Maryland men’s lacrosse has avoided midweek games this season, playing on the weekend for all of its outings. That changes this week when the No. 3-seed Terps meet No. 2-seed Johns Hopkins at Homewood Field on Thursday in a Big Ten semifinals matchup.
The Terps are coming off a short week after playing in the Big Ten quarterfinals on Saturday, where they defeated No. 6-seed Rutgers, 14-11. Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins received a bye after clinching a top-two seed, and will be playing its first game in 12 days. The last time the Blue Jays took the field was in College Park, where they squeaked out a 12-11 victory over the Terps in the regular season finale.
“I think you’d always rather be the team that has the bye,” coach John Tillman said. “It allows you to rest some guys and get a mental break. The way we looked at it was another opportunity to play and for our team more guys to get experience.”
Thursday will be the schools’ fifth meeting in the Big Ten tournament, with the Blue Jays winning the first two but the Terps taking the last two. This meeting has a lot on the line with the victor clinching a spot in conference finals, where a win in the finals would clinch an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
“I think we’re pretty fortunate with the way this thing played out,” Tillman said. “Each team we played we played two weeks prior so for the guys it was in their recent memories, the preparation. There’s a lot the kids can remember, so in certain ways it’s helpful.”
Johns Hopkins’ face-off specialist Tyler Dunn subbed in midway through the first quarter and sparked the Blue Jays in the last meeting. The junior dominated, winning 14 of 23 face-off attempts against Maryland senior Luke Wierman, one of the best face-off specialists in the country. Dunn was particularly efficient in the third quarter, winning eight of 11 face-offs as Johns Hopkins had its best offensive frame of the game.
The Blue Jays took over for the final 45 minutes of the outing, holding Maryland to just 17 shots after it fired 16 in the opening quarter. Of the 33 total shots attempted by the Terps, only 17 were on target, demonstrating Maryland’s lack of patience on the offensive end.
“If you have a shot you have to take it, you can’t second guess that,” junior attacker Daniel Kelly said. “I think Hopkins sped us up a little bit and made us rush. Sometimes the first opportunity is not the best opportunity … but in the first Hopkins game we definitely took the first opportunity. If we kept them working and kept them moving we might have been able to get a better one.”
A pair of Terp attackers registered four-goal outings in the matchup, freshman Braden Erksa and senior Daniel Maltz. The duo remained hot against Rutgers last weekend, combining for four goals and seven assists. Erksa set a new career-high in assists (six) and points (seven) in the win, while Maltz recorded his fourth hat trick of the season.
On the other side, Blue Jays attackers Jacob Angelus and Russell Melendez propelled Johns Hopkins to the win in the regular season meeting. Angelus notched a four-point performance, recording his first hat trick of the season. Melendez registered three assists and two goals, including the dagger that put his squad up two late.
Maryland will look to limit Angelus, Melendez and the rest of the Johns Hopkins offense in 2023’s second edition of the in-state rivalry.
“We wanted a second chance at Hopkins,” Kelly said. “It’s something we take pretty seriously and we are excited to get this opportunity.”
