Terps stay right on target
Men’s team cruises past Johns Hopkins 16-11 in Big Ten semifinal
The Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team kept it respectable.
That was perhaps the silver lining for the Blue Jays, who had to sit and mull over the indignity of a 22-7 whipping — their most lopsided setback in history — by archrival Maryland on April 23.
But in the end, the top-ranked Terps were their usual overwhelming selves in a 16-11 victory Thursday evening in a Big Ten Tournament semifinal at Maryland Stadium.
Maryland (13-0), the lone undefeated team in NCAA Division I play and the top seed in the conference postseason, advanced to its fifth title game in seven years. It will meet No. 2 seed Rutgers (13-2) — a 12-10 winner over No. 3 seed Ohio State (10-5) in the second semifinal — on Saturday at 8 p.m.
The Terps leaned on their leading all-time points leader in fifth-year senior attackman Logan Wisnauskas. The Sykesville resident and Boys’ Latin graduated raised his career point total to 314 after amassing a game-high seven points on four goals and three assists.
Wisnauskas got plenty of help on the offensive side. Fellow starting attackmen Keegan Khan, a graduate student transfer from Villanova, and Eric Malever, a sophomore, each registered two-goal, two-assist performances, fifth-year senior midfielder Anthony DeMaio found the net three times and senior midfielder Kyle Long (one goal, two assists) and sophomore midfielder Owen Murphy (two goals, one assist) enjoyed matching three-point efforts.
Junior goalkeeper Logan McNaney made a game-high 14 saves, senior long-stick midfielder John Geppert caused two turnovers and picked up two ground balls, and senior defenseman Brett Makar forced two turnovers and shut out senior attackman Joey Epstein, who finished with almost as many turnovers (two) as shots (three).
Makar said he and his teammates had braced themselves for a different Johns Hopkins squad.
“It’s win-or-go-home for them,” he said. “We knew they were going to come out fighting and aggressive. For a lot of those guys that have been around, we knew that this could potentially be their last game, and we knew some of their players were going to be a little more aggressive and try to get theirs and win some more matchups. Credit to them. That just shows the leadership that they have for them to come out and fight and not lay down to us.”
The last time these teams met, Maryland sprinted to an 8-1 lead just 2:05 into the second quarter and a 12-4 advantage by halftime. On Thursday, Johns Hopkins proved to be a tougher matchup.
Trailing 4-2 after the first quarter, the Blue Jays got goals from senior attackman Garrett Degnon and sophomore midfielder Johnathan Peshko within a 77-second span of the second quarter to tie the score at 4 with 13:11 left in the frame. The four goals matched what they had scored in three quarters against the Terps in last month’s showdown.
But Maryland closed out the second quarter with four unanswered goals and added a fifth from Long in transition just 45 seconds into the third. When junior attackman Jacob Angelus converted a pass from graduate student midfielder Connor DeSimone on an extra-man opportunity with 13:01 left, that snapped a 15:10 drought for Johns Hopkins.
The Terps proceeded to score five of six goals in the remainder of the quarter to take a 14-6 advantage into the fourth that pretty much cemented the outcome. Maryland has now won five straight against Hopkins, its longest winning streak in a series that dates to 1923.
The game was Maryland’s first since that thumping of the Blue Jays. McNaney said he and his teammates tried to make sure they didn’t collect much rust during the extended layoff.
“I think we had to stay true to ourselves,” he said. “When we had some time off, we still compete in practice and everything. We push each other on and off the field, in the weight room, academics, all of that good stuff. I think just maintaining our same mindset kind of helped us, and we have great leadership that kind of helped us kind of push through that time off and win today.”
DeSimone, who had two assists, said Johns Hopkins strayed from its game plan of using lengthy offensive possessions to wear down Maryland’s stingy defense.
“We took some opportunities earlier in the possession and early in the offense that unfortunately didn’t work out, and it kind of gave them an opportunity to kind of put their foot on the gas,” he said. “But credit to that team. They’re a great team, and they took advantage of slip-ups and poor shot placement. They were up and out a little bit earlier than anticipated.”
Degnon led the Blue Jays (7-9) with four goals, and Angelus added three of his own and one assist. Senior faceoff specialist Matt Narewski won 10-of-20 draws, picked up six ground balls, and scored once, and sophomore Tyler Dunn (Calvert Hall) won 5-of-6 and scooped up four loose balls.
Although Johns Hopkins will miss the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive season, coach Peter Milliman said he was proud of the players’ efforts compared with the first meeting.
“I think we got a little rattled last time, and this team is impressive,” he said. “I think we felt like we were going to be in a good place, and we got shook pretty early, and I think that set us back. We needed to work harder to be a little bit more disciplined, a little bit mentally tougher. I think that would have helped us more than anything last time. I think we just needed to get ourselves a little more focused.”
Towson 18, UMass 10: Nick DeMaio had five goals and two assists to lead the No. 2 seed Tigers (7-8) over the No. 3 seed Minutemen (8-6) in the Colonial Athletic Association
semifinals in Philadelphia.
Kyle Berkeley added three goals and an assist for Towson, which will face top-seeded Delaware on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the conference championship game.
Division I women
Navy 16, Army West Point 6: Senior attacker Reagan Roelofs scored four goals and dished off two assists as third-seeded Navy routed second-seeded Army, 16-6, in the Patriot League Tournament semifinals. Freshman Lola Leone, pressed into the starting lineup because of an injury, scored three goals and added an assist for the Midshipmen, who took a commanding 11-1 halftime lead and never looked back.
“We definitely had a fire in our bellies for this game,” Roelofs said. “We were definitely sad about that loss [to Army] but we were amped up and ready to come back because we knew we were better than we showed in that Star match.”
Junior attacker Charlotte Ryan also had a hat trick for the Mids, who avenged a 14-9 regular-season loss to the Black Knights. Senior midfielder Gil Eby and senior defender Christine Fiore both contributed two goals and an assist.
Navy (15-4) advances to Saturday’s 2 p.m. championship game against host and top-seeded Loyola Maryland (17-1).
— Bill Wagner
No. 7 Loyola Maryland 19, Lehigh 5: The top-seeded and seventh-ranked Greyhounds ran away from fifth-seeded Lehigh (9-9) in the semifinal round of the Patriot League Tournament at Ridley Athletic Complex.
Graduate student Livy Rosenzweig, the Patriot League Attacker of the Year, led all players with seven points, scoring five goals and assisting two others, while Jillian Wilson, the Patriot League Midfielder of the Year, added three goals. Freshman Chase Boyle (one goal, three assists) and graduate student Sam Fiedler (three assists) also finished with three points apiece.
Graduate student Elli Kluegel, sophomore Sydni Black and freshman Georgia Latch all contributed two goals, while junior Emily Wills had two points on one goal and one assist. Loyola also got one goal from junior Regan Kielmeyer, sophomore Blake Cunneen and freshman Lily Osborne, and one assist from junior Cathie Corolla and freshman Gabby Stapleton.
Albany 16, UMBC 13: The visiting Retrievers could not overcome a second-half deficit in a loss to the Great Danes in the America East Conference semifinals. UMBC held a lead at halftime, but Albany took control for good with a 6-2 third quarter.
UMBC ends its season at 8-9 while the Great Danes improved to 8-8.
Claire Bockstie (Maryvale Prep) had three goals and one assist to lead the Retrievers. She recorded her 63rd goal, setting a school single-season record.
Dymin Gerow and Katana Nelson each had three goals for UMBC.
Division III men
Stevenson 23, Eastern 7: Mitchell Lachman scored four goals to lead a balanced scoring effort as the host Mustangs (13-5) dominated the Eagles (8-10) in the Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth semifinals.
Josh Brannan, Cam Leydig, Griffin Gast and Shane Ford (four assists) scored three goals each for Stevenson, which will face York in the championship game Saturday.