Travis Reed, Grant Catalino and Ryan Young have accounted for nearly 39 percent of the Terrapin men’s lacrosse team’s points this season.
While the starting freshmen attackmen have provided the bulk of the scoring this season, coach Dave Cottle hopes the upperclassmen will step up in the future.
“Our younger guys have helped us tremendously, and if our older guys play their best game on top of that, then we have a chance for a lot of improvement,” Cottle said.
If Saturday’s game against Penn was any indication, it may be happening. Eight different Terps notched goals in the 9-4 win, including juniors Dan Groot, Jeremy Sieverts and Jeff Reynolds and senior Max Ritz.
“I thought it was positive for them all to score, so now they can move on a little bit,” Cottle said. “When you don’t score for a while, you’ve got to get it done sooner or later. They did, and now we can move past it.”
n No commercial breaks for Terps
Cottle has been trying different midfield line combinations to jump-start the Terps offense in recent weeks, and he has continued looking for the right one this week in practice.
The first midfield has consistently featured Groot, Sieverts and Ritz for most of the season. But in the last two games, seniors Will Dalton and Drew Evans have each had starts on the first, yielding mixed results.
Finding the right lines will be especially important in the Terps’ first ACC tournament game on Friday night against Virginia in Charlottesville, Va.
For the first time in the Terps’ last six games, the contest will not be televised, so there will be no added stoppages in play for television timeouts.
Cottle said the Terps have gotten used to being able to rest and regroup during the breaks. Not having them puts extra emphasis on a team’s depth.
“When you don’t have them and you’re in [tournament play], you have to have three lines that can play,” he said. “We know what the third is; I’m not sure we have the first and second lines down.”
n Wanted: Better half-field offense
One of the problems that has plagued the Terps’ offensive attack is an inability to generate half-field offense.
Cottle said his team’s inability to do little things such as win faceoffs, draw penalties to force extra-man opportunities and move without the ball have contributed to the team’s struggles.
In order to beat Virginia for the second time this season, Cottle said his team will need between six and eight goals from half-field sets.
The Terps exploded for nine first-half goals in the teams’ last meeting – a 13-7 Terp win in College Park on March 29 – using a good mix of transition and half-field scores.
Young said it is just a matter of time before the offense returns to the form that produced an average of 12.2 goals per game through the first nine games.
“We just haven’t been getting our breaks,” Young said. “We’ve been playing well in practice. We know what we’re doing. Hopefully, against Virginia, we can get it all together and start picking it up.”
n Carter will start in net
Continuing with the rotation that the Terps have employed all season, junior goalie Jason Carter will start against Virginia, Cottle said. He added that sophomore Brian Phipps, who allowed just one goal in nearly 56 minutes of action against Penn, is scheduled to play the second half. Carter led the Terps to the upset win against the Cavaliers earlier this season with 15 saves. It was the first instance when the Terps’ starting goalie played into the second half.
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