Rebirthing a former ACC conference rivalry, the No. 7 Maryland Terrapins traveled to Hempstead, New York, on Saturday for a matchup against the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA tournament.
Searching for their 29th appearance in the Final Four, Maryland entered the game coming off of its best offensive performance of the season in what was a 16-8 victory over Ivy League champion Princeton last Saturday. Duke defeated Utah for its first round game, 19-7.
And despite being led by the winningest lacrosse coach in Division I, the John Danowski-led Blue Devils fell short to Maryland 14-11, sending the Terps to the semifinal round on Memorial Day weekend.
“We’ve had a lot of guys just really work their butts off and give us a chance,” Maryland head coach John Tillman said during his post-game presser. “Sometimes it takes a little luck. Sometimes luck can work against you. Sometimes you don’t get that call or that bounce but you just gotta keep moving on.”
Duke got the ball rolling early with five goals in the first quarter” four more than Maryland. A point-leader for the Blue Devils last game, attackman Dyson Williams tied with Brennan O’Neill with two goals a piece. Faceoff specialist Luke Wierman scored the only goal for the Terps in the opening period which marked his third goal of the season.
“You know, Dyson Williams does such a good job of setting picks for O’Neill, and so if you don’t do a good job on that pick he’s gonna get leverage,” Tillman said. “If you overplay it, he’ll slip it and he’ll throw it to him.”
Despite the last two goals of the first quarter coming from Duke, the momentum seemed to be on Maryland’s side coming out of the break with two straight Terp goals from Ryan Sircacusa and Daniel Maltz. A left-handed shot brought Wierman to two goals, but Siracusa tacked on one more to tie as Maryland’s point-leader in the first half before time expired.
With goals still coming from Dyson Williams (two) and sophomore midfielder Max Sloat, the result was a 8-5 lead for Duke at halftime. Wierman entered the half winning nine of his 15 faceoffs for Maryland, but 11 team turnovers (eight more than Duke) ultimately contributed to Maryland’s deficit.
The third quarter only produced three goals, two of which belonged to Maryland. Duke’s Williams scored his 60th goal of the season, a feat that he accomplished last season.
Entering the fourth quarter down by two, Maryland’s Ryan Siracusa made it a one-point game just a minute into play, sneaking his 19th goal of the season past Duke goalie Patrick Jameison. Two minutes later, a third-straight Maryland goal delivered by Jack Koras tied the game, and a minute after that” season point-leader Braden Erksa gave Maryland its first lead of the game at 7:50.
What followed suit was a mostly one-sided shoot-out. Brennan O’Neill tied the game at 11-11, but at exactly the five-minute mark, Erksa put Maryland back on top with 12. Two more from Maltz and Koras left Duke down by three when time expired.
“The season is a journey week to week, and their environments change,” Tillman said. “We’re in the middle of exams, so we have to be sensitive to the kids’ time and make sure that we get them in and out.”
“They have a lot of work to do, but we still gotta get our prep in, so we really try to make sure that we don’t keep them here.”
