Maryland
Maryland blankets Virginia in NCAA men's lacrosse semifinal
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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Maryland
Police seek Maryland woman and girlfriend charged in Silver Spring mom’s murder – WTOP News
Vanessa Tjongarero-Henderson and her girlfriend have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Tjongarero-Henderson’s mother.
Police in Montgomery County, Maryland, are looking for two women accused of killing the 67-year-old mother of one of the suspects.
Vanessa Tjongarero-Henderson, 29, of Clarksburg, and her girlfriend Samantha Raebel, 36, of Phoenix, have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Hilde Henderson, Tjongarero-Henderson’s mother.
Henderson was found dead on May 26, in an apartment on Fenwick Lane in Silver Spring, police said in a news release.
After an autopsy, Henderson’s death was ruled a homicide. Detectives identified the couple as suspects in her death and obtained arrest warrants, police said.
Anyone with information on Tjongarero-Henderson and Raebel’s whereabouts should call 911 or visit the Montgomery County police online tip line.
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Maryland State troopers rallied behind a student, whose dad died while in the line of duty, during her high school graduation on Thursday.
Madison Lippy graduated from Westminster High School nearly 18 years after her dad, Micky Lippy, a state trooper, died in a helicopter crash in Prince George’s County.
State troopers embraced Madison Lippy and her family back in 2008 and have shown their support ever since. Troopers said that attending her graduation is a way to remember and honor the sacrifice her father made.
“This is to make sure that they know we never forget,” said Lt. Jon Hill, with the Maryland State Police.
Troopers added that it was an honor to be part of Madison’s life and see her accomplishments as she’s grown up.
Standing by the Lippy family after the trooper’s death
Madison Lippy was just an infant when her father, Maryland State Trooper Mickey Lippy, was killed in a helicopter crash in Prince George’s County in Sept. 2008.
Mickey Lippy, along with a pilot and an EMT, was taking two critically injured teenagers to the hospital. That helicopter tried to land but struck trees and crashed, killing all but one person.
Troopers have stood by the Lippy family since that day, saying that it has been an honor to be part of Madison’s life and see her accomplishments as she’s grown up.
“We walk and stay with their families through their journey, way beyond, in the days and the weeks and months that follow tragedies, when we lose a first responder or a military person,” Lt. Hill said. “There is a lot of tension around the families; unfortunately, that can fade as we move to years after, so it is important for us to be here and for them to know that we don’t forget their family members, we remember them.”
MARYLAND (WBFF) — It’s that time of year again — spotted lanternflies have made a comeback across Maryland and most of the eastern U.S.
Spotted lanternflies typically hatch in late April and early May, meaning juveniles of the species are popping up around the state. The Maryland Department of Agriculture predicted in March that Baltimore City and central Maryland counties will be heavily infested with the pests.
The invasive insect has been present in nearly all of Maryland since 2018 and was previously thought to have caused ecosystem harm. But recent studies on the insect’s assimilation into its environment have shown that the lanternfly has caused no large-scale damage.
“This is mainly just a nuisance pest,” Emily Zobel, University of Maryland Extension’s agriculture and food systems agent for Dorchester County, said. “[The spotted lanternfly] is big, it’s kind flashy, it’s a little intimidating, but studies have shown that in residential gardens and landscapes, it doesn’t do any significant damage to otherwise healthy plants.”
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