No. 4 Terps Look For Sixth Straight vs. UMBC in Coach Cottle's 50th Game as Terp Head Coach
• The No. 4 Maryland men's lacrosse team will look for its sixth straight victory over UMBC in Coach Dave Cottle's 50th game as head coach of the Terps when Maryland faces the Retrievers at Byrd Stadium on Saturday. Face-off is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.

• The third-winningest coach in lacrosse, Cottle, now in his fourth year with Maryland, boasts a career record of 218-82 (.727). He is in his fourth season at the helm of the Terrapin program and has led the Terps to a 37-12 (.755) record.

• This is the second milestone in as many games for Cottle, who coached his 300th game as a college head coach in the Terps' 14-10 win at No. 18 Bucknell this past Tuesday in Lewisburg, Pa.

• The Retrievers are 1-3 on the season with all three losses coming by a combined six goals. UMBC dropped a 12-10 decision at Duke in its season opener. The Retrievers then lost a 10-9 heartbreaker in double-overtime to Ohio State in their home opener. They then followed up a 9-6 loss at No. 1 Johns Hopkins with their first victory of the season, a 13-6 home win over Canisius. Junior Brendan Mundorff leads UMBC in goals (14), assists (8) and points (22).

Maryland-UMBC Series History
• Maryland holds a 21-4 lifetime advantage in 25 meetings with state rival UMBC. Maryland has won the last five games, 9-4 last season at UMBC, 15-8 in the last game in College Park on March 20, 2004, 19-9 in 2002; 14-4 in the 2001 home finale at Ludwig Field and four seasons ago, 15-7 in Catonsville on May 6, 2000. Those wins ended a two-year run of detrimental Terp losses to the Retrievers in 1998 and 1999.

• UMBC upset the then-No. 1 Terps in the regular-season finale in 1998, 12-8 at UMBC. They repeated the upset in the 1999 finale, winning 7-6 in College Park in the last game between the teams at Byrd Stadium. Prior to that pair of losses, Maryland had won six meetings in a row from 1992-1997.

• Over the last five wins, Maryland has outscored UMBC 72-32, for an average score of 14-6.

• Last season Joe Walters lead the Terps to a hard-fought 9-4 win with a natural hat trick in the second quarter. The Maryland defense was sensational, holding UMBC scoreless for 29:12 bridging the second through the fourth quarters. Terp goalie Tim McGinnis made 13 saves, including eight in the fourth quarter to preserve the victory.

• In the 2003 game in College Park, Mike Mollot and Joe Walters each had three goals while former Retriever Justin Smith had two goals and two assists in his first game vs. his former team.

• This will be just the second time the two teams will play in the month of March. The 2003 game on April 25 was the first time since 1977, that Maryland-UMBC game was not be played in May. The UMBC game had been the last contest on Maryland's regular-season schedule for the 13 years, dating 1990 through 2002, with Maryland winning 10 of 13 finales.

Individual Terps Vs. UMBC
• Only six Terps have posted points against UMBC over their careers. Joe Walters leads the way with eight points on three goals and one assist in each of his two games vs. the Retrievers.

• Andrew Schwartzman has a three-game goal scoring streak vs. UMBC, having scored once in each of his three games vs. UMBC. Dave Matz had an assist in the 2002 game.

• In last year's game Brendan Healy scored a goal and added an assist. Bill McGlone score a goal, while Xander Ritz assisted on two goals.

Gorski Faces Old Team
• Maryland volunteer assistant coach Steve Gorski, who works primarily with the goalies, lettered at UMBC from 1993-96 playing goalie and defense. He made 35 appearances with the Retrievers, starting 14 games in goal and stands 10th all-time in career saves with 224.

Coaching Match-Up
• Head coach Dave Cottle has recorded a 15-2 career record against UMBC, 12-2 while he served as the head coach at Loyola. Prior to his 3-0 run at Maryland vs. UMBC, he last faced UMBC as he led his Loyola team to a 19-8 victory in 1996. Cottle has won every game against UMBC since 1988 including the last five against current UMBC coach Don Zimmerman.

• Saturday's game pits two of the top seven active winningest coaches in Dave Cottle (218-82) and Don Zimmerman (147-90). Cottle's win percentage of 72.7 ranks third all-time among current coaches. He is also 37-12 as head coach of the Terps. Zimmerman's win percentage of 62.0 is eighth among active coaches.

UMBC-Maryland Connections
• Separated by less than 30 miles, it's no coincidence that there are 14 former high school teammates that will be reuinited on the field today.

• Calvert Hall and St. Mary's high schools will be represented by a combined 10 former student-athletes (two Terps and three Retrievers from each). Maryland's Joe Amoyal and Jeff Reynolds will face fellow Calvert Hall alums Ryan Browning, Chris Dunlap and Brandon Hastings. Jason Carter and Will Dalton will be reunited with fellow 2004 St. Mary's grad, UMBC freshman Conor Devlin. David Donahue and James Hyland are also former St. Mary's grads.

• Defensive middie Ryan Lang could find himself trying to score his second career goal on former Northport teammate Kevin Cepelak, who is UMBC's starting goalie.

• Another pair of former teammates from the Empire State facing each other will be Michael Hartofilis and Justin Haworth, who played together at St. Anthony's.

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:

• 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 four games, Whittenberg has picked up four, five, four and six groundballs, respectively. He has also caused five 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 10 turnovers in four games while scooping up 19 groundballs as well. The duo showed their offensive side in the Terps' 14-10 win at No. 18 Bucknell when Lang assisted Holmes' goal at the 1:14 mark of the third quarter. That goal sparked a 6-0 Maryland run that sealed the game for the Terrapins.

• In goal, Harry Alford has been stellar, stopping all manner of shots. He's played allbut three minutes for the Terps, making 55 saves with a save percentage of 65.5 (the NCAA leader in 2004 was 68.7), and a 7.34 GAA.

Streaking Terps
• Three Terps have scored goals in all four games this season, while another two have scored at least one point in every game so far. • Joe Walters and Bill McGlone each entered the season with 16 game point and goal scoring streaks. Those streaks are now up to 20 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. At Bucknell, McGlone didn't scored Maryland's first goal of the game, but the third to give the Terps a 3-1 lead at that point. He added another goal (man-up) in fourth quarter and assisted on two goals for his first four-point game of the season.

• 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. It was another three-point effort for Walters in the 14-10 win at No. 18 Bucknell to extend his goal and point scoring streaks. Walters picked up an assist on a Dave Matz goal midway through the second quarter, but didn't score a goal until 3:41 in the third to give Maryland a 7-4 lead. He would go on to score his second of the game in the fourth as part of a 6-0 Terps' run to put the game away.

• The only other Terp besides McGlone and Walters to score a goal in every game in 2005 is Phipps. The sophomore attackman posted a goal and an assist in the season opener vs. No. 5 Georgetown. A week later he scored twice and added an assist for his first three-point game of 2004. Phipps' only scored one goal in the Towson victory, but set career bests for assists (3) and points (4). At Bucknell, Phipps again posted a three-point effort on two goals and an assist.

• Brendan Healy and Xander Ritz have scored a least a point in each of the four games Brendan Healy scored a goal and added an assist vs. both Georgetown and Duke. He picked up an assist in the Towson victory before having a breakout game at Bucknell. Against the Bison, Brendan Healy scored three goals for his third career hat trick. Xander Ritz scored a goal in the Georgetown win and had an assist vs. Duke. He had his best game of the season in the Towson victory with two goals and two assists for his first four-point game of 2005. At Bucknell he assisted McGlone's first quarter goal to extend his point scoring streak to four.

Terps' 80th Season of Lacrosse
• The Terps boast an all-time record of 653-209-4, 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 61-20 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.