UAlbany men’s lax falls in NCAA quarters, 18-9
NEWARK, DELAWARE » Albany’s offense was having enough trouble finding an open look. Even at its most crisp, the ability to find shooting space or even passing space was harder than it had been all season for the nation’s top scoring offense.
That’s why, with about three minutes to go in the third quarter, it all came to a head when Dan Osika dropped a soft lob to his stick while completely unguarded. There had been turnovers and mistakes. But that was careless.
It led to Maryland’s 16th goal of the game. Just one on the way to an 18-9 destruction of a Great Danes team that fully expected to compete.
“They came out, they were ready to play,” Albany attack Connor Fields said. “They were sliding quick. Their recoveries were great. We were getting opportunities. They were making some stops, making some saves.”
The foundation of Albany’s 15-2 season crumbled piece by piece. First it was JD Colarusso,
the goalkeeper, that allowed five goals before recording one save. He was pulled in the third quarter. Then it was TD Ierlan, the nation’s second-best faceoff specialist. He started 5-of-5, but won just five of the next 20. Connor Fields had some acrobatic goals, but it was hero-ball offense for a team accustomed to being quick, deliberate and effective.
It was the fourth time that Albany has played in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals. It’s the fourth time they’ve lost. The aura around this team was different. And because of that, so too was the expectation. After the game, Scott Marr said something was missing from his team. The same team that played UMD to a 12-11 loss just one month prior. The Great Danes allowed five more goals than it had all season. The ninegoal loss was more lopsided than their last 32 games.
“Not having the ball started hurting,” Marr said. “... Our transition game wasn’t there either. They did a nice job riding us. Unfortunately JD didn’t have a great day in the goal and TD didn’t have a great day at the face-off X. Those two combinations really hurt us. We didn’t have a good shooting day either.”
Maryland scored the first two goals of the game. Then Adam Osika attacked the defense to slash it in half. Connor Fields scored with little space just 46 seconds later. It seemed as though Albany would be privy to the highpowered matchup the two programs presented.
But the Terrapins controlled possession and Albany’s defense got winded because of it. Normally the early aggressor, the roles were reversed. Marr would later lament the little things that could have shifted momentum early in the game, when it would have mattered.
When Maryland changed faceoff specialists from Austin Henningsen (3-of-13) to Jon Garino Jr. (12-of-14), the counters Ierlan had worked on all week weren’t paying off on the field. Maryland was getting the ball and taking advantage of the chances.
“It was a lot. It made us tired, running around the field a lot,” defender Stone Sims said. “A lot of possessions took a toll on us. They capitalized on the little mistakes we made.”
Not a lot of coaches would schedule Albany on the road in the regular season. That’s exactly what Maryland did. It gave them a sense of they’d be facing Sunday, going up against the Great Danes on the road in front of a nearcapacity crowd.
Maryland scheduled tough, and in their minds, they saw the benefit of that on Sunday.
“We just felt more familiar with them,” Maryland coach John Tillman said. “You never know. Sometimes you have a whole week and you start seeing ghosts and you have to be careful. We watched the last game (with them), and we watched some other games.”
Marr had coached at Delaware right out of college. Then he was the offensive coordinator at Maryland for six years before taking the job at Albany, where he’s been for 17 seasons. When asked about the opportunity to play in this quarterfinal earlier in the week, with so much of his past and present intertwined, it put Marr on the brink of tears.
It seemed like a game of destiny for a coach who made a program what it was. A coach who’s done everything besides win it all. He’s built up the sport of lacrosse in the Capital District. He’s turned the Danes into a national power. All four of the top single-season scoring records in college lacrosse belong to UAlbany players. He’s done everything besides win this game. He’s never been to championship weekend.
On the other side of the field was a Maryland team that’s now been to fourstraight championship weekends, but has never won a title. Marr said Albany was going up against a team that had hunger to win it all. His team, though, didn’t seem to match the intensity while fighting for something just as meaningful.
“It was a special year for us,” Marr said. “We played very well. Unfortunately today just wasn’t our day. We didn’t have, I don’t know. We were just missing something.”