March 14, 2005

College Park, Md. - No. 4 Terps Battle No. 18 Bucknell in Coach Cottle's 300th Game as a College Coach
• The No. 4 Maryland men's lacrosse team will look to give Coach Dave Cottle a victory in his 300th game as a college head coach when it takes on No. 18 Bucknell at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium in Lewisburg, Pa. on Tuesday afternoon. Face-off is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.

• The third-winningest coach in lacrosse, Cottle, now in his fourth year with Maryland, boasts a career record of 217-82 (.726). He is in his fourth season at the helm of the Terrapin program and has led the Terps to a 36-12 (.750) record.

• Maryland enters the game 2-1 on the season after pounding No. 5 Georgetown, 13-6, in the season opener, losing to No. 12 Duke, 10-8, in week 2, and shutting down No. 9 Towson on the road, 9-5, last Saturday.

• The Bison are 2-1 on the season, but are coming off the biggest win in the program's 38-year history. Last Saturday, Bucknell handed No. 2 Navy a 8-7 loss in overtime at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. Patrick Christensen's extra-man goal 51 seconds into overtime gave the Bison the victory over the Midshipmen, who advanced to the NCAA Finals in 2004.

The Series With Bucknell
• The Terps have won all six games against Bucknell, outscoring the Bison 80-34 in the meetings. Maryland has outscored the Bison by an average of 13-6.

• Last season's game saw the Terps dominate at both ends of the field, ending with a 14-7 victory in College Park on March 17. Offensively, Joe Walters picked up where he left off from 2003 vs. the Bison, scoring a career-high seven points on three goals and a career-best four assists. Brendan Healy scored the first hat trick of his career, while Thomas Alford picked up his first career point with an assist. On the defensive side of the ball the Terps allowed only 25 shots, won the groundball battle 42-28 and caused 17 turnovers. Maryland also controlled the face-off circle taking 14 of 24 draws, with David Tamberrino winning six-of-11.

• The 2003 game was a high-scoring affair -- after may pegged it for a low-scoring defensive game -- as the Terps beat the Bison, 14-8 in College Park on March 11, 2003. Joe Walters led the way with four goals and set his career-high with six points. Ryan Moran had four goals and Mike Mollot had four assists in a game that was 6-6 at the end of the first quarter. Bill McGlone scored the go-ahead goal to make it 7-6 in the second quarter.

• Against teams from the current Patriot League, Maryland has an overall record of 81-49-1 with wins coming against Army and Bucknell last season. The series records are: Army (20-19), Bucknell (6-0), Hobart (3-0), Lafayette (1-0), Lehigh (3-1) and Navy (48-29-1). The Terps have never played Colgate.

Individual Terps vs. Bucknell
• Eight different Terps have scored against Bucknell over the past three years. Joe Walters leads the way with seven goals and six assists for 13 points -- including seven points on three goals and four assists in last year's contest.

• In goal Harry Alford saw his most significant time as a freshman in last year's game vs. the Bison, playing just over 10 minutes and making four saves.

• Coach Dave Cottle has a 4-0 record against the Bison, recording his second-career coaching win over Bucknell with a 15-8 victory early in the 1983 season while at Loyola. He is 3-0 at Maryland with the 16-6 win in 2002, 14-8 win in 2003, and 14-7 win last year.

Coaching Match-up
• Tuesday's game pits two of the top eight active winningest coaches in Dave Cottle (217-82) and Bucknell's Sid Jamieson (235-227). Jamieson, now in his 38th year as head coach of the Bison is fourth among active coaches in wins, while Cottle is eighth. Cottle's win percentage of 72.6 ranks third all-time. He is also 36-12 as head coach of the Terps. Cottle is 4-0 against Jamieson in their coaching match-ups.

Bucknell-Maryland Connections
• Even though Bucknell and Maryland are not geographic rivals, there are a few connections between the two schools:

• Former Boy's Latin teammates Scott Slosson and Evan Burns will meet for the first time on the college level.

• Bison freshman Austin Sanders played for Coach Rob Bordley, father of former Terp J.R. Bordley at Landon High School, which is also the alma mater of Maryland's Brendan and Ian Healy.

• David Tamberrino will meet up with fellow Loyola Blakefield alum Patrick Keeney, a Bucknell freshman.

• Freshman Joe Cinosky will square off with fellow Mountain Lakes grads, Mark and Nick Lane.

Harry Saves The Day
• In his first career start sophomore goalie Harry Alford stopped an amazing 25 Georgetown shots to help lead the Terps to a 13-6 victory over the No. 5 Hoyas.

• The 25 saves were the most by a Maryland goalie since the 1997 season when Sean Keenan made 26 saves in a 12-4 win over Rutgers.

• Alford's 25-save performance is the highest total in season opener dating back to the 1997 season. The previous best for saves in a season opener since 1997 was 17 by Danny McCormick vs. Duke in 2003.

• For his efforts vs. the Hoyas, Alford collected Inside Lacrosse's National Player of the Week honors, as well being named the ACC player of the week.

Defense Proves To Be Strong
• Heading into the 2005 season the big question mark surrounding the Terps was their defense. The entire starting close defense from 2004, consisting National Defensive Player of the Year Lee Zink and All-Americans Chris Passavia and Dave Wagner, Team MVP short-stick D-middie Paul Gillette, and All-America goalie Tim McGinnis were lost to graduation. Taking that group's place figured to be no easy task, but it's proving to be easier than previously imagined. Take a look at how this year's defense stacks up:

• Last year through three games, Maryland limited its opponents (the same three as 2005: Georgetown, Duke and Towson) to an 7.67 GAA. This year through three games the Terps are holding the opposition to an 7.00 GAA.

• Similar to last season, Maryland has held opponents scoreless for long stretches of game time. Through three games in 2004, the Terps kept opponents scoreless for stretches of 20 or more minutes twice. This year Maryland has also done it twice and was just seconds away from keeping the high-powered Duke offense off the board for more than 20 minutes.

• Against Georgetown, the Hoyas scored to take a 1-0 lead at the 10:02 mark of the first quarter. Maryland's defense, lead by sophomore goalie Harry Alford, who totaled 25 saves in the 13-6 victory, didn't allow the fifth-ranked Hoyas another goal until 4:34 in the second quarter, a total time of 20:26. Maryland kept Georgetown off the board for a 15-minute stretch following that goal, while the offense built an 11-2 lead. The Hoyas didn't register their third goal of the game until 4:32 in the third quarter, a span of 15:02.

• Maryland pitched a shutout for the first 19:34 of the Duke game, coming just 26 seconds short of the 20-minute mark.

• Against Towson, the Terps held the Tigers to five goals (they had been averaging 10.6 in their first three games) and held their starting attack to just one goal and one assist on a remarkable four shots. The Maryland defense turned up the intensity when Towson took a 3-2 lead at 12:48 of the second quarter. The Terrapin defense held the Tigers scoreless for the next 27:38, while the offense built a 6-3 lead. Towson pulled to within one goal, 6-5, at 11:55 of the fourth, but Maryland only allowed the Tigers two shots over the final 11:55 and finished with a 9-5 win over the ninth-ranked team in the country.

• Sophomore Steve Whittenberg, a transfer from Air Force, has been the model of consistency for the Terps. A starter in all three games, Whittenberg has picked up four, five and four groundballs, respectively. He has also caused three turnovers this season.

• Short-stick defensive midfielders Travis Holmes and Ryan Lang have been stellar early on this season. They have sliced and diced their opponents, combining to force eight turnovers in three games while scooping up 12 groundballs as well.

• In goal, Harry Alford has been stellar, stopping all manner of shots. He's played all 180 minutes for the Terps, making 45 saves with a save percentage of 68.2 (the NCAA leader in 2004 was 68.7), and a 7.00 GAA. Alford also leads the team with 17 groundballs.

Streaking Terps
• Joe Walters and Bill McGlone each entered the season with 16 game point and goal scoring streaks. Those streaks are now up to 19 for both Terps after the first two games this season.

• McGlone didn't waste any time finding the Hoya net, scoring the first of his three goals on the day at 2:16 in the first quarter to tie the score at 1-1. Walters assisted on the goal to extend his point scoring streak. In the Duke game McGlone again netted the first goal of the game to give the Terps a 1-0 lead. He would then pick up his first assist of the season on Michael Phipps' goal to up the lead to 2-0. McGlone would once again score the first Terp goal, for the third straight game, in the 9-5 win at No. 9 Towson. He would add two more for his fourth career hat trick.

• Walters' kept his goal scoring streak alive at 9:45 in the second quarter with an unassisted goal to give Maryland a 2-1 lead, a lead they would never surrender on the way to a 13-6 victory. Against Duke, Walters took a more aggressive approach and picked up his 19th career hat trick, including two man-up goals. A frustrating shooting day at Towson couldn't keep Walters out of the net. The national player of the year candidate scored twice and assisted on another goal for a three point afternoon.

• Through three games this season six Maryland players have scored at least a point in every game. Joining McGlone and Walters in scoring a goal in every game in 2005 are Phipps and Andrew Schwartzman. Brendan Healy and Xander Ritz have scored a point in each of the three games, scoring goals in two of the games and picking up an assist in the other.

Terps' 80th Season of Lacrosse
• The Terps boast an all-time record of 652-209-4, dating back to the first varsity team in 1924 (a team was not fielded in 1944 and 1945 due to World War II). Maryland has finished every one of its previous 79 seasons with a .500 or better record, including last season when the Terps went 13-3. The program reached the 650 wins milestone with a 16-12 win over Army in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Byrd Stadium.

• Since 2000, Maryland is 60-20 for a .747 win percentage. In the decade of the 1990s, Maryland recorded its most wins in any decade with a 95-47 record. The .669 winning percentage matched Maryland's win percentage of the 1980s when the Terps went 83-41 and also compiled a .669 win percentage.

McGlone and Walters Up For Tewaaraton Award
• Juniors Bill McGlone and Joe Walters were recently named to the 2005 Tewaaraton Trophy watch list. This preseason list highlights the players to watch, as all NCAA Division I, II and III players vie for the most coveted and prestigious award in varsity lacrosse, the Tewaaraton Trophy.

• Walters, a semifinalist for the award as a sophomore, scored 46 goals and tallied 22 assists for 68 points in 2004 and was a USILA first team All-American and the ACC Player of the Year.

• McGlone, one of the top midfielders in the country, was second on the team in goals and points in 2004 with 25 and 36, respectively.

• The Tewaaraton Trophy is awarded each year to the top male and female varsity lacrosse player, as chosen by the selection committee. The fifth annual award will be given at a banquet on Thursday, June 2. Ten finalists (five male, five female) will be invited to the banquet for the announcement. The event will take place in Washington D.C. at the National Geographic Society headquarters.

2005 Captains: I. Healy, Hereth, McGlone, Webb
• Four players have been named team captains for the 2005 season. The quartet, which was voted on by the team during the fall season, consists of seniors Ian Healy, Tyler Hereth and Gavin Webb, along with junior Bill McGlone.