UNBEATEN MARYLAND OVERPOWERS PRINCETON, WILL PLAY CORNELL FOR TITLE
Saturday’s wait was worth it for the Maryland men’s lacrosse team.
The top-seeded Terrapins started their NCAA tournament semifinal at Rentschler Field four hours late after weather snarled the day’s schedule, then finished off Princeton, 13-8, to move within a victory of an undefeated season.
Logan Wisnauskas scored four goals to become Maryland’s career leading scorer, Keegan Khan had three goals and two assists, and Logan McNaney made a career-high 19 saves for Maryland, which has won 34 of its past 35 games — the lone loss coming against Virginia in last year’s national title game.
Maryland (17-0) will meet seventh-seeded Cornell (13-4), a 17-10 winner over sixth-seeded Rutgers, in Monday’s championship game at 11 a.m..
The Terps will play in their second consecutive NCAA championship game and their seventh in 12 seasons under Coach John Tillman while aiming to become the first undefeated national champion since Virginia in 2006.
The Terps also became the first team to reach back-to-back title games with an undefeated record since 1981-82 North Carolina, which won the championship each season.
It wasn’t as overwhelming of a performance as Maryland has become accustomed to.
The Terps crushed Vermont and Virginia to reach the semifinals for the ninth time since 2011 but needed a more workmanlike performance to dispatch Princeton for the second time this season.
Erik Peters made 13 saves and Alexander Vardaro scored twice for the fifth-seeded Tigers (11-5), who were making their first semifinal appearance since 2004.
That lengthy absence was extended when thunderstorms in the area sent the Cornell-Rutgers game into a 3-hour, 38-minute delay just after halftime began.
Instead of starting around 2:30 p.m., Maryland and Princeton didn’t get underway until 6:28 before an announced crowd of 21,668 — the smallest for a semifinal without pandemic restrictions since 2001.