Junior midfielder Brendan Healy and the rest of the Terp offense had a hard time keeping their chins up last time they faced Virginia. They put only 11 of 37 shots on net and were shut out in the first half.
Last time the Terrapin men’s lacrosse team played Virginia, the results were disastrous.
“That was probably the worst our team has ever played since I’ve been here,” junior midfielder Brendan Healy said. “The worst most of us, as individuals, have played at Maryland.”
Virginia stomped the Terps en route to a 10-2 win in Charlottesville, Va., shutting out the Terps in the first half and physically pressuring them into loads of turnovers.
As a result, sophomore defender Ray Megill thinks Virginia is overlooking the Terps in the first round of the ACC tournament.
His mom told him so.
Megill’s mother spoke with Virginia’s Matt Poskay’s mom, who said her family was already making plans to stay the whole weekend in Baltimore. The Terps will face Virginia in the first round at M&T Bank Stadium today, and the championship game is Sunday.
“I just kind of laughed and shrugged it off and said, ‘Hey, we’ll see,’” Megill said. “Anything can happen in any game. Who knows, it could be us blowing them out this time. If they don’t concentrate on us and they look past us, they’re going to have a rude awakening.”
The last time the No. 3-seeded Terps (6-5, 1-2 ACC) faced No. 2 Virginia (9-2, 2-1) it was the Terps who left needing their mothers. That embarrassment still lingers in their minds. There are no qualms about it; the Terps are out for revenge.
“We definitely want to send a message to people that we’re still here,” sophomore goalie Harry Alford said. “We don’t even want to win close. We want to beat them badly. We hate these guys.”
Virginia may be out for a little ACC tournament revenge of its own. Last year the Terps beat the Cavaliers in the ACC final, knocking Virginia out of NCAA tournament competition. Junior attackman Joe Walters scored a career-high six goals.
But the Cavaliers can’t knock the Terps out of a bid. After defeating No. 16 Fairfield last weekend, the Terps likely need only a win over unranked Penn to secure a spot.
Therefore, the Terps feel Virginia’s sights aren’t as much on them as they are on Duke, who embarrassed the Cavaliers 17-2 less than two weeks ago and is heavily favored to beat No. 4 North Carolina to reach Sunday’s finals. But to get their shot at the Blue Devils, Virginia first has to get past the Terps.
“I think they have to be happy that they’re playing a team that they beat pretty good last time,” coach Dave Cottle said. “I’m sure they think there’s nothing that’s going to change that. We have a lot of motivation to change that score.”
“They probably think we think we’re going to lose but we know we have a lot of fight left in us,” Alford added.
The Terps are out to prove to themselves, to their critics and to Virginia they aren’t a team to be taken lightly. After all, even their own are beginning to turn against them.
Healy said Terp alumni have called their former team out, saying if it doesn’t put up a better performance than last time against Virginia, then this isn’t the Terp team they know.
“When you give up a 10-2 loss, that’s fine. That will happen sometimes,” Healy said. “But if you don’t come out and try to redeem yourself, it shows something about your character. I think we will. I think we’ll give it the best effort we have all year.”
Going into this game, the responsibility to win has almost fully fallen on the offense’s shoulders. The young defense posted a second-half shutout against Fairfield to cover up yet another poor shooting performance. Cottle said all his team needed was for the big scorers to step it up.
Judging by the offense’s last performance against Virginia, that could be a tall order. The Terps scored on only 5 percent of their shots, and the Terps’ big three scorers — Joe Walters, junior midfielder Bill McGlone and Healy — combined to go 1 for 17. Only 11 of 37 shots were put on net.
“The good news is that if we start making some shots, we’re going to have a big improvement,” Cottle said. “The bad news is that if we’re not making shots, we’re not.”
Coming off one of the team’s most crucial wins, the Terps know this game could be a launching pad toward proving they are not only good enough for the NCAA tournament, but that they are good enough to do something in it.
“It just takes a couple of big wins to realize what we’re capable of doing,” Healy said. “We have what it takes to beat these teams. We just have to draw the line somewhere.”
