Maryland men’s lacrosse decimated by Penn State in Big Ten Tournament semifinals, 19-9

The first time Maryland faced Penn State this year, the Nittany Lions captured a big lead early, but took their foot off the gas in the second half, allowing the Terps to rally back and complete one of their best wins of the season.

Penn State was sure not to make that same mistake again in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals. On Thursday night, it throttled the Terps, 19-9, handing them one of their worst losses under head coach John Tillman and sending them into the 2024 NCAA Tournament in poor form.

It was deja vu to open the match for Maryland. Penn State jumped down its throat, dictating the physicality of the game from the get-go.

The Terps’ offense went scoreless for the first 11 minutes. As for the opposition, Matt Traynor, Mac Costin and TJ Malone got themselves free and helped Penn State get out to a 3-0 lead.

But Luke Wierman spurred Maryland to a quick response with a lightning fast clamp and feed to Daniel Maltz.

The score was an attempt to seize the game’s momentum, but the Terps failed to keep the offense churning. In fact, Maltz’s goal would be one of just three the Terps would pot the entire half.

In the meantime, Penn State poured on eight more. Maryland’s defense, which has been the significantly better of the team’s two main units in 2024, was outmatched on all fronts.

The Nittany Lions found advantages on their dodges in what seemed to be every matchup. Maryland’s defensive midfielders, who have been largely solid this season, were consistently exploited, and their poles, outside of Ajax Zappitello, were not faring much better.

The Terps also suffered a blow to their offense when leading goal-scorer Braden Erksa suffered a scary injury. Erksa absorbed a big hit and his head snapped hard against the turf. He was stretchered off the field, but gave a thumbs up on the way off.

Ultimately, Costin recorded a first-half hat trick and Malone and Kyle Lehman added four combined goals in the opening 30 minutes. The Terps entered the break staring down a staggering 11-3 deficit.

To open the second half, Malone, the Big Ten’s Offensive Player of the Year, scored first to secure a hat trick. Maryland then responded with their best stretch of the game, rattling off four unanswered goals to cut the Penn State lead to five.

But that sequence ended up being just a blip on the radar. Penn State followed the Terps’ barrage with four unanswered of its own to put itself firmly in the driver’s seat.

From that point, the Nittany Lions coasted their way into the Big Ten Tournament championship game, avenging their regular season loss to the Terps in definitive fashion.

Three things to know

1. The defense was season-worst. Maryland has relied on its defense and goalie Logan McNaney to keep it in games all year. This game answered what the Terps would look like with a poor back end, as they gave up a season-high 19 goals.

2. Wierman was strong in the loss. Maryland has also relied on Wierman to earn it extra possessions all season long. On Thursday, he did exactly that despite the loss, going 19-for-28 on draws.

3. Seeding implications. In all likelihood, Maryland will fall out of the NCAA Tournament’s top 10 seeds and miss out on an additional home game.