Feb. 23, 2007

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The fifth-ranked Maryland men's lacrosse team hosts the fourth-ranked Georgetown Hoyas in one of the most anticipated games of the 2007 season. The Terps and the Hoyas are slated for a 3:00 p.m. face-off at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex.

• The Terps (2-0) are coming off of a 16-7 victory over Vermont on Tuesday that was highlighted by Michael Phipps' eight-point performace.

• The contest will be Georgetown's season opener. The Hoyas were 12-3 in 2006 (6-1 in the ECAC) and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals.

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Ticket Information
The Maryland-Georgetown men's lacrosse game on Saturday, Feb. 24 has been moved to the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex with a 3:00 p.m. start time.

The game will follow the Maryland women's lacrosse team's 2007 home opener vs. Boston College, which is scheduled to start at noon.

The game between the fifth-ranked Terps and the fourth-ranked Hoyas is not considered a double-header with the women's game. The facility will be cleared following the women's game, and all fans must purchase separate tickets for the Maryland-Georgetown game.

Fans need to be aware that due to the size limitations of the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex tickets will be available on a first-come first-serve basis.

Tickets are available for pre-purchase on-line at www.umterps.com until 5 p.m. on Friday, February 23.

Tickets can also be purchased in advance by calling the Maryland ticket office at 1-800-IM-A-TERP (1-800-462-8377) or in person at the Comcast Center ticket office.

Tickets for Maryland-Georgetown will also be available for purchase at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex on Saturday beginning at 11 a.m.

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Media Coverage
• The game can be heard on the Terrapin Sports Radio Network. Every home game, plus the Navy contest, will be broadcast on TSRN. Stations carrying Maryland men's lacrosse this season are: WJFK AM 1300 - Baltimore, WTBO AM 1450 - Cumberland, WARK AM 1490- Hagerstown, WQMR 101.1FM - Ocean City. Calling the action will be a pair of Maryland alums: Steve Stofberg (`94) and former Terp All-American midfielder Brian Reese ('98).

• The ACC Select webcast for the game has been cancelled.

Coaching Match-up
• Now in his 25th season as a head coach, Dave Cottle comes into the game with a 239-92 career record for a 72.3 win percentage, second-highest among active coaches. His win total is sixth among active coaches. He is 59-22 (72.8) in his six seasons at Maryland.

• Georgetown's Dave Urick is in his 28th season as a head coach and is 10th among active Division I head coaches with 172 coaching victories. Urick holds an all-time record of 294-97 (.752). Urick is now in his 18th season at Georgetown and has 172-67 (.720) mark.

• Cottle has a 16-0 lifetime record against Georgetown, with 10 victories coming while he was at Loyola from 1983-2001. Urick is 0-6 all-time vs. Maryland with NCAA losses in 1997 and 2005 and regular-season defeats in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Series History Vs. Georgetown
• This will mark just the seventh-ever meeting between the local schools with the Terps holding the 6-0 advantage.

• Last year saw the Terps head to the Georgetown campus for just the second time in the series history and come away with a convincing 10-4 victory. Max Ritz had a career-day for Maryland, racking up career-bests with five points and four goals. Older brother Xander also had an amazing afternoon, scoring four goals including the game winner.

• The series' intensity was turned up a notch in the 2005 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
• Only four current Terps have tallied points vs. the Hoyas.

• Leading the way for Maryland is attackmen Max Ritz and Michael Phipps. Ritz has eight points on six goals and two assists vs. G'Town, while Phipps has one goal and four assists to his credit.

• Jimmy Borell, Will Dalton, and Ritz all posted their first career goals in the win over Georgetown in 2005.

Opponent Connections
• The Terps and Hoyas have 32 (12 Md., 20 G'town) 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.

• Seniors Ryan Clarke and Christian Trunz will meet after finishing their careers at Chaminade in 2003. Hoya midfielder Dan D'Agnes is also a Chaminade graduate.

• Sophomores Mike Griswold and Rob Morrison will face four former Landon teammates in Scott Smith, Phil Mufarrij, Stodie Nibley and Jake Samperton.

• Freshman Chris Rhine will meet fellow Upper Arlington alumni Clayton Hall and Eric Reinhardt.

• Terps Anthony Costanzo and Patrick Hutchinson were teammates with Georgetown's Andrew Baird and Chase Gahan at Loyola Blakefield.

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

• Senior Sean Sullivan will meet fellow Duxbury High grad Chris Nixon.

• Georgetown Prep will have five alums between the two squads in Maryland's Fran Gormley and Georgetown's Andrew Brancaccio, Neill Bassi, Trevor Casey and Nick Veith.

• Juniors Drew Evans and Craig Stevenson are former teammates at Ithaca High School in Ithaca, N.Y.

• The Gilman School will be represented by Maryland's Scott Tompkins and the Hoyas' Barney Ehrmann.

Home Cooking
• A lot is made in sports about the home-field advantage, and for the Maryland men's lacrosse team that advantage has held true since Coach Cottle arrived in College Park. Since 2002, the Terps are 29-9 (.763) when playing on the Maryland campus. At Byrd Stadium Maryland is 20-7 (.741) under Cottle, while the Terps have gone 8-2 (.800) at the Field Hockey/Lacrosse Complex and 1-0 at Ludwig Field.

Defense Ready To Meet Expectations
• On paper this year's Maryland defense shapes up as one of the nation's best. The unit features two preseason first team All-Americans in seniors Ray Megill and Steve Whittenberg and an honorable mention selection in junior Joe Cinosky. Add to that trio senior long pole Ryan Clarke and senior short-stick middie Jimmy Borell, both two-year starters, and there is no question that the tools are there for defensive coordinator Dave Slafkosky.

• During the last three seasons, Maryland held its' opponents scoreless for long stretches of game time. The 2004 Terps kept opponents scoreless for stretches of 20 or more minutes eight times. In 2005 Maryland did it on seven occasions, and was just seconds away from keeping the high-powered Duke (1st meeting) and Navy offenses off the board for more than 20 minutes. Last season the Terrapin defense did it 10 times in its 17 games. So far the 2007 Terp "D" has two 20+ minute scoring droughts to its credit.

• Versus Bellarmine in the season opener, the Knights took a 2-1 lead with 6:46 to go in the first quarter. Maryland's defense, lead by freshman goalie Brian Phipps, who totaled nine saves in his college debut in the 11-6 victory, didn't allow Bellarmine another goal until 11:47 in the third quarter, a total time of 24:59. Maryland's man-down unit was stellar on the afternoon, allowing only one goal (at 11:46 of the fourth quarter with Maryland holding a 9-5 lead) in six opportunities. The defense even got into the scoring column against the Knights as freshman long pole Brian Farrell scored twice in his college debut.

• The Catamounts of Vermont scored on three of their first four shots and were tied with the Terps at 3-3 after the first period. But the Maryland defense allowed just one goal in the next 36:09 and allowed the offense to go on an 8-1 run. The Terrapins held Vermont without a goal for 26 minutes, spanning the second, third and fourth quarters. Brian Phipps made 14 saves in the win. The defensive effort was even more impressive considering that All-American Ray Megill, Zach Hinton and Jimmy Borell did not play in the game.

Opponent Scoring Droughts
Feb. 17 vs. Bellarmine: 0 goals in 24:59
Feb. 20 vs. Vermont: 0 goals in 26:00

Terp Opponents Below Season Scoring Average
Opponent | Scoring Avg. | vs. Md.
Bellarmine | 8.2 ('06) | 6
Vermont | 9.7 ('06) | 7

Face-Off Phenom
• Junior Will Dalton turned in one of Maryland's all-time great face-off performances in the Terps' 16-7 win over Vermont on Feb. 20. The Queenstown, Md., native won 18-of-22 draws for a .750 winning percentage.

• The only other time in Coach Cottle's tenure at Maryland that a face-off man won 18 draws was by Brian Carroll, who won 18-of-25 (.720) vs. Yale in 2002.

A Family Affair
• Many school's refer to their sports programs as families, but under Coach Cottle the Maryland men's lacrosse program has really become a family affair. Since arriving in College Park in 2002, Cottle has had seven sets of brothers don the red and black together for at least one season.

Harry & Thomas Alford: 2004-05-06-07
Brendan & Ian Healy: 2003-04-05
Bryn & Travis Holmes: 2007
Dan & Mike LaMonica: 2002
Chris & Willy Passavia: 2002-03
Brian & Michael Phipps: 2007
Max & Xander Ritz: 2005-06

Earlier Than Ever
• Maryland's 11-6 win over Bellarmine on February 17 marked the earliest the Terps have opened a season in their 82-year history. The previous earliest start came on February 21, 1998 - an 18-5 win over Villanova.

Terps' 82nd Season Of Lacrosse
• The Terps boast an all-time record of 675-219-4 (.754), 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 81 seasons with a .500 or better record, including last season when the Terps went 12-5. 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 82-29 for a .739 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.

Game No. 900 - March 2 Vs. Duke
• The Maryland men's lacrosse program will reach the 900-game milestone on March 2 when the Terps host No. 7 Duke at Byrd Stadium.

2007 Captains: Borell, Feifs, Holmes, Megill
• Four players have been named team captains for the 2007 season. The quartet, which was voted on by the team during the preseason, consists of seniors Travis Holmes and Ray Megill.