No. 5 Maryland men’s lacrosse (6-3, 1-1 Big Ten) hits the road to take on No. 17 Ohio State (5-5, 1-1 Big Ten) on Friday in Columbus.
Maryland suffered a crushing home defeat at the hands of No. 16 Michigan last Saturday, falling 16-11.
It was the Terps’ first loss to the Wolverines in program history and their first home conference loss in nearly four years — a historic victory for coach Kevin Conry.
Michigan paced coach John Tillman’s squad in nearly every major statistical category: total shots, shots on goal, clears and face-offs. Maryland never led after holding a 2-1 advantage early in the first quarter, as it was simply outmatched by a Wolverine offense that put the most balls in net against the Terps all season.
“For us, I think our shooting has been inconsistent,” Tillman said, “and it’s something we’re certainly putting time on. We work on it everyday. It’s an area where we[‘ve] got to improve, and shooting is not only the technique, so we’re working on fundamentals and mechanics.”
Maryland, ranked sixth in the nation in face-off winning percentage, only won 13 compared to the Wolverines’ 17. The sides also were even with 26 ground balls apiece; the Terps are tied for fourth in the nation with 37.78 per game, but struggled in that department as well on Saturday.
“It didn’t feel like we were on the same page at times,” Tillman said. “Defensively, it felt like at times we had two guys sliding to the ball, sometimes no guys sliding to the ball. So we weren’t communicating.”
The Terps will need to get back to their usual winning style for the remainder of the season if they want a shot at repeating as national champions.
But in the meantime, Maryland shifts its focus to an Ohio State group that — while ranked in the top-20 — just suffered a 17-9 road loss to No. 8 Penn State and ranks in the bottom of the Big Ten in multiple major offense categories.
The Buckeyes rank last in the conference in shots per game, shots on goal per game, points per game, assists per game and goals per game. They lost by a combined 24 goals to No. 2 Notre Dame and No. 3 Virginia, opponents the Terps lost by one to and beat by one, respectively.
The Terps are 4-1 all-time in Columbus and 12-3 in 15 total matchups with their conference foe.
Maryland has a clear advantage over Ohio State statistically this season, but must remain poised to avoid another upset and continue its historical dominance over the Buckeyes.
Sophomore attacker Ed Shean currently leads the Buckeyes in goals with 19 alongside a .679 shooting percentage to go with it, as he’s been very efficient in his looks. Senior attacker Jack Myers is another name to keep an eye on. The Bethesda native recorded 45 assists last season and has added 18 more this year plus 13 goals.
“Ohio State definitely does a lot of picking,” Tillman said. “You go back and watch the game against them last year, we did not play great defense, certainly in the first half. So at times last year, it was very similar to what we saw last week. We were just scoring more goals [last year] and a lot of times that covered up some of our mistakes.”
Both coming off major losses to Big Ten opponents, the Terps and Buckeyes will equally be looking to get off to a strong start on Friday. As the regular season begins to see its end, with just three Maryland games remaining, each game is paramount heading into the first round of the Big Ten Tournament on April 29.
