Despite not bringing the Big Ten tournament trophy back to College Park, Maryland men’s lacrosse still has a shot to defend its 2022 National Championship when the No. 4-seeded Terps (10-5) host Patriot League tournament champions Army (12-3) Saturday night in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
The meeting will be the first between the schools since 2004.
“This team has not failed, it’s been a different journey,” coach John Tillman said. “When we’ve been good, we’ve been really good, and when we’ve been bad, we’ve been really bad.”
The Terps are coming off an air deafening blowout loss to Michigan in the Big Ten tournament championship game, where the Wolverines controlled every aspect of the game en route to a nine-goal victory. The Terps set a new season low in their shooting percentage, only scoring on 12.5 percent of their shots against a veteran Wolverines squad.
“It’s just going back to the fundamentals like possessing the ball [and] getting deep into the shot clock, so we don’t have those quick possessions that lead to turnovers and that tire our defense out,” junior midfielder Jack Koras said. “We want to possess the ball more and just get everyone involved and get the ball moving.”
Like its shooting percentage, Maryland’s assists numbers have been all over the place this season. The Terps recorded only one assist in the Big Ten championship game — their lowest output on the year — but they also reached the double-digit assist mark in four outings.
Maryland has largely been successful this season courtesy of dominant play at the face-off circle from Luke Wierman. Wierman has followed up a record-breaking campaign a year ago with another dominant season.
The senior has been excellent in 2023, winning 234 face-offs, jumping from ninth in program history all the way up to second, 29 face-off victories behind Andy Claxton for first place.
Wierman will have a difficult match-up against sophomore Will Coleti, who’s even better at the center circle than Wierman. Coleti holds the eighth-best face-off win percentage (62.3 percent) among all Division I players, narrowly above Wierman’s 61.4 percent. Coleti won 18 of 222 face-offs in the Patriot League tournament final, guiding the Black Knights to the slim two-goal win.
“There are no weaknesses,” Tillman said. “… Everything from their goalie who was First Team, their face-off guy [who] beat arguably one of the best guys in the country Friday night, their defense is top two in goals against. Their offense is deep. They share the ball well.”
Army’s offense is led by midfielder Reese Burek, who’s registered a goal in all-but one game for the Black Knights. The junior has scored a team-high 56 points on 33 goals and 23 assists, earning Patriot League First-Team honors.
The Terps’ defense will also have their hands full against a scorching hot Paul Johnson. The junior attacker scored eight goals in the Patriot League tournament, including tying the Patriot League tournament record of six goals in a game, a feat he accomplished against Lehigh in the semifinals.
Defensively, Army’s senior goalkeeper Knox Dent has been excellent defending the cage of late, registering double-digit saves in five-straight games. Dent’s been superb all year, clinching Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year honors after finishing with a .534 save percentage in the regular season.
The winner between Maryland and Army will face the victory of No. 5-seed Penn State and Princeton in the NCAA tournament quarterfinals in Annapolis on May 21.
