Last year, the Terrapin men’s lacrosse team never had to worry about making the NCAA tournament. Its members had their eyes set on championships after starting the year 8-0 and climbing to the No. 1 ranking. Then Navy bullied its way to an upset in Byrd Stadium.
This season, the Terps stand at 5-3 due mostly to a offensive lapse in shooting. After losing 10-2 to No. 3 Virginia last weekend, the Terps are scrapping for a win over Navy just to assure postseason play.
The No. 6 Terps will have their chance to do something last year’s ACC championship team couldn’t as they face No. 8 Navy today at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.
“I’m not thinking too much about last year because I’m much more concerned with how things are going this year,” junior midfielder Bill McGlone said. “Being 5-3 is not what I expected to be at right now. I’m trying to get pride back, respect for myself and the team. This is a big game for us and the playoffs. I just want to make sure we get in the tournament and give ourselves a chance.”
The Terps shouldn’t have many problems getting into the tournament considering they’ve been ranked in the top 5 all season until this week. Still, a loss to Navy with No. 1 Johns Hopkins looming next week could put the Terps in a bad position.
“We have all the motivation in the world coming off a 10-2 loss,” junior attackman Xander Ritz said. “There’s no doubt in my mind before this year that we wouldn’t be in the tournament. Now, I just want to make sure and not have to worry about that.”
Losing to Virginia could have lingering effects this week. Either the Terps will use it as fodder for improvement or will still play passively. The offense struggled mightily against Virginia and didn’t have its usual aggressiveness.
But neither team is performing well offensively. Navy (7-2) is fresh off a loss to Georgetown in which it scored just six goals on 28 shots. Overall, the Midshipmen are barely shooting at a lower percentage than the Terps — 24 percent compared to the Terps’ 24.5 percent. Navy gets less than half its shots on goal — a problem the Terps have also struggled with.
“Both teams are very similar,” Terp coach Dave Cottle said. “Whether it’s going to be faceoff domination or goalies or shooting, it will come down to who shoots the best.”
With the loss to Virginia last weekend, the Terps finished 1-2 in the ACC. Their sole win came against North Carolina on March 26. They allowed a Duke comeback victory March 5. Last year, the Terps were undefeated in the regular season.
“I think being 1-2 in the ACC is not what we expected but if we can fix our shooting, we can redeem ourselves in the ACC tournament,” junior midfielder Brendan Healy said. “We’re not a team Virginia or Duke wants to play again and again.”
The strange part of the conference season is that it’s exactly opposite from last season. Duke is 11-0 this season after going 5-8 overall and 0-3 in the regular season ACC last year. The Terps knocked Virginia out of NCAA tournament competition in the ACC tournament final. The Cavaliers finished last season at 5-8 and 1-2 in the conference.
