Feb. 19, 2009

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The third-ranked Maryland men's lacrosse team opens its 2009 home schedule with local rival No. 8 Georgetown on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 1 p.m. at Ludwig Field. The game will be televised live on ESPNU. Joe Beninati will call the play-by-play with Quint Kessenich handling the analysis. The game will also be broadcast on the web at wmucsports.com.

• Maryland enters the game with a 2-0 mark after winning back-to-back games last weekend in Florida. The Terps easily dispatched Presbyterian, 18-3. Maryland then turned around and defeated Air Force, 15-4, in the feature game of the Wounded Warrior Project's "Face Off for a Cause." Junior Will Yeatman led the Terps with 10 points on three goals and seven assists. Sophomore Grant Catalino was close behind with eight points on three goals and five assists. The Maryland "D" turned in three shutout quarters during the two games.

• The Hoyas are looking to rebound from a 2008 season that saw them finish with a 9-4 record and miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996. Offensively, Georgetown will be led by attackman Craig Dowd (14-23=37) and midfielder Andrew Brancaccio (18-2=20). Jack Davis, who did not play in 2008, is the projected starting goalie. In front of Davis will be All-America long pole Barner Ehrmann.

Tickets and Game Promotions
• Click here for ticket information for all 2008 Maryland men's lacrosse home games.

• Click here for a complete list of game promotions for this season.

Coaching Match-up
• Now in his 27th season as a head coach, Dave Cottle enters today's game with a 260-104 career record for a 71.4 win percentage, sixth-highest among active coaches with at least 100 career wins. His win total is fourth among active coaches. He is 79-34 (69.9) in his eight seasons at Maryland.

• Georgetown's Dave Urick is in his 29th season as a head coach and is eighth among active Division I head coaches with 193 DI coaching victories. Urick holds an all-time record of 315-104 (.753). Urick is now in his 19th season at Georgetown and has 193-74 (.723) mark.

• Cottle has a 17-1 lifetime record against Georgetown, with 10 victories coming while he was at Loyola from 1983-2001. Urick is 1-7 all-time vs. Maryland with NCAA losses in 1997 and 2005 and regular-season defeats in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. He picked up his first win over the Terps with an 8-6 victory in College Park in 2007.

Series History vs. Georgetown
• This will mark just the ninth-ever meeting between the local schools with the Terps holding the 7-1 advantage.

• Last season saw the Terps as the underdog at Georgetown, but Maryland, which started three freshman at attack and one on close defense, came away from the Hoyas' Multi-Sport Field with an 11-6 victory. The three freshman attackmen, Grant Catalino, Ryan Young and Travis Reed combined for eight goals to lead the way for the Terrapins.

• The Hoyas solved their Terrapin puzzle for the first time in 2007 with an 8-6 win over the Terps at the Maryland Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex. Georgetown jumped out to a 6-1 lead at the half, but Maryland came storming back with five unanswered goals to knot the game at 6-6. But that was all the Terps could muster and the Hoyas added a pair of scores in the fourth quarter to eek out their first-ever win over the Terps.

• The 2006 meeting 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 then-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 the 2005 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 who made 25 saves and scooped up eight groundballs.

• 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 18th 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 eight current Terps have tallied points vs. the Hoyas and only Brian Farrell has points in more than one game.

• As freshmen starting their first collegiate game, Grant Catalino, Travis Reed anf Ryan Young led the Terps to an 11-6 victory over the Hoyas. The trio combined for eight goals and one assist.

• Jeremy Sieverts had two goals in the 2008 Maryland win, while Jeff Reynolds scored a goal in his first game back after missing most of the 2007 season with a torn ACL.

Opponent Connections
• The Terps and Hoyas have 33 (16 Md., 17 G'town) former high school teammates suiting up for Saturday's match-up.

• Of course the biggest connection comes not from high school, but from 2008. Sophomore Brett Weiss transferred from Maryland to Georgetown prior to the fall semester. Last season as a Terp, Weiss scored four goals and added four assists. He was also a high school teammate of fellow Hoya David Shriver and they both went to Boys' Latin with Maryland's Brian Farrell and Travis Reed.

• Seniors Mike Griswold and Rob Morrison will face four former Landon teammates in CT Fisher, Phil Mufarrij, Stodie Nibley and Jake Samperton.

• Grant Oliver, Chris Rhine and Max Schmidt will meet fellow Upper Arlington alumni Adam Donahue, Clayton Hall and Eric Reinhardt.

• Bryn Holmes, Jeremy Sieverts and Brennan Kelly played together at McDonogh.

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

• Terp sophomore Ryan Young and Hoya Cullen Molinari are both graduates of Manhasset High School, but were never high school teammates.

• Freshman Craig Sullivan will be opposite former Duxbury teammate Chris Nixon.

• St. Stephens & St. Agnes will have Terp twins Mark and Michael White and Hoya Michael Shotwell.

• River Hill has four former players in the game: Shane Hall and Scott LaRue for the Terps and Ben and Dan Hostetler for Georgetown.

• Finally, there is a connection on the sidelines - no, not on the coaching staff, but in the athletic training room. Shawn Hendi, a two-tour veteran at Maryland, is now the athletic trainer for the Hoyas.

Where's the Beef? Check the "D"
• How big is Maryland's defense this season? Take a look at the starting close defensemen for the Terps in 2009 - the average for the group is 6-foot-4, 230 pounds.

37 • Brian Farrell: 6-5, 240
14 • Mike Griswold: 6-4, 230
19 • Max Schmidt: 6-4, 220

Beef: It's Not Just For Defense Anymore
• Maryland defenders have long been known for their size, but what about the offense. That's where the smaller, quick, athletic types are supposed to be, but don't tell that to the Terps.

• Junior Will Yeatman and sophomore Grant Catalino are huge bookends at attack for the Terps. Yeatman checks in at 6-foot-6, 260 pounds, while Catalino is an inch shorter and 20 pounds lighter.

• The Terps also boast some beef in the midfield. The first line has a trio that averages nearly 6-foot-2, 197 pounds in seniors Dan Groot (6-1, 190), Jeremy Sieverts (6-3, 210) and Jeff Reynolds (6-1, 190).

Offensive Defenders
• Through two games Terrapin defensive players have been surprisingly offensive. So far in 2009, four Maryland defenders (close, long poles and short-stick d-middies) have scored goals or tallied assists. In total, Terrapin defenders have six goals and three assists for nine points. The Terps have totaled 56 points as a team, which means that more than 16 percent of Maryland's offense has come from a defensive player.

• Leading the way, of course, is Brian Farrell. The junior was moved to close defense this season, but that hasn't stopped him from charging up the field to create offense. He leads the defense with two goals and an assists and is actually tied for fifth on the squad in points. The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Baltimore native, has 15 goals and eight assists for 23 career points. Easily the highest-scoring defender in school history, Farrell's 23 points ranks 25th since 2002 at Maryland (the Cottle Era).

• Sophomore long pole Brett Schmidt seems to be taking a page out of Farrell's playbook. He scored a goal in the 2008 finale against Virginia and has picked up right where he left off. This season Schmidt scored a goal in the opener vs. Presbyterian and added an assist vs. Air Force.

• Sophomore short-stick Danny Burns scored two goals vs. Air Force, while his running mate Dean Hart put in a goal vs. Presbyterian.

Defense Ready To Meet Expectations
• On paper this year's Maryland defense may appear to have some holes, but the 2009 Terrapin defense is looking to uphold the Terps' tradition of great defenses. Sure, the unit lost second team All-American Joe Cinosky, as well as 2008 starters Ryne Adolph and Jacob Baxter, but one look at the talent this year's "D" and you'll see it's more than capable. Sophomore Max Schmidt returns for his second season after starting 10 games as a freshman in 2008. Junior Brian Farrell was moved down low, but don't expect him to curtail his offensive ways. Senior Mike Griswold has secured the third spot and has played well. Sophomore Brett Schmidt and junior Dan Halayko are the team's top two long poles. Senior Chris Rhine can play both long pole and short-stick. The Terps' top shorties will be sophomore Dan Burns and junior Dean Hart, along with several offensive middies who are capable of locking down on the defensive side of the field.

• During the last five 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. The 2006 season saw the Terrapin defense do it 10 times in 17 games. In 2007 Terp "D" had 11 20+ minute scoring droughts to its credit in 16 contests. Last season, the Terp defense had six 20+-minute scoring droughts. Already this year, the Terps have put up two 20+-minute scoreless stretches.

• The defense turned in its first shutout quarter of the season in the first quarter of the 18-3 win over Presbyterian. The Terps held the Blue Hose scoreless in the first quarter, allowing the offense to jump out to a 7-0 lead. Overall, Presbyterian was held off the board for the first 25:14 of the game. Maryland also shutout the Blue Hose in the third quarter. Defenders Brian Farrell (1-1=2), Dean Hart (1-0=1) and Brett Schmidt (1-0=1) contributed on the offensive end as well.

• The Maryland "D" was just as stingy against Air Force in the Terps' 15-4 victory. The Terps held the Falcons scoreless for a stretch of 23:42, spanning the second, third and fourth quarters. Maryland also shutout Air Force in the third for its third scoreless quarter of the season. Brian Farrell scored a goal to extend his scoring streak to five games, dating back to last season. Danny Burns scored his first career goal and tacked on another for multiple-point game for a Terp defender. After scoring a goal in the opener, Brett Schmidt showed he can dish too, picking up his first-career assist.

Streaking Terps
• Entering the 2009 season there are several scoring streaks that carry over from 2008 and they have continued in '09.

• Grant Catalino is currently on a 15-game point streak dating back to last year's Providence game. In those 15 games, he has had multiple points in 13 with a current multiple-point streak of eight, dating back to the Hopkins game.

• Other Terps with more modest streaks entering this season include: Jeremy Sieverts (five-game point scoring streak) and Brian Farrell (five-game point scoring streak).

• Of course the Terp with the longest current scoring streak is junior attackman Will Yeatman, who registered at least one point in each of his 15 games at Notre Dame in 2007. He's picked up where he left off, scoing multiple points in his first two games as a Terp to raise his streak to 17.

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 42-14 (.750) when playing on the Maryland campus. At Chevy Chase Bank Field at Byrd Stadium Maryland is 27-11 (.711) under Cottle, while the Terps have gone 8-3 (.727) at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex and 7-0 at Ludwig Field.

Terps' 84th Season Of Lacrosse
• The Terps boast an all-time record of 695-231-4 (.749), 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 83 seasons with a .500 or better record, including last season when the Terps went 10-6. 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 103-42 for a .710 win percentage. In the decade of the 1990s, Maryland posted 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.

First-Time Opponents
• Maryland has played 7 different opponents in its 83 previous seasons. The 2009 season will add Presbyterian, Bryant and Binghamton to that list. Adding the 18-3 Presbyterian win in, the Terps' are 68-4 in first-ever meetings. Adelphi (12-13, 1982), Army (0-3, 1923), Syracuse (3-10, 1927) and Yale (3-5, 1925) are the only schools to beat the Terps the first time the schools met on a lacrosse field.

Maryland In Season Openers
• Maryland has a 80-3-1 (.958) lifetime record in season openers dating back to the 1924 season. The Terps have won their last 16 openers and 23 of the last 24, with the only loss coming to Duke in 1993, when they 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.)

16 Straight in Season Openers
• After beating No. 4 Georgetown to open the 2008 season the Terps have a 15-game winning streak in season openers. Five of those wins came against Villanova (1994-98) and the last nine over Denver, Mount St. Mary's, Air Force, Hobart, Duke, Georgetown (four times), Bellarmine and Presbyterian. Over the 16-year stretch, Maryland outscored its foes 222-81 (an average score of 13.8-5.1) in those games.

• The Terps have not allowed more than seven goals to any opponent in a season opener over the last 16 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.

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 nine sets of brothers don the red and black together for at least one season.

Harry & Thomas Alford: 2004-05-06-07
Justin & Owen Blye: 2009
Brendan & Ian Healy: 2003-04-05
Bryn & Travis Holmes: 2007
Dan & Mike LaMonica: 2002
Chris & Willy Passavia: 2002-03
Brian & Michael Phipps: 2007
Xander Ritz: 2005-06
Mark & Michael White: 2008-09

Fathers and Sons
• Maryland's family tradition doesn't end with brothers. Fathers and sons are also part of the Terps' tradition and that's never been more evident than this season. This year's Maryland men's lacrosse roster features three players whose father's not only played at Maryland, but won a nation title together. Mike Farrell, father of Brian, Wilson Phipps, father of Brian, and Jake Reed, father of Travis, were all members of the Terps' 1975 NCAA championship squad.

Home Away From Home
• Due to the renovations currently underway at Chevy Chase Bank Field at Byrd Stadium, the Terps will play their five scheduled home games at Ludwig Field. It is anticipated that the Terrapins will return to Chevy Chase Bank Field at Byrd Stadium in 2010.

2009 Captains: Carter, Griswold, Groot, Rhine, Sieverts
• Five players have been named team captains for the 2009 season. The quintet, which was voted on by the team during the preseason, consists of seniors Jason Carter, Mike Griswold, Dan Groot, Chris Rhine and Jeremy Sieverts.

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Media Information
• Email Straight To You: If you would like the latest Maryland men's lacrosse news emailed directly to you as soon as it breaks, email men's lacrosse contact Patrick Fischer with "Men's Lacrosse E-Mail" as the subject and you will receive every update.

• Terps on the Web: For up-to-date game stories, statistics, schedules and results, and other Maryland athletic department information, please log-on to www.umterps.com on the Internet.

• GameTracker: Follow Terps games live in 2009 on your computer with GameTracker. Links for all games that will be available can be found at www.umterps.com.