#8 Maryland (8-4, 3-2 B1G / #3 Seed)
vs.
#16 Rutgers (8-5, 1-4 B1G / #6 Seed)
Big Ten Quarterfinals
April 29, 2023
SECU Stadium
8 p.m.
BTN
COLLEGE PARK, MD - Maryland enters the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 3-seed and hosts No. 6-seed Rutgers in a quarterfinal game on Saturday, April 29, at SECU Stadium at 8 p.m. This is the first quarterfinal appearance for the Terps and the Scarlet Knights since the tournament expanded to include all six conference teams in 2021.
The game will be
televised on BTN.
No. 8 Maryland is 8-4 on the season following a 12-11 loss to then-No. 7 Johns Hopkins last Saturday at SECU Stadium. The Terps are 3-3 at home this year with wins over then-No. 19 Richmond (15-4, Feb. 4), then-No. 16 Syracuse (15-12, Feb. 18), and then-No. 9 Penn State (13-10, Mar. 25). Maryland's home losses have come to then-No. 2 Notre Dame (13-12 3OT, Mar. 4), Michigan (11-16, Apr. 1), and to the Blue Jays.
The 16th-ranked Scarlet Knights, coming off their first-ever trip to the Final Four in 2022, are 8-5 overall on the season and 1-4 in Big Ten play. Rutgers has dropped its last two games and is just 1-4 on the road in 2023. Rutgers' lone road win came at UMass (11-5, Mar. 18). The Scarlet Knights have lost road games at Army (14-13, Feb. 18), Ohio State (11-7, Mar. 26), Johns Hopkins (16-12, Apr. 1), and Penn State (14-5, Apr. 21).
Series History - Rutgers
- Maryland is 35-1 all-time against Rutgers, including winning 17 straight from 1981-present.
- The series with the Scarlet Knights is one of the oldest in Maryland history dating back to 1931. The Old Liners, as Maryland was known by then, and the Scarlet Knights were deadlocked at 2-2 after three quarters, but Maryland stormed Rutgers in the fourth quarter, out-scoring the Scarlet Knights 8-1 over the final 15 minutes to take a 10-3 decision.
- That was the start of 18-straight victories for Maryland over Rutgers. The streak ended in 1980 when the Scarlet Knights eeked out a 9-8 win in College Park.
- Since then, however, Maryland has gone on another winning streak. The Terrapins have won 17 in a row over Rutgers, beginning with a 15-12 win in Piscataway in 1981.
- The two schools met only once from 1982-1995 - a 13-7 Terrapin victory in the first round of the 1990 NCAA Tournament in College Park. Holding just a 4-3 at the half thanks Rutgers's deliberate pace of play. But Mark Douglas scored his third goal of the game just 50 seconds into the third quarter, and Rob Wurzburger broke things open with another goal less than a minute later to open up a 6-3 lead for the Terps. Douglas finished with five points (4g-1a), while Steve Kavoit stopped 23 shots in goal, including 11 in the second quarter.
- The series resumed with a three-game stretch from 1996-98 but went on hiatus again until both schools joined the Big Ten at the start of the 2014-15 academic year. The conference officially recognized men's lacrosse beginning in the 2015 season.
- Maryland pulled out a 9-8 victory in that first conference meeting with Rutgers on Apr. 12, 2015, thanks to Matt Rambo, who finished with six points (3g-3a), scoring the game-winning goal with just 13 seconds remaining. The Scarlet Knights led 6-3 early in the third quarter, but Maryland went on a 5-0 run to take an 8-6 lead with 11:04 left in the fourth. Rutgers responded with back-to-back goals to tie the game with 3:34 left, which set up Rambo's heroics.
- The two schools last met in Piscataway during the all-Big Ten regular season of 2021. After topping Rutgers 19-12 in College Park on Mar. 13, the Terrapins turned around and beat the Scarlet Knights again just two weeks later, 13-9, on Mar. 28. Jared Bernhardt led the way offensively with six points (4g-2a), while Justin Shockey won 15-of-25 faceoff with six groundballs.
- Maryland and Rutgers met twice last season, with the Terps winning each time comfortably. Maryland cruised to a 17-9 victory in College Park in the regular season, with Keegan Khan totaling six points (4g-2a) and Logan McNaney making 13 saves. Maryland then beat Rutgers, 17-7, in the Big Ten Championship game, again in College Park. Logan Wisnauskas and Anthony DeMaio each had four goals to lead the offense, while Luke Wierman dominated the X, winning 20-of-26 faceoffs with 12 groundballs.
- Earlier this month, Maryland turned in perhaps its finest defensive performance of the season in an 11-8 victory at SHI Stadium on Apr. 16. The Terrapins ended Rutgers' home winning streak at 16, which was the longest in the nation. Maryland had seven different players who scored a goal and six players who handed out an assist in the game. Jack Koras, Daniel Maltz, Eric Spanos and Zach Whittier each had two goals in the win. Koras, Spanos and Whittier each added an assist for three-point games. Braden Erksa had a career-high tying four points and career-high tying three assists with all three coming on the Terps' first three goals of the game.
Wierman Eclipses 500 Faceoff Wins; Climbing Up Groundballs Chart
Erksa In Elite Company As A True Freshman
Fresh Face Between the Pipes
The Long Game
Kyle Long's goal vs. Johns Hopkins gave him sole posession of 28th place on Maryland's career points list.
Maltz To 100 And Beyond
Hat Trick Terps
Offensive Defenders
- Through 12 games, Terrapin defensive players have been surprisingly offensive. So far, in 2023, six Maryland defenders (close, long poles, short-sticks, and goalies) have scored goals or tallied assists. Terp defenders have 14 goals and six assists for 20 points which is 8.4% of Maryland's total points.
- Terp defenders accounted for six points in the Terps' 13-10 win over #9 Penn State (Mar. 25). SSDMs Dante Trader Jr. and Eric Kolar scored twice, while SSDM Donovan Lacey and LSM John Geppert tallied assists. It was the first time Maryland defenders accounted for six points in a game since Mar. 12, 2022, when Geppert (2g, Bubba Fairman (1g, 1a), Justin Sherrer (1g), and Garrett Gibbons (1g) totaled six points in a 24-6 win over Albany.
- Trader Jr. has made an immediate impact in his first season with the Maryland men's lacrosse program and leads the Terrapin defenders with five goals and one assist. Trader Jr. has scored two goals in a game twice this season (vs. #19 Syracuse, Feb. 18 & vs. #9 Penn State, Mar. 25). He picked up his first-career assist at #4 Princeton (Feb. 25).
- Kolar is also in his first season seeing playing time and has three goals, including his first-career multi-goal game vs. #9 Penn State (Mar. 25).
- Geppert picked up where he left off last season when he scored five goals and added an assist. So far, in 2023, he has two goals and an assist. LSM Jack McDonald and Def. Ajax Zappitello have also racked up "pole goals" this year, while Zappitello and SSDM Donovan Lacey have also picked up assists.
- Nick Redd was added to the list with his first career goal against #7 Johns Hopkins (Apr. 22).
10: The Magic Number
Get To 10 & Win
- Since John Tillman took over the program in 2011, Maryland has won 149 of the 168 games in which it has scored 10 or more goals for a .887 winning percentage.
- The Terps scored at least ten goals in 17 of 18 games in 2022, with the lone single-digit scoring game coming in the NCAA Championship game, a 9-7 victory over Cornell on May 30.
- Maryland is 8-3 in 2023 when scoring 10+ with wins over Richmond, Syracuse, Princeton, Albany, Virginia, Penn State, Ohio State, and Rutgers. The 13-12 3OT loss to Notre Dame on March 4 was the Terps' first loss when scoring 10+ since the 2021 NCAA title game (May 31).
- The last time Maryland failed to reach 10 goals or more at home dates back to May 9, 2015. Maryland hosted Yale in the first round of the NCAA tournament and advanced with an 8-7 victory. The Terps trailed 7-4 early in the fourth quarter, but four straight goals by Bryan Cole, Joe LoCascio, Matt Rambo, and Henry West brought home the victory.
- Maryland is also 111-16 (.874) since 2015 when scoring at least 10 goals.
Holding Opponents To Single-Digits
- Maryland is 119-11 since Tillman took over the program in 2011 when it allows nine goals or less for a .915 winning percentage. The Terps have won 46 games in a row when holding foes to less than 10 goals.
- Maryland is 4-0 in 2023 when holding opponents to less than 10 goals after a 15-4 win over No. 19 Richmond (Feb. 4), holding No. 6 Princeton to five goals in an 11-5 Terrapin win (Feb. 25), a 16-9 win at Albany (Mar. 11), and limiting No. 10 Rutgers to five goals below its season average in an 11-8 victory (Apr. 16).
- The last time the Terps allowed less than 10 goals and lost a game was March 4, 2017 - a 5-4 loss at Notre Dame.
- The last time Maryland suffered a home loss when giving up less than 10 goals was back in the first year of the Big Ten Tournament when Ohio State topped the Terps, 9-6, in the conference semifinals at SECU Stadium.
Maryland has held Rutgers to less than 10 goals in four straight meetings.
Terps' 98th Season of Men's Lacrosse
- The Terps boast an all-time record of 880-279-4 (.759) entering the 2023 season, 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 with a .500 or better record in all 97 seasons of existence. The program reached the 800-win milestone with a thrilling 12-6 victory on April 12, 2017 on the road against Albany.
- Maryland finished the decade of the 2010s 134-42 for a .761 winning percentage, making it the winningest decade in Terrapin lacrosse history. Nine of those seasons came under the direction of head coach John Tillman, who has posted a 122-38 record and .763 winning percentage at the helm for Maryland.
- Maryland Men's Lacrosse By the Decade:
- 2020's: 46-6 (.885)
- 2010's: 134-42 (.761)
- 2000's: 111-49 (.694)
- 1990's: 95-47 (.669)
- 1980's: 83-41 (.669)
Maryland is 46-6 (.885) so far in the 2020's, including a perfect 18-0 season in 2022, punctuated by an NCAA Championship.
Staff Updates
- The Terrapins welcome two new assistant coaches in 2023.
- Jake Bernhardt rejoined the staff on July 6, 2022, after five seasons at the University of Vermont working under fellow Terp alum Chris Feifs. During his tenure the Catamounts won the America East twice, made their first two NCAA Tournaments in program history, and went 44-24. Bernhardt was a member of the Terrapins' staff in 2014 as the Director of Operations.
- Tim O'Branski joined the Terps in September 2022 as the team's volunteer assistant coach. Before becoming a Terp, O'Branski spent two years as offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at Mercer University.
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