gavin Petracca (20G, 15A). They have 4 more players who have scored at least 20 points and DiPietro has 19 points on the season. Chris Madalon brings a 6.97 GAA to College Park. He has done a solid job between the pipes, but that low number can be attributed to the stellar defense. UNC has outscored opponents 138-84 on the season, including holding Virginia and UMD to season low totals.

Michael Burns (103-203 FOW) has taken most of the face-offs. Against the Terps in late March, he beat everything Cottle threw at him. Be it Jake Bernhardt, Jesse Bernhardt, or Bryn Holmes, Burns won seemingly every face-off. As always, if Holmes can get the ball rolling in Maryland's favor, the offense will get a chance to really test Madalon in the cage. When the Terps were able to shoot in the game at UNC, they were able to get the ball in the net.

Travis Reed has the hot hand with 8 points (6G, 2A) in his last two games. Ryan Young is moving extremely well with the ball in the X spot behind the net. He is 7th in NCAA D-1 Lacrosse with 2 assists per game. Grant Catalino also appears to have shot himself out of his mini slump. He has 5 goals in the past two games and with his confidence back, has shown his fearlessness that was a trademark in his first two years in College Park.

Maryland, UNC, and UVA rank in the top 6 in the nation in terms of ground balls per game. Joe Cummings got his first collegiate hat trick against the Tar Hells last year in the ACC Tournament loss to Carolina (16-10 L). Maryland's EMO offense is #1. The unit is converting 61.8% of their chances when they play with a man-up. Adam Sear leads the way in this category with 6 goals in those situations (the team was a perfect 4-4 against Hopkins).

Although there is no Automatic Bid at stake, a top-4 seed in the NCAA tournament is. I would have to believe that all ACC schools will get a top 8 ranking if they win their final games after the conference tournament. Traditionally, schools like Syracuse and Johns Hopkins refused to join a conference (although Syracuse just became a member of the Big East). However, now the conference tournaments give teams the chance to increase their RPI and get another quality win or two, especially for the ACC juggernauts.

It should be a great weekend and hopefully Maryland can bring the trophy back to College Park. I know I'm not alone when I say that its been too long since championships have graced our campus. The path to a potential Final Four in Baltimore could become much easier as well. Listen to wmucsports.com for all the action. Go Terps!

New Polls as ACC Tourney Looms

The 4/19/2010 rankings are out and Maryland (8-2) remained at the #4 spot in one of them and flopped positions with #5 Duke (11-3) in the other after the Blue Devils dominated former #1 Virginia (11-1) AT UVA.

In the Nike Division 1 Top 20 Poll, Syracuse (10-1) garnered 12 first place votes to claim the top spot from the Cavaliers, who got 6 first place votes themselves. Right in the rear view mirror sat UNC, a recipient of 1 first place vote sporting an 11-1 record. Maryland kept its 4th place ranking, followed by the last ACC team, Duke.

Maryland will face off against UNC Friday night, after Duke and UVA dook it out in a rematch of Saturday's contest between the two.

As for the USILA Division 1 Coaches Poll, the Orange took 9 of the 13 votes, while the Wahoos grabbed 4 nods from the men on the sidelines. UNC is the unanimous #3 team and Duke took Maryland's place in the #4 spot, while the Terps dropped to #5 in the country.

Princeton (9-2), Loyola (8-2), Cornell (8-3), and Villanova (8-3) follow the top 5 teams in order on both polls. Rounding out the top 10 in Nike's Poll is Drexel University (9-3) and the Coaches think the 10th best team in the nation is Georgetown University (7-4).

We'll go with #5 in the country, since Duke is the hottest team in lacrosse at the moment. But still, the ACC dominates the polls with all 4 teams in the top #5 along with the defending national champions. Go Terps!