Maryland men’s lacrosse won all five matchups against top 10 ranked opponents in the regular season. The Terps entered postseason play with lofty expectations in a stark contrast from 2024, when they nearly missed the NCAA tournament.

But the result was the same.

Maryland lost in the tournament’s final game and failed to secure a Big Ten title. The Terps put together one of the nation’s most impressive campaigns this season overall, but struggled in both championship losses.

“This year, we were definitely more unified and more on the same page than last year,” coach John Tillman said. “We had a couple bad moments [this year] for sure, but for the most part we responded.”

Tillman admitted he felt Maryland was “a little ahead of schedule” early on. The Terps won their first seven games and beat top-five opponents in three straight regular season weeks for the first time in program history.

Maryland’s second-ranked scoring defense shut down dynamic offenses throughout the year. Goalkeeper Logan McNaney allowed just less than eight goals a game, the lowest mark of his Maryland career.

The graduate student slowed then-No. 1 Notre Dame in an early season title rematch and later dominated then-No. 2 Ohio State en route to breaking the Terps’ all-time save record.

He shined when his defense forced shots from the perimeter, which gave him time to anticipate. That wasn’t the case in the title games.

[Maryland men’s lacrosse loses second straight NCAA championship, 13-10, to Cornell]

The second team All-American gave up 13 goals to Cornell in the NCAA championship and allowed a season-high 14 to the Buckeyes in the Big Ten tournament finals. McNaney’s two worst save percentages of his final collegiate campaign came in the losses.

Maryland also never led in either contest.

The Terps scored just once in each first quarter and finished as the only top 10 team in Inside Lacrosse’s rankings outside the top 40 in goals a game, lacking a go-to scorer — a trend that continued from the last two seasons.

Senior attacker Braden Erksa entered with high expectations after his first two seasons at Maryland but was inconsistent with a conference-high in turnovers while scoring every game.

“We’re still trying to figure him out a little bit, [but] we love him to death,” Tillman said last month.

Erksa and then-senior attacker Eric Spanos both spent time behind the cage as the Terps consistently rotated players at that spot. Spanos scored a team-high 13 goals in the NCAA tournament and led the Terps in points in his first campaign as a full-time attacker.

[7 Maryland men’s lacrosse players earn All-American honors]

But Spanos shot just 20 percent in each of the title games and failed to convert on an opportunity near the crease that could’ve tied the national championship in the fourth quarter.

Maryland, who ranked top-10 in time of possession, shot under 30 percent in both title games after being forced into fast-paced offense. The Terps struggled with that style of play all season after many low-scoring conference games.

“One of the things we found in [the Big Ten] was stylistically people were definitely taking you deep in the shot clock,” Tillman said. “That forces you to make sure that you’re focused for 80 seconds.”

Maryland lost to then-unranked Michigan and Rutgers after falling behind quickly in both contests. The Terps’ faceoff unit, which finished outside the top-30 in win percentage at the X, failed to provide the same offensive boost as previous years.

Without Luke Wierman — Maryland’s all-time faceoff leader — the Terps’ faceoff specialists failed to record a point in the postseason.

Maryland has become the standard in college lacrosse since Tillman took over in 2011. But the Terps have endured three consecutive title-less seasons — none of which sting more than the latest.

“It sucks … because it’s not the outcome you want,” senior Eric Kolar said. “You just wish that there’s more you could have done.”