After suffering a 5-4 loss against then-No. 4 Notre Dame on March 4, the Maryland men’s lacrosse team cherished the opportunity to rebound at then-No. 12 Albany last Saturday.
Instead, the game was postponed due to inclement weather, forcing the Terps to wait another week to correct their shortcomings against the Fighting Irish.
The postponement disappointed No. 4 Maryland given the effort it put into preparing for the Great Danes, but the squad’s desire to respond to its first loss of the year hasn’t waned. Entering a matchup with Villanova on Saturday, the Terps remain motivated to avenge their defeat.
“We’re still angry that we lost,” long pole Nick Brozowski said. “It’s carried over to this week.”
At first, coach John Tillman felt completing the game with Albany was “doable” despite a weather forecast that predicted below 30-degree temperatures in Albany. But he said increased winds and a plummeting wind chill on Friday concerned him. Plus, the combination of nighttime snowfall and frigidness threatened to create a hard surface that would be dangerous to play on.
Still, when the Terps woke up Saturday morning, they expected to compete against the Great Danes, whom they defeated, 10-7, last year. Attackman Colin Heacock said the squad moved through its normal pregame routine until just before it was ready to depart for John Fallon Field. Then, Tillman informed the players the game was canceled.
“We were really worried about the surface being hard and then putting the kids in an unsafe situation,” Tillman explained. “We all feel like we did the right thing. Certainly it creates a little bit more work down the road, but … at the end of the day we’re entrusted with the safety of our players.”
Maryland’s tilt with Albany was rescheduled to April 12, a Wednesday meeting between contests against No. 3 Penn State and No. 5 Rutgers. That creates a brutal stretch of three potential top-10 opponents in eight days, something Tillman acknowledged would be difficult to manage.
Still, the coach said there weren’t other options due to the weather last weekend.
“We’re just going to have to handle it,” Tillman said. “At the end of the day, we’re presented with a situation, and we’re going to have to face those challenges and hopefully … our guys will rise to the occasion.”
Though Maryland didn’t play last weekend, Heacock said the team’s rhythm remained intact because “we went up there [to Albany] and came back kind of like we did play a game.” And because the Terps didn’t exert themselves against the Great Danes, they held a full scrimmage on Monday, which Brozowski believes gave the team a much-needed lift.
So, as the Terps (4-1) turn their attention to the Wildcats (2-4) on Saturday, they feel energized. In the back of the their minds, the players remember their loss to Notre Dame and want to ease the sting.
“We hate losing more than anything,” Brozowski said. “We’re still just motivated and I think we’re really excited to … get another chance to get back in the win column.”
