Yesterday the Duke men's lacrosse team (2-1, 0-1 in the ACC) lost to the Maryland Terrapins (3-0, 1-0) by a margin of 13-5 at Byrd Stadium in College Park, Md. The eighth-ranked Terps used stellar defense to shut down Duke, which had many opportunities near the goal but could not convert.
This was the seventh-ranked Blue Devils' worst loss to Maryland since 1984, when Duke lost 16-4. The greatest letdown for the Blue Devils was the lack of scoring despite outplaying their eighth-ranked opponents.
On a rainy and muddy field, the Blue Devils managed to outshoot Maryland 39-29 in the game and 29-14 in the second half. To add to the Duke domination, the Blue Devils had 16 extra-man opportunities compared to the Terrapins' five. Maryland, however, converted when it counted and had two goals on extra-man plays while the Blue Devils only had one on a dismal afternoon.
"We didn't get the ball around," junior attacker Alex Lieske said. "One guy would go to the goal and stand there."
Senior goalie Matt Breslin managed only nine saves on Maryland's 29 shots while Terrapin goalie Pat McGinnis, a first-team All-America candidate, anchored Maryland's stingy defense with 19 saves on 39 shots. In credit to both goalies, the slippery surfaces caused the ball to skip quickly and ricochet in many different directions.
"They have a great goalie that made some great saves, but our shot selection was not the best, " Lieske said. "The weather worked for or against both teams."
Among other defensemen to help the Terrapins was freshman Chris Passavia, who has high school All-America accolades. The leader of the Maryland defense, however, was Michael Howley, who was the ACC rookie of the year last season and made several key stops for the Terps.
"I think it was really us against us," said Lieske, who had three of Duke's assists. "No one played great today."
During the first quarter, Maryland quickly jumped out to a 4-0 advantage on two extra-man goals by Andrew Combs, who finished with a career-high five goals on the day. Maryland's Dan LaMonica had two goals in the second quarter to make the score 5-0 and teammates Combs and Mike Mollot helped the cause to put the Terrapins ahead 7-1 at halftime.
As the Blue Devils tried to contemplate what happened yesterday, the word discipline came to mind as a key problem.
"I think we played hard for the most part, " Lieske said. "We had no discipline [on offense] and mentally we weren't there."
Duke was led by midfielder Kevin Brennan, who had two goals in the fourth quarter. The Duke sophomore helped his team outscore Maryland 5-4 in the final 15 minutes of action, but it came too little and too late. Duke senior Greg Patchak was held in check by the Terrapin defense; he tallied only one assist.
Duke next takes on Sacred Heart at Koskinen Stadium tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.