Feb. 24, 2006

College Park, Md. - The third-ranked Maryland men's lacrosse team opens its 2006 regular season at local rival No. 7 Georgetown. The game marks Maryland's second appearance at Georgetown, with the first being a 14-5 Terrapin win behind hat tricks from Xander Ritz and Joe Walters.

• Maryland is coming off of a tremendous 2005 season that saw the Terps capture their second straight ACC Tournament title and finish with an appearance in the NCAA Final Four. The Terrapins return nine of 10 starters, plus their top two long poles, top four short-stick d-middies and top three face-off men.

• The Hoyas return eight of 10 starters from a 2005 squad that advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals. The biggest loss for Georgetown will be 2005 NCAA Schmeisser Memorial Cup winner Brodie Merrill, but Coach Dave Urick returns the rest of his defense that held Hoya opponents to less than nine goals per game in '05.

• The Maryland-Georgeotwn game can be seen and heard live on www.guhoyas.com, with Chuck Timanus calling the action.

Top 5 Terp Tidbits
• Maryland leads the all-time series with Georgetown 5-0. The two schools, located less than 15 mile apart, played for the first time in 1997.

• The Terps have won 12 straight season openers, including the last two over the Hoyas.

• Of the Terps' 170 goals in 2005, 108 (63.5%) came from this senior class, including 38 by Joe Walters.

• In four career games vs. Georgetown, Walters has scored 13 goals and added five assists.

• 10 of the 12 players who scored goals vs. Georgetown last season are back for the Terps in 2006.

Maryland In Season Openers
• Maryland has a 76-3-1 (.956) lifetime record in season openers dating back to the 1924 season. The Terps have won their last 12 openers and 20 of the last 21, with the only loss coming to Duke in 1993, when it fell to Duke 9-5 on March 6.

• After losing their 1925 opener to Yale, 5-3, the Terps went on to win 40 consecutive season openers from 1926 through 1967. The streak was broken when Maryland tied Princeton, 6-6, in the 1968 opener. Following the deadlock, Maryland went on to win its next 14 openers, giving the Terps a 54-0-1 record over a 57-year span (Maryland did not field a team in 1944 and 1945 due to World War II.)

12 Straight In Season Openers
• The Terps enter the 2006 season riding a 12-game winning streak in season openers. Five of those wins came against Villanova (1994-98) and the last six over Denver, Mount St. Mary's, Air Force, Hobart, Duke and Georgetown (twice). Over the 12-year stretch, Maryland outscored its foes 172-62 (an average score of 14.3-5.2) in those games.

• The Terps have not allowed more than seven goals to any opponent in a season opener over the last 12 years. Maryland has not allowed an opponent to score 10 or more goals in a season opener since Syracuse beat the Terps, 16-13 on March 9, 1983.

Coaching Match-Up
• Now in his 24th season as a head coach, Cottle comes into the game with a 226-87 career record for a 72.2 win percentage, third-highest among active coaches. His win total is sixth among active coaches. He is 45-17 (72.6) in his four seasons at Maryland.

• Georgetown's Dave Urick is in his 27th season as a head coach and is tied with Penn State's Glen Thiel for first place among all active Division I head coaches in career victories with 282. Urick holds an all-time record of 282-94 (.750), which ties him withThiel and former Maryland head coach Dick Edell for fourth on the all-time wins list. Urick is now in his 17th season at Georgetown and has 160-64 (.714) mark.

• Cottle has a 15-0 lifetime record against Georgetown, with a 10 victories coming while he was at Loyola from 1983-2001. Urick is 0-5 all-time vs. Maryland with NCAA losses in 1997 and 2005 and regular-season defeats in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Series History vs. Georgetown
• This will mark just the sixth-ever meeting between the local schools with the Terps holding the 5-0 advantage. This is also only the second meeting between the two schools at Georgetown, with the first coming in a 14-5 Maryland victory to open the 2004 season.

• The series' intensity was turned up a notch last year in the NCAA Quarterfinals at Princeton Stadium. The Terps looked to have iced the game with 1:33 left in the fourth quarter, when Bill McGlone scored to give Maryland a 9-7 lead, but the goal was disallowed when McGlone's stick was challenged and ruled to have an illegal pocket. The Hoyas tied the game and sent it into overtime, where the Terrapin man-down unit killed the remainder of the three-minute penalty. Senior Andrew Schwartzman sent the Terps to the Final Four by scoring the game-winner with just more than three minutes elapsed in the extra period. Joe Walters scored four goals in the game, while Max Ritz scored a pair of goals and added an assist.

• In last year's season opener Maryland used an 8-0 run spanning the second and third quarters to pull away from Georgetown en route to a 13-6 victory in each team's season opener on February 26. Eleven (11) different Terps scored on the afternoon with Bill McGlone leading the way with three goals. Joe Walters was limited to just a single goal, but added four assists for a five-point game. But the unquestioned star of the game was Maryland goalie Harry Alford. Making his first college start, Alford made 25 saves and scooped up eight groundballs and was named Inside Lacrosse National Player of the Week and ACC Player of the Week.

• In the 2004 opener Xander Ritz and Joe Walters each netted three goals, with Ritz adding four assists for a seven-point game to propelled the Terrapins to a decisive 14-5 victory in the regular season home opener on February 28, 2004. Bill McGlone and Justin Smith each scored two goals, while goalie Tim McGinnis stopped 13 Hoya shots.

• In the 2003 game Brian Hunt, Ryan Moran and Mike Mollot each netted two goals, plus Lee Zink's first-career goal and a strong defense gave the Terps a 9-5 victory in the regular season home finale on April 28, 2003.

• In the first game between the schools, Maryland defeated Georgetown, 14-10, in the first round of the 1997 NCAA Tournament at Towson. The Terps jumped out to a 6-0 lead after the first quarter and never looked back as they began their run to the second of three trips to the NCAA championship game in a four-year span. The game marked Georgetown's first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.

• All-American Scott Hochstadt, the school's 17th all-time leading scorer, led the way for Maryland as he posted five goals. Andrew Whipple added three for Maryland as the Terps outshot the Hoyas, 42-25.

Individual Terps vs. Georgetown
• Senior Joe Walters leads all current Terps in scoring against the Hoyas with 14 points on nine goals and five assists in four career games. Last season, Walters scored four goals in the NCAA Quarterfinals and he tied his career high with four assists in the season opener.

• Overall, nine current Terps have points vs. Georgetown. Bill McGlone has posted two of his five career hat tricks vs. the Hoyas.

• Jimmy Borell, Will Dalton, and Max Ritz all posted their first career goals in the win over Georgetown last season.

Opponent Connections
• The Terps and Hoyas have several former high school teammates suiting up for Saturday's match-up.

• Sophomore Max Ritz, Chris Early and Scott Kahoe will face each other again after playing together at Radnor High School. Xander Ritz is also a Radnor alumnus.

• Juniors Ryan Clarke and Christian Trunz will meet after finishing their careers at Chaminade in 2003. Hoya midfielders Dan D'Agnes and Brian Hehir are also Chaminade graduates.

• Senior Brendan Healy will face three Landon alums in Phil Mufarrij, Stodie Nibley and Jake Samperton.

• Freshman Chris Rhine will meet fellow Upper Arlington alumni Clayton Hall and John Trapp.

• Junior David Tamberrino and Georgetown's Andrew Baird and Chase Gahan were teammates at Loyola Blakefield.

• Junior Travis Holmes and Brennan Kelly played together at McDonogh.

Terps' 81st Season of Lacrosse
• The Terps boast an all-time record of 661-214-4, 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 80 seasons with a .500 or better record, including last season when the Terps went 11-6. The program reached the 650-win milestone with a 16-12 win over Army in the first round of the 2004 NCAA tournament at Byrd Stadium.

• Since 2000, Maryland is 69-25 for a .726 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.

Terps Second In Strength Of Schedule
• According to Face-Off Magazine, Maryland's 2006 schedule is ranked as the second toughest in the NCAA behind only North Carolina.

• The Terps are scheduled to play eight teams ranked in the preseason Inside Lacrosse media poll and two other opponents that received votes.

Streaking Terps
• Two Terps enter the 2006 season game with point-scoring streaks.

• Joe Walters' point scoring streak is now at 33, while Xander Ritz has a point scoring streak of 17 games.

• The last time Walters did not score a point in a game was May 24, 2003 in the NCAA Semifinals vs. eventual National Champion Virginia.