No. 11 Maryland men’s lacrosse loses third straight for first time under Tillman, falling 11-8 to No. 1 Notre Dame

Photo courtesy of Mackenzie Miles/Maryland Athletics.

No. 11 Maryland men’s lacrosse had never lost three games in a row under head coach John Tillman. 

No. 1 Notre Dame came into College Park looking to exploit the weaknesses the Terps showed in losses to No. 12 Princeton and No. 2 Syracuse – and they did just that. 

After a promising start to the game, Maryland went on to lose 11-8 – its third straight loss – dropping the Terps to 1-3 on the season. 

One of Maryland’s keys to victory coming into the matchup was limiting turnovers off transition. Against Princeton a week ago, the Terps would get a gritty stop defensively, attempt to push the ball in transition, and end up giving the ball right back. 

That was the story of today’s game. 

Maryland really struggled moving the ball in transition – especially in the second quarter. These struggles led to sloppy turnovers – and multiple easy goals on the other end for the Fighting Irish. 

Offensively, Maryland’s star player Eric Spanos – who was listed in the starting lineup before today’s game – did not play. 

Spanos tweaked his knee against Syracuse – he remained in the game and played a full 60 minutes against Princeton last week at home. Spanos was seen on the end of the sideline of Saturday’s game not in uniform. 

Without the graduate student offensively, the Terps were unable to consistently put the ball on goal. Maryland had 40 shots on the day – only 15 of them were on net. 

Between the second and third quarter, they went over 20 minutes scoreless – the Terps’ longest stretch without a goal this year. 

Notre Dame scored seven straight during that stretch. They looked unstoppable offensively, going against a Maryland defense that couldn’t find an answer – or time to take a breath. 

Maryland had 12 turnovers on the day, and every one of them seemed to come at an unfortunate time for Brian Ruppel and the defense.  

Notre Dame shot 35 shots and put 23 of them on goal – on par for an Irish team that came in as the top team in the country in points. 

Ruppel was able to tally 11 saves, but the overwhelming amount of shots on goal was too much for him to handle. 

Maryland lacrosse used to be consistently able to keep opponents under 10 goals – every Terps opponent has reached 10 this season. 

It’s the second time in Maryland men’s lacrosse program history that their opponent has scored 10 or more goals in each game of the first three weeks. 

The Terps are suffering their worst start to a season since 1993. They’ll look to find a way back into the win column next week, when they travel to Delaware to take on the Blue Hens on March 6.