Maryland men’s lacrosse rallies to stun Duke, 14-11, advance to NCAA Final Four
After falling behind 5-1 in the first quarter Saturday, the Terps rallied to stun Duke, 14-11, in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals.
Maryland men’s lacrosse is heading back to the Final Four.
After falling behind 5-1 in the first quarter Saturday, the No. 7 seed Terps rallied to stun No. 2 seed Duke, 14-11, in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals at Hofstra’s James M. Shuart Stadium in Hempstead, New York.
It’s the program’s 29th trip to the national semifinals, tying Johns Hopkins for the most in the country, and first since winning the championship in 2022. Maryland was upset by Army West Point in the first round of last year’s tournament.
The Terps will face the winner of Sunday’s semifinal between No. 3 seed Johns Hopkins and No. 6 Virginia next Saturday at a time to be announced at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Maryland struggled on offense early Saturday, committing 16 turnovers over the first three quarters. The Terps trailed 8-5 at halftime but slowly chipped away thanks to Luke Wierman, who finished 20-for-29 on faceoffs and scored two goals in the first half to keep Maryland within striking distance.
“We really needed him,” coach John Tillman said of Wierman on the ESPN broadcast after the game. “We needed his offense early. We’re struggling, he got us a couple goals, and then he just kept getting us possessions. We just weren’t getting any leverage. I thought [offensive coordinator Michael Phipps] made some nice adjustments. We changed some things up, we got a little more rhythm, and you get more rhythm when you get more chances.”
After scoring three of the first four goals to open the second half, the Terps tied the game at 9 with 11:15 left in the fourth quarter on a goal by Jack Koras and took their first lead a minute later on a goal by Braden Erksa.
After Duke’s Dyson Williams and Erksa traded goals, Brennan O’Neill scored for the Blue Devils to tie the game at 11 with 6:32 to play. Duke won the ensuing faceoff, but Logan McNaney made the save at the other end to give possession back to the Terps.
Soon after, Daniel Maltz scored what proved to be winning goal off an assist from Zach Whittier, giving Maryland a 12-11 lead with 5:01 remaining.
Duke had a chance to tie the game after a save by freshman goalkeeper Patrick Jameison, but the Blue Devils failed to clear, and Maltz scored again — his team-leading fourth goal — with 3:03 left to extend the lead to 13-11.
An empty-net goal by Koras with 33 seconds left touched off the celebration as the Terps advanced to their third Final Four in the past four seasons.
“This is great,” Tillman said. “It’s all about their journey here for four or five years. Bad things happen, things don’t go your way, it’s about what you do next, it’s how you handle adversity. Even our bus broke down on the way up here, and it was like, ‘Hey, teachable moment, if things don’t go the way you want, it’s always about how you handle it. Because that’s the way life’s gonna be.'”
Ryan Siracusa recorded his first career hat trick, finishing with a career-high four points. Erksa added two goals and an assist, and Whittier finished with two assists.
Defensively, Ajax Zappitello held Josh Zawada, Duke’s second-leading point scorer, to one assist. Colin Burlace caused a turnover and picked up two groundballs. McNaney, the 2022 NCAA Tournament Most Valuable Player who missed almost all of last season with a torn ACL, made 11 saves.
In erasing a four-goal deficit, Maryland completed its largest comeback in an NCAA Tournament game since rallying from down four to beat Towson in overtime, 14-13, in the 2019 first round.
“We knew it would be a battle,” Tillman said. “I’m just proud of our guys for sticking to it.”
NCAA Tournament Final Four
Maryland vs. Johns Hopkins/Virginia
Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia
Saturday, TBA
TV: ESPN2