Despite an all-freshman attack unit and a season-long goalie tryout, the 2008 Terrapin men’s lacrosse team found itself on the doorstep of the final four.
The Terps held a three-goal lead with less than 20 minutes remaining in a quarterfinal matchup against No. 2 Virginia, a team the Terps had knocked off earlier in the year for their marquee win of the season.
The campaign ended abruptly for the Terrapin men’s lacrosse team. In a span of 10:22, the Cavaliers pulled even. The game remained knotted through regulation. On the Cavaliers’ second possession of overtime, attackman Ben Rubeor found the back of the net on a quick shot. Virginia was headed to lacrosse’s final weekend, and the Terps were sent back to College Park.
The Terps returned disappointed, but not without perspective.
In reality, the team had overachieved to get to that point.
“You’d like to play one more week, you know, we were in position to win that game,” said coach Dave Cottle, now in his eighth year with the team. “But I’d say playing in that quarterfinal game, you saw what you had to do to get to the final four, and I think we can learn from that.”
The Terps’ fans saw a team that, despite preseason question marks, had become into a championship threat.
By answering those questions, the team has built a solid foundation for this year. The holes seem less glaring, and as a result, the Terps sit third in the preseason Nike/Inside Lacrosse media poll.
If last season was about exceeding expectations, this year will be about living up to the hype.
“Everyone can say you’re expected to do this, you’re expected to do that,” defender Brian Farrell said. “It’s what you do once you get into the season that’s gonna really make the difference of what kind of team you are, how you start off your season, and how you finish it.”
Finishing should not be a problem for the this team – at least, not in a goal-scoring sense.
The team’s top six scorers return from last season, including the heralded attack unit of Grant Catalino, Travis Reed and Ryan Young. Each brings a unique set of tools, but all will benefit from a year’s experience.
Transfer attackman Will Yeatman joins the team, adding to the embarrassment of riches at the offensive end. His presence has both teammates and Cottle excited about pairing the 6-foot-6, 260-pound behemoth with Catalino, who measures in at 6-foot-5, 240 pounds.
“It’s gonna be tough [for opposing teams],” Catalino said. “The majority of teams aren’t gonna have two 6-foot-5 defenseman that will be able to match up with us.”
The matchup problems don’t end there. If the Terps can find a way to get all four on the field at the same time, it will leave someone with a short stick defender, an appetizing thought for any attacker.
On the other side of the field, the Terps return last season’s effective, if quirky, rotating-goalie system. Jason Carter and Brian Phipps are expected to once again split time in the cage, though Cottle maintains that playing time is a right, not a privilege.
For their part, Carter and Phipps appear genuinely supportive of one another. And, so far, the system has wreaked more havoc on the Terps’ opponents than it has on the psyche of their netminders.
“I thought Jason and I played pretty well; like, if I had an off day, Jason would come in and save the day, or vice-versa,” Phipps said. “My favorite victory last year was when we beat Virginia (on March 29) and I didn’t play at all. Knowing that when I play well, Jason’s my biggest fan, and when he plays well, I’m his biggest fan, that helps out a lot.”
Both goalies are fans of the Terps gritty midfield unit, which stars seniors Dan Groot and Jeff Reynolds, who contribute on both offense and defense. Senior Jeremy Sieverts adds a talented offensive midfielder to round out the first line.
In preseason, the Terps have experimented with the use of two-way midfielders, taking advantage of a group with skill at both ends of the field. The Terps used this tactic two seasons ago after the departures of several top scorers, including the program’s all-time leading scorer, Joe Walters.
“If we’re playing offensive middies on defense, then we’ve got offensive middies on the other end getting in the hole and trying to sub out,” Cottle explained. “That period of time before the defense gets in and their personnel gets in, that’s a period of time where we need to attack.”
Cottle calls it the “10-seconds-or-less offense,” adding, “If we don’t have anything, then we can go through and play our offense. I think that’s an area not just only in a straight, when you outnumber them, but when you’re all even with them that a time, you know, before they get set up defensively.”
With all that running around, the Terps must improve on faceoffs in order to avoid exerting too much energy on defense. Last year, the team ranked just 22nd nationally in faceoff win percentage (.513).
Junior Bryn Holmes will head the face-off duties, after ranking an adequate 17th in the nation last year with a .561 win percentage. Holmes looked much improved in a scrimmage against Princeton on Feb. 7, winning 11-15 draws, including his first five. Last season, Holmes split the duties with graduated midfielder Will Dalton, and this year, Reynolds may provide a backup at the faceoff X.
Winning faceoffs will be instrumental in the development of the Terps defense, which is still being pieced together. The defense, which must most notably must replace second team All-American Joe Cinosky, remains the biggest uncertainty at the moment.
Heading the unit will be Max Schmidt and Brian Farrell. The former started 10 games for the Terps as a freshman last season, and will likely lock up the opposition’s top attackman. Farrell will move back to close defense after tallying eight goals and three assists as the Terps do-it-all long pole last year.
The third spot is the still up in the air with Dan Halayko, Mike Griswold and Ryder Bohlander in the mix.
“Right now, we’re not as solid defensively as we were at that time last year,” Cottle said. “I think we’re just as good personnel-wise, maybe not as a defensive stopper, but the other areas – picking the ball off the ground – I think we’re good at. We just haven’t found our identity, haven’t found a cohesiveness of the unit, and no one has taken over leadership of the defense. That’s where I see the biggest separation. Not in talent, but in leadership, communication and understanding what we’re doing.”
It’s one rough patch the team will have to smooth out, but nothing the Terps are too concerned with at this point.
“Every year we go into, ‘Oh, who’s gonna be our defense now?'” Phipps said. “But that turns out to be the strongest aspect of our team because [defensive coordinator Dave Slafkosky] is so smart defensively.”
Unlike last year, when the Terps opened up against No. 4 Georgetown, they have a bit of wiggle room with games this weekend against Presbyterian and Air Force.
But then the Terps begin a gauntlet that starts off with No. 8 Georgetown and No. 7 Duke on consecutive weekends. The Terps once again have the ammunition to compete with the heavyweights, and this year they will be expected to.
In 2009, the Terps don’t yet care about the manner in which their season ends, abrupt or otherwise. And should the Terps exceed expectations once again, it’s not unreasonable to think that the program could be looking at its first national championship trophy since 1975.
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