Sophomore goalie Harry Alford likely had the best game of his career in the first start of his career. But he set the bar extremely high and found it difficult to reach that point again this season.
Against Georgetown on Feb. 26, Alford made 25 saves in the Terps’ rout. He was expected to be a stellar keeper, but nobody expected 25 saves in his opener against a top-10 team. Alford won national player of the week for his performance.
“It could only get worse from there with 25 saves. It’s really hard mentally,” Alford said. “I didn’t know what to expect from then on. I just knew I had to play my best.”
“Can you imagine in your first start — you’re National Player of the Week, you have 25 saves, you single-handedly stopped another team from scoring?” Cottle said. “It was only going to get worse and you’re going to go through highs and lows. That’s the tough thing about his position. You have to put that last goal behind you and that’s a tough thing for a young player.”
The Terps’ young defense was anchored by a sophomore with his first year between the pipes. The offense was supposed to take the pressure off the defense while it grew, but instead it was equally young Alford who was carrying both units.
“I think when we started the season off, we played defense with our goalie,” coach Dave Cottle said. “As we played better defense he kind of went through his lull. Now we’re playing very good defense and also getting saves, and that’s why I think we’ve seen a resurgence.”
Alford struggled somewhat against Duke, allowing 10 goals on 26 shots and was just mediocre for much of the regular season.
“I was tough. There we times that I showed up to practice when my heart wasn’t into it I guess,” Alford said. “Then I had a talk with some coaches and they said Harry you have to change what you’re doing. I knew I had to step up as a leader too. I couldn’t just wait for other people do stuff.”
Alford stopped 12 shots against Virginia, including two point-blank rips to give the Terps the ball. He followed that with 15 against Duke to earn ACC tournament Most Valuable Player honors.
Not only was he playing better, but the young defense was coming of age. Sophomores Steve Whittenberg and Ray Megill and freshman Joe Cinosky have played very well in recent games.
Megill said that’s because Alford is communicating better with his defenders and gives them more confidence that they aren’t going to cost the team the game if they make one simple mistake.
“With Harry, when he gets hot, we just come alive,” Megill said. “Our defense just shuts down other teams. When he’s off, it puts a lot more pressure on us to make them shoot from the outside. … He’s playing as well as any other goalie in the country. When he gets hot, he’s the best player in the country.”
Heading into the first round of the NCAA tournament, the Terps won’t have to rely on Alford’s stick to bail them out. Now it’s a team effort on defense. Alford doesn’t have to have the best game of his career for the Terps to succeed.
