#3 Maryland (4-0) (0-0 B1G) at #6 Notre Dame (2-1) (0-0 ACC)
March 3, 2024
Arlotta Family Stadium
Noon
ESPNU
COLLEGE PARK, MD - No. 3 Maryland is set for its second top-10 game on the road this season as the Terps are set to face No. 6 Notre Dame on Sunday, March 3 at noon on ESPNU.
The Terps are 4-0 to start the 2024 season, including two overtime wins over No. 19 Richmond and No. 7 Syracuse.
Owen Murphy and
George Stamos notched the two game-winners for the Terps. Maryland also has a pair of home wins over No. 12 Loyola and No. 11 Princeton where the Terps held both teams to seven goals or less.
Notre Dame is coming off its first loss of the season, an 11-10 overtime loss to Georgetown. The Fighting Irish have wins over Cleveland State and Marquette so far.
Maryland (2022) and Notre Dame (2023) own the two most recent NCAA Championships.
series history
- The Terps are 9-7 against Notre Dame in program history, winning three of the last four games. This marks the ninth-straight season the Terps and Irish will meet. The two teams have split the previous eight meetings evenly dating back to 2016.
- Last year's game was a triple-overtime thriller with the Irish eventually winning on a Pat Kavanaugh game-winner.
- The last time the Terps traveled to South Bend was when top-ranked Maryland entered Arlotta Family Stadium and came away with a hard-fought 11-9 victory. Jack Brennan, Kyle Long, Eric Malever, and Logan Wisnauskas each scored two goals, and Long and Wisnauskas added two assists for four-point games. Faceoff man Luke Wierman won 18-of-24 faceoffs in the game.
- The first-ever meeting between the two schools happened in 1995 with Maryland holding on for a 14-11 victory in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. Senior attackman Rob Chomo led the Terps with five points on a goal and four assists, while freshman attackman Matt Hahn scored both of his goals in the fourth quarter to help seal the Terrapin victory.
Maryland topped Notre Dame in a hard-fought 11-9 victory in 2022, the last time the Terps played in Arlotta Family Stadium.
About the 2024 terps
- The Terps welcome back a large number of key returners from the 2023 team, including defenseman Ajax Zappitello, faceoff specialist Luke Wierman, attackmen Braden Erksa, Daniel Maltz and Daniel Kelly, and midfielders Jack Koras, Jack Brennan, Eric Spanos, Zach Whittier and Owen Murphy. Zappitello and Wierman were both First Team All Big-Ten and All-Americans last season while Erksa was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
- Zappitello will don the heralded and historic number one jersey for the Terps.
- In total, the Terps return over 90 percent of last year's goal scoring.
- The Terps also get back two key pieces from season-ending injuries suffered in 2022 NCAA Tournament MOP Logan McNaney and attackman Eric Malever who totaled 48 points (26G, 22A).
Ajax Zappitello is the second consecutive close defenseman to wear the Maryland No. 1 jersey.
Wierman In the record books
- With his 12th of 17 face-off wins against Richmond on Feb. 3, Luke Wierman became Maryland's all-time program leader in face-off wins. He broke Andy Claxton's record of 648 that had stood for over three decades. Against Princeton, Wierman added 20 more faceoff wins and now has 703 all-time.
- Wierman is also climbing up the career groundballs list and is one of only three Terps in history to scoop up 300 or more groundballs. He joined the exclusive 300 Club with his first of eight groundballs vs. Johns Hopkins on April 22, 2023. With 13 groundballs vs. Princeton, Wierman now has 378 total, good for third overall in program history. Wierman is just two back of No. 2 Brian Haggerty (1996-99) with 380.
- Wierman set yet another program record against Princeton on Saturday as he won a remarkable 20 of 23 faceoffs for 87%, marking the highest faceoff win percentage in program history for those who won a minimum of 20 faceoffs.
Luke Wierman set Maryland's all-time single-game faceoff percentage record on Saturday against Princeton when he won 20 of 23 for 87%.
McNaney Returns, continues to climb rankings
- When Logan McNaney started in cage at Richmond on Saturday, Feb. 3 , it marked his first game action in just under a year. After suffering a season-ending ACL injury against Loyola last season, McNaney missed the remainder of the 2023 season. Against the Spiders, McNaney played all 65:05 minutes and made 13 saves, including two in overtime.
- McNaney followed up that performance with 12 saves against Loyola, holding the Greyhounds to just four goals for their lowest scoring total since 2017. He then made a season-high 14 saves at Syracuse followed by 10 saves vs. Princeton.
- McNaney has 455 career saves, good for sixth all-time. He is just 45 saves away from becoming just the fourth Terp ever to eclipse 500 career saves.
Logan McNaney was named to the USILA Team of the Week on both Feb. 13 and Feb. 20.
Maltz Approaching 100 Career goals, Moving up the career points list
- With 99 goals so far over his five-year career, Daniel Maltz is just one away from becoming just the 18th Terp ever to eclipse 100 goals.
- Additionally,starting with C. Rennie Smith, who totaled 128 career points from 1955-58, a total of 61 Maryland men's lacrosse student-athletes have reached the 100-point milestone for their careers. Maltz is the latest Terp on the 100-career-points list after his four points vs. Notre Dame on March 3, 2023.
- Maltz currently sits 31st all-time with 132 career points.
Maltz has scored two-plus goals in each of the first four games this season.
Zappitello on the caused turnover charts
- Ajax Zappitello is climbing the career caused turnovers list. With 55 CT's, he's just four back of Brett Makar at No. 13 with 59.
- He is one of just 16 Terps to eclipse 50 caused turnovers.
Zappitello caused three turnovers at No. 7 Syracuse on Feb. 17.
Overtime is terp time
- In two of the first three games this season, the Terps have found themselves in overtime---coming out victorious in both.
- Owen Murphy got the job done in Maryland's season opener at Richmond, connecting from deep in 2OT. SSDM George Stamos was the unlikely hero at Syracuse, notching the game-winner off a successful Maryland clear.
- Maryland went 2-1 in overtime games last season, with overtime wins at No.1 Virginia and at No. 19 Ohio State.
- The Terps are 14-8 in overtime games under John Tillman and have won four straight dating back to last season.
The Terps have won four straight overtime games dating back to last season.
10: The magic number
- Since John Tillman took over the program in 2011, Maryland has won 155 of the 175 games in which it has scored 10 or more goals for a .886 winning percentage.
- Most recently, the Terps scored 13 goals against No. 11 Princeton in a 13-7 win. Eric Spanos scored a career-high four goals while Daniel Maltz notched his first hat trick of the season.
- Maryland is 122-11 since Tillman took over the program in 2011 when it allows nine goals or less for a .917 winning percentage. The Terps have won 49 games in a row when holding foes to less than 10 goals.
- Most recently, the Terps held Princeton to seven goals in a game the Terps never trailed. Logan McNaney made 10 saves while Luke Wierman won 20 of 23 faceoffs to help the Terps dominate possession.
Maryland has won 49 consecutive games when it holds its opponents to single digits.
History of success
- Maryland has an all-time record of 884-283-4 (.757), 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 98 seasons. The program reached the 800-win milestone with a 12-6 victory on April 12, 2017, at Albany.
- The Terps boast four NCAA Championships, 28 Final Four appearances and 522 All-Americans.
- With a 14-9 win at No. 5 Johns Hopkins on May 4, 2023 in the Big Ten Tournament Semifinal, the Terps extended their streak of double-digit win seasons to 20, the longest active streak in NCAA Division I men's lacrosse. The streak also coincides with the Terps making 20 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, also the longest such streak in the country in NCAA Division I men's lacrosse.
- Since joining the Big Ten in 2015, Maryland is 38-7 (.844) in conference play. The 38 wins are 14 more than Johns Hopkins, which has 24. Penn State and Rutgers each have 23 wins, Ohio State has 20, and Michigan has seven.
The Terps won the 2022 National Championship with a perfect 18-0 record.
