PHILADELPHIA — Having the best defender in the country brings a lot of confidence to a team and Maryland gets that from Ajax Zappitello.

There was a moment early on in Saturday’s semifinal game against Virginia, though, when it seemed as if that might not be enough for the Terps. Less than a minute into play, Connor Shellenberger, Virginia’s top scorer and Zappitello’s mark for the afternoon, buzzed past him one-on-one for the first goal of the game.

Maryland’s faith in Zappitello never budged, though. They kept him locked on Shellenberger while rarely sliding help in his direction and ultimately he rewarded them for that, holding his target to just one assist the rest of the game and leading No. 7 Maryland to a 12-6 win in front of 32,269 at Lincoln Financial Field.

“Ajax is incredible,” fellow Maryland defender Colin Burlace said. “To be able to take a player like Connor Shellenberger and put him on an island with Ajax, I mean, he’s amazing . . . He’s the leader of our defense and he’s been killing it all year. Nothing is going to change that.”

Virginia coach Lars Tiffany said he thought that first goal was going to be a harbinger in both the game and the individual clash. Shellenberger’s two points tied his season low.

“It wound up being more the anomaly that the norm,” the former Stony Brook coach said. “Connor just wasn’t able to shed him.”

Zappitello and Maryland will have a much bigger challenge when they face top-seeded Notre Dame in the final on Monday that pits the last two champions against each other. Notre Dame beat Maryland, 14-9, when they played in March. Zappitello will likely be matched up against either Pat or Chris Kavanagh, the attackmen from Rockville Center who each scored three goals in their semifinal win over Denver earlier in the day.

“Oof,” Maryland Coach John Tillman said with an audible grunt when asked what concerned him about Notre Dame. “They were the best team last year and they’ve been the best team all year this year.”

Saturday, though, Maryland (11-5) was able to overwhelm No. 6 Virginia (12-6). It did it defensively — Virginia managed 39 shots but only 15 were on goal — and it did it on faceoffs with Luke Wierman winning 15 of the 22 draws. Daniel Kelly, meanwhile, scored three goals and Eric Spanos had two goals and three assists for Maryland, which will make its 16th championship game appearance in search of its fifth title.

Maryland fans certainly had little reason to believe they would reach this level when the team lost back-to-back games to Johns Hopkins and Penn State a little over a month ago by a combined score of 26-14, but Tillman said that is what has made this late-season run that also included an upset win over No. 2 Duke in last week’s quarterfinals so special.

“It’s all about the journey,” he said. “You go through a lot of ups and downs… We’ve had some bad moments and I’ll own that. At times we have not played well. But the thing most rewarding is the guys never pointed a finger, everybody stuck together, everybody kept believing.”.

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PHILADELPHIA — The fourth faceoff of Maryland men’s lacrosse’s NCAA Tournament semifinal match against Virginia turned into an all-out scrap for a ground ball. Daniel Maltz briefly came up with it, but he instantly had it knocked out of his stick.

It looked like Virginia won its first faceoff of the day, but the referees blew their whistles and signaled toward Maryland’s bench, as head coach John Tillman called a timeout. Showing an uncharacteristic burst of emotion, Tillman came out to greet his players, pumping his fists.

The timeout helped secure Luke Wierman’s fourth faceoff win of the game, all of which were crucial in building the Terps’ early lead, one they would not relinquish.

Almost 50 minutes later, Tillman was on the field with the rest of the team celebrating a 12-6 win and his eighth national championship game appearance in just 13 seasons as the Terps’ head coach.

Maryland rolled past Virginia on Saturday behind a physically dominate defensive effort and another fantastic game from Wierman at the faceoff X, as he won 15-of-22 attempts.

“Jesse’s [Bernhardt] defensive game plan, I thought, was great, and these guys executed it extremely well,” Tillman said. “And then offensively just to get off to such a good start. I felt like Luke [Wierman] did a tremendous job at the X.”

The Terps will now take on No. 1-seed Notre Dame in the national championship game on Monday.

Nothing says Memorial Day weekend lacrosse more then two of the most highly-touted seniors in the country matched up against each other. It took less than a minute for the raucous Philadelphia crowd to get a dose of just that. Virginia’s Connor Shellenberger had defenseman Ajax Zappitello behind the cage, got about half a step on him and then fired a Lyle Thompson-esque backhand past Logan McNaney into the top corner of the net.

That was Virginia’s only goal of the opening quarter, though.

Wierman picked up right where he left off against Duke, winning the game’s first five opening faceoffs, demonstrating his impressive clamp speed.

Throughout the season, Maryland’s offense has struggled to take advantage of early possessions, but not this time. The ball moved cleanly through a sea of Virginia’s white jerseys, as the Terps found the back of the net four times.

Daniel Kelly, who has excelled since moving into a starting attack spot in early April, scored twice out of unsettled situations, finishing low both times. Additionally, Matlz got free off a cut and Wierman provided a huge boost with an instant goal off a faceoff win.

Trailing 4-1, Virginia, who hadn’t scored since the opening minute, needed some offense to kick-start the second quarter, and got it. Joey Terenzi caught a pass as he trailed behind the play and unleashed a rocket past McNaney to bring the Cavaliers back within two goals.

Maryland had a response ready, though, as Zach Whittier found Maltz for his second goal, and about three minutes later, Eric Spanos found Kelly right in the grill of Kyle Morris, who drew the start at goalie for Virginia after Matt Nunes’ continued struggles.

The Terps and Cavaliers traded a goal apiece before the break, with the Terps getting another in transition from defenseman Colin Burlace, which helped secure a 7-3 halftime lead.

“Everybody loves Colin, you know,” Tillman said, “when you get a goal from somebody that’s a little unlikely, it does go a long way.”

Maryland’s defensive unit allowed Virginia to put just six shots on McNaney the entire half.

“We just couldn’t create slides today against that team defense consistently,” Virginia head coach Lars Tiffany said. “… When a defense doesn’t have to slide, they don’t have to worry about holding spots or playing sides.”

The Terps didn’t let the halftime intermission kill their momentum, as they stormed out of the break with two more goals. One from Spanos on a cut from the back of the cage and another from Jack Koras, who beat his defender.

Virginia struggled to get good looks and failed to score on McNaney, who finished the game with eight saves, when it did. Conversely, the Terps continued to produce solid attempts as Ryan Siracusa got his first goal of the game and Spanos doubled his tally.

Maryland spent much of the fourth quarter killing the clock. Virginia added two more goals, though, as Payton Cormier, who spent most of the game being blanketed by Burlace, finally got free for a goal and McCabe Millon found his second.

Jack Brennan found the back of the net for the second week in a row, scoring Maryland’s 12th and final goal of the day.

Three Things to Know

1. The Terps exacted revenge. Virginia overpowered Maryland, 14-10, in College Park earlier this season, during which it looked like the far superior team. The Terps proved otherwise on Saturday, though, holding Virginia’s potent offense to eight less goals and scoring double-digit goals for the third consecutive game.

2. Notre Dame rematch set. After an already successful postseason — relative to pre-postseason expectations — Maryland has the opportunity to win its second national championship in the last three seasons, but the Terps are staring down an extremely tall task in Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish beat them, 14-9, in South Bend, Indiana early this year.

“Everything is good,” Tillman said of the Fighting Irish. “They have the best goalie in the country, arguably … they have a great faceoff guy [and] their defense is tremendous.”

3. Maryland’s leaders shined. McNaney made eight saves, Wierman went 15-for-22 on faceoffs, Zappitello caused three turnovers and Maltz and Kelly combined for five goals. Tillman talked about leaning on his senior leaders heading into the game, and they showed up against Virginia.

“You know, we lost a lot of guys over the last couple of years,” Wierman said. “We just needed to keep chipping away and really sticking together.”