No. 7 Maryland men’s lacrosse to face No. 9 Penn State in conference semifinals

Maryland men’s lacrosse begins its conference tournament run against No. 9 Penn State on Thursday.

Coach John Tillman’s squad (8-4, 3-2 Big Ten) enters the tournament as the No. 2 seed following a 7-5 loss to Johns Hopkins in the regular season finale. The offense disappeared, scoring a season-low five goals and being held scoreless in the final 23 minutes.

“We only scored five goals. That’s not good enough to win Division I games,” Tillman said, “Shooting percentage, turnovers – a lot of silly turnovers in that last game, stickwork, things like that. To me, the good news is a lot of those mistakes are correctable.”

The second seed was enough to secure a bye in the quarterfinals, giving Maryland 12 days between games. Now, the Terps face Penn State – a team they beat in March. Penn State (10-3, 3-2) defeated Rutgers 14-8 in the quarterfinals on Sunday.

“Once that game was played Sunday, we were like ‘alright we’re ready, we know it’s Penn State. Here are the things we want to do,’” Tillman said, “We practiced Sunday, Monday, we’re practicing again [Wednesday], we’ll practice again [Thursday] morning, and then we’ll go.”

In the March matchup, the Nittany Lions jumped to an early four lead after the first quarter. With Maryland’s offense stagnant and Penn State’s offense on fire, it appeared the Terps would take their third straight loss. 

Maryland’s defense held Penn State to three second-half goals while the offense exploded for six fourth-quarter goals. Jack Koras and Daniel Maltz each delivered two late goals to secure the comeback win.

Since the win, the offense is averaging just eight goals per game. They are still earning possessions – winning the faceoff and ground ball battles – but turnovers and missed shots have plagued the Terps.

Scoring goals against Penn State goalkeeper Jack Fracyon makes it tougher. Fracyon enters off an 18-save performance against Rutgers. The reigning Big Ten Specialist of the Year finished with 16 saves on 13 goals allowed against Maryland.

Controlling possessions helped the Terps come back in the first meeting. Faceoff specialist Luke Wierman won 16 of 27 faceoffs — including seven of eight in the final frame. As a team, Maryland scooped nine more ground balls than Penn State. 

Penn State used two faceoff specialists against Wierman, sophomore Chase Mullins and freshman Colby Baldwin. The Lion relied more on Mullins but neither could find success. The two saw a similar split in the win against Rutgers and won a combined 17 of 26.

TJ Malone scored three goals against Maryland all in the first half but scoreless in the second. The senior attacker is coming off a four-goal and three-assist performance. Malone remains the leader on the team in goals and assists.

“Working on the pick game. Both Rutgers and Penn State do a lot with picks so we’re gonna practice that,” Tillman said.

If the Terps can shut down Malone and find offensive success similar to the fourth quarter, they will advance to the Big Ten Championship for the fourth straight season.