EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — Saturday’s wait was price it for the Maryland males’s lacrosse workforce.
Maryland
Unbeaten Maryland overpowers Princeton, will play for lacrosse national title
Maryland (17-0) will meet seventh-seeded Cornell (13-4), a 17-10 winner over sixth-seeded Rutgers, in Monday’s title sport. The Terps will play of their second consecutive championship sport and their seventh in 12 seasons beneath Coach John Tillman whereas aiming to change into the primary undefeated nationwide champion since Virginia in 2006.
The Terps additionally grew to become the primary workforce to achieve back-to-back title video games with an undefeated file since 1981-82 North Carolina, which received the championship every season.
It wasn’t as overwhelming of a efficiency as Maryland has change into accustomed to. The Terps crushed Vermont and Virginia to achieve the semifinals for the ninth time since 2011 however wanted a extra workmanlike efficiency to dispatch Princeton for the second time this season.
Erik Peters made 13 saves and Alexander Vardaro scored twice for the fifth-seeded Tigers (11-5), who have been making their first semifinal look since 2004. That prolonged absence was prolonged when thunderstorms within the space despatched the Cornell-Rutgers sport right into a 3-hour, 38-minute delay simply after halftime started. As an alternative of beginning round 2:30 p.m., Maryland and Princeton didn’t get underway till 6:28 earlier than an introduced crowd of 21,668 — the smallest for a semifinal with out pandemic restrictions since 2001.
Maryland pounced on the Tigers, constructing a 5-1 lead by the tip of the primary quarter after defensive midfielder Bubba Fairman deposited a transition alternative. Way more regarding than another on-field improvement was the departure of brief stick defensive midfielder Roman Puglise with a shoulder damage.
The Terps stretched the result in 7-2 earlier than Princeton caught its biggest break of the sport. Maryland lengthy pole John Geppert was flagged for a three-minute nonreleaseable penalty for an unlawful physique verify to the top of Princeton’s Beau Pederson.
The Tigers managed to get inside 7-4 by halftime however missed their different three photographs on the man-up. After they received their first even-strength possession of the third quarter, the Terps shortly received a objective again when Jonathan Donville discovered Wisnauskas on the crease.
Maryland then ripped off three objectives in a 61-second span — the final two by Owen Murphy in a seven-second stretch — to go up 11-4.
Wisnauskas handed Jared Bernhardt along with his 203rd objective with 1:32 remaining. Coming into his ultimate sport Monday, Wisnauskas ranks fifth in NCAA historical past in objectives.
Saturday additionally demonstrated McNaney’s fondness for NCAA semifinals. The junior’s profession excessive for saves had been 17 towards Duke, which got here in final 12 months’s semis on the identical subject.