For Terrapin men’s lacrosse junior midfielder Jeremy Sieverts, the Terps’ home opener with its 3 p.m. Monday start time felt a little bit like he was back in high school.
Although Sieverts wasn’t used to the weekday, mid-afternoon game, he wasn’t complaining. He was just happy to be home.
After opening up the season with three road trips, a home game was exactly what the young Terps needed.
“It’s kind of nice not having to travel,” Sieverts said. “Even going out to Mount St. Mary’s was a couple of hours on the bus, so it was nice not having to get up early and travel.”
Avoiding the bus was a positive for the Terps, who were still a little worn out from the five-hour-each-way trip to Duke for Saturday’s game, freshman defender Max Schmidt said. They also had shorter trips to Georgetown and Mount St. Mary’s earlier this season.
The Terps kicked off the home portion of their season with a 13-5 win over Providence at Ludwig Field. A crowd of 679 took advantage of an unseasonably warm afternoon and free admission to the game for everyone.
“It was definitely good to open up at home and kinda get my bearings,” freshman defender Schmidt said. “As a freshman, it was nice to see all the fans out here.”
The good part for the Terps is now that they have completed that portion of the schedule, they can look back on its benefits.
Coach Dave Cottle said while right now he might be regretting loading his young team’s early season schedule with road games and leaving it light on rest, he hopes it will make his team better as the season progresses.
Freshman attackman Travis Reed, who leads the Terps with 12 goals this season, said he has had to learn to adjust his on-field communication to deal with loud, unfriendly crowds.
Sieverts said it’s a valuable lesson for the freshmen to learn.
“Right away, they saw what it’s like to travel and play in front of a hostile crowd, so I think they gained a lot of experience, which can only help them,” Sieverts said.
The rest of the schedule is more favorable for the Terps. They only hit the road three more times this season, including two trips to Baltimore, and they have six more home games starting Saturday, when they host No. 20 Towson at Ludwig Field.
That means more repeats of the previously unfamiliar scene after Monday’s win. It was the Friars who loaded their equipment on the bus for a long ride home. The Terp players walked through the parking lot to head back to the team house.
The all-too-familiar black bus with the Terp logo was nowhere in sight.
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