BLOG: Terp Men and Women Share Lacrosse Spotlight
5/22/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - “Championship Weekend” has become customary for the Maryland men's and women's lacrosse programs, which are both headed to the NCAA Semifinals together for the 10th time in history and fourth in the last five years.
Since arriving in College Park five years ago, men's head coach John Tillman has guided his squad to four Final Four appearances. Just as impressive is what women's head coach Cathy Reese has accomplished: seven straight Final Fours - the longest active streak for any sport in the NCAA.
“That's where we want Maryland lacrosse to be,” Reese said. “For us to have both the men and the women representing the University of Maryland this weekend in the Final Four is, I think, huge for not only our school, but for lacrosse in general. This is Maryland lacrosse.”
After putting together a perfect 17-0 regular season, the women fell in the Big Ten tournament to Ohio State, but have since righted the ship and returned to their winning ways.
Friday night at PPL Park in Philadelphia the women will see a familiar foe in Syracuse. Maryland bested the Orange 10-7 way back in March. Reese admitted she is not holding much stock in the early-season tilt.
“That was a long time ago, so I've put it in the past,” she said. “The reason I have not really gone back is because I think they have changed a lot too. Not only have we grown as a team and changed. Their defense has changed. They are playing differently than they were before. Their offense has gotten more confident and just more comfortable in everything.”
For the third time in as many tournament games, the men's team will be playing in a regular season rematch, this time in the form of rival Johns Hopkins, who defeated the Terrapins, 15-12, one month ago.
The Blue Jays are winners of seven straight, but winning streaks and previous results will not matter come Saturday.
“For this game you can really throw out the record books. Expect a hard-fought match,” said senior attackman Jay Carlson. “They are a very hot team and they are very talented. We know that we are just going to need to have good practices every day this week and really display it on the field and how we play and play Terp lacrosse.”
The top-ranked Maryland defense executed a nearly flawless game plan in their quarterfinal win against North Carolina, holding a potent attack unit to single-digit goals for just the third time all season (one of which was against Maryland in the regular season).
Led by First Team All-American goalie Kyle Bernlohr, the Terp defense will have their work cut out for them once again going up against Hopkins. The Blue Jays offense is clicking over their seven-game winning streak, scoring over 13 goals per game.
“We have always been a team defense system,” junior defenseman Matt Dunn said. “It just makes you that much more confident when you are out there playing, but it also makes the whole execution that much better.”
While championship weekend is a tremendous accomplishment, it is not the end goal. The men and women will rely on their past playoff experience in hopes of bringing two sets of hardware back to College Park.
“We are not really content with just getting to the Final Four,” Carlson said. “We have been to a couple of those. Our senior class has been to three of four Final Fours and we really want to power through and get that championship this year.”
Taylor Cummings, junior midfielder and reining Tewaaraton Award recipient echoed a similar sentiment.
“This year we are happy with where we are, but we are not finished yet.”
