No. 7 Maryland men’s lacrosse (4-1) returns home to begin a homestand against Brown (0-4) this Saturday. The matchup will be the Terps’ first against an unranked opponent, as Maryland started the season with four straight ranked games.
The Terps fell in the rankings following a 14-9 loss to No. 4 Notre Dame that saw the Maryland specialists struggle. Goalkeeper Logan McNaney allowed 14 goals with nine saves, both season worsts. Faceoff star Luke Wierman lost more than half of his faceoffs for the first time this year.
“I don’t think there’s a guy on our team that played well. That means that I didn’t put them in a position to do well,” coach John Tillman said. “We weren’t good anywhere, we were sloppy, we didn’t have the juice that we probably needed to have.”
The Irish’s defense forced 11 turnovers and limited the Terps’ offense all afternoon. Senior attacker Eric Malever led with a team-leading three goals and one assist, but the offense was still lackluster, going on a 20-minute scoring drought at one point.
Maryland’s undisciplined play was also a difference maker, with four penalties to Notre Dame’s zero. Multiple instances of Terps defenders committing late hits allowed extra-man opportunities.
Maryland’s matchup this week appears easier in its return to College Park. Brown is off to a less-than-ideal 0-4 start, including an 11-5 loss to No. 10 Georgetown last weekend.
“We gotta focus on Brown and can’t feel sorry for ourselves,” Tillman said, “[Brown] did a very good job against Georgetown just changing up defenses. They mixed in zone, they mixed in man but the way they played the man, they varied it a lot. They kept Georgetown off balance and Georgetown only scored 11 goals and I think that’s a pretty good offense.”
The two programs last met in the 2016 Final Four, with Maryland winning 15-14 in overtime. To say Maryland has dominated Brown would be an understatement — the Terps are 16-0 all-time, although the last time the two met in the regular season was in 1995.
In their loss last week, the Bears scored five goals on 30 shots, dropping their season shooting percentage to .212 — second-worst in Division I. They’re scoring just 12.5 points per game, ranking bottom 10 in Division I.
Brown’s offense gets a majority of its goals from junior Aidan McLane. McLane led the team in goals last season and is so far repeating that feat with 10 goals in 2024, including his six scores against Boston in February.
Faceoff duties have been split between junior Dash Sachs and senior Teagan Bultman. Sachs took the majority last week, winning 10 of 18. Sach’s overall winning percentage sits below .500, going 29 of 66. Bultman has won 20 of 34 faceoffs, a .588 win percentage.
In the cage is senior Connor Theriault, who is allowing 12.25 goals per game. His save percentage sits at exactly .500 with 49 saves and 49 goals allowed. Theriault had a season-high 18 saves two weeks ago against Providence.
The Terps hope to get back in the win column against the Bears, with an ideal matchup to do so. Opening faceoff from SECU Stadium is set for noon.
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