NEWARK, Del. — In its fourth attempt at getting past the quarterfinals of the NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament, UAlbany came up short.
Way short.
“Today just wasn’t our day,” UAlbany head coach Scott Marr said. “We didn’t have — I don’t know. We just were missing something and I think a lot of that had to do with Maryland.”
The Great Danes fell 18-9 Sunday to Maryland at Delaware Stadium, as eighth-seeded UAlbany had no answers for top-seeded Maryland. Just more than a month after falling 12-11 to Maryland during the regular season, UAlbany trailed by at least seven goals for the final 41:35 of Sunday’s rematch after never having trailed by more than four goals at any other point this season.
The 18 goals allowed is a season-worst for UAlbany, while the nine scored matched a season-low.
Sometimes, when you’re beat, you’re just beat.
“Honestly,” Marr said, “they were very good. I just think they were better than us today.”
Things unraveled fast — and completely — for the Great Danes. After back-to-back goals from UAlbany tied the game at 2 early in the first quarter, freshman faceoff specialist TD Ierlan won his fifth consecutive faceoff.
Then, Maryland (14-3) began its domination of UAlbany (15-3). The Terrapins scored the game’s next eight goals, as the Great Danes went 18:56 of action without scoring.
“They had a great game plan and they executed it,” said UAlbany junior attackman
Connor Fields, who led the Great Danes Sunday with three goals and an assist.
That plan helped Maryland to a 12-4 halftime lead. Maryland senior attackman Matt Rambo scored three goals and dished three assists in the first half, while junior midfielder Connor Kelly also had three goals in the opening 30 minutes.
“In a sense, everything that went really well for us last week [in a 15-12 first-round win] against North Carolina just kinda went opposite today,” Marr said.
Both Ierlan and redshirt junior goalie JD Colarusso struggled for UAlbany. Colarusso allowed 13 goals and made five saves, and was pulled a couple times in favor of freshman teammate Nate Siekierski.
Meanwhile, Ierlan finished Sunday 14 of 30 on faceoffs after winning the first five. During Maryland’s dominant first-half stretch, Ierlan couldn’t help his team’s defense halt it, losing 10 of the last 13 faceoffs before halftime.
“Long possessions took a toll on us,” UAlbany junior defenseman Stone Sims said. “They capitalized on the little mistakes we made.”
“Clearly,” Ierlan said, “it wasn’t our day out there.”
Maryland’s first-half dominance followed a second half the prior weekend for UAlbany in which the Great Danes were outscored 9-1. Between that second half against North Carolina and Sunday’s first half, UAlbany was outscored 21-5 in a full game’s worth of action.
For the game, Rambo finished with four goals and four assists, while Kelly had five goals for a Maryland program which advanced to next Saturday’s national semifinals to play No. 5 Denver in Foxborough, Mass.
Fields’ four-point day left him with 117 for his season, the fourth-most ever in a NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse season — and only behind seasons put together by former UAlbany greats Miles Thompson and Lyle Thompson.
UAlbany senior Adam Osika added two goals.
Maryland head coach John Tillman said his team was readier Sunday to deal with UAlbany’s fast-paced attack after playing the Great Danes earlier this season.
“We knew what their potential was,” Tillman said.
But the Great Danes never showed it Sunday, as a six-game winning streak started after its first loss to Maryland ended with another loss to the Terrapins. Marr wished the Maryland program, for which he coached as an assistant before becoming UAlbany’s head coach, well in next weekend’s action.
“I’m certainly rooting for them here the rest of the way and hopefully they get it done,” Marr said.
UAlbany 2 2 1 4 — 9
Maryland 6 6 5 1 — 18
UAlbany scoring: Connor Fields 3-1, Justin Reh 0-1, Adam Osika 2-0, Kyle McClancy 0-1, Troy Reh 1-0, Jack Burgmaster 1-0, John Glancy 1-0, Sean Eccles 1-0, Connor Filipowski 0-1. Maryland scoring: Matt Rambo 4-4, Colin Heacock 1-0, Dylan Maltz 2-1, Tim Rotanz 2-1, Jared Bernhardt 1-0, Connor Kelly 5-0, Tim Muller 1-0, Bryce Young 1-0, Isaiah Davis-Allen 0-2, Ben Chisolm 1-0.
Goalies: UAlbany, JD Colarusso, 5 saves; Nate Siekierski, 5 saves. Maryland, Dan Morris, 10 saves; Cameron Brosh, 1 save.
Attendance: 9,711.
Reach Gazette Sportswriter Michael Kelly at 395-3109, [email protected] or @ByMichaelKelly on Twitter.
Categories: -Sports-, College Sports
