MM 3.27: Lavender Briggs and Faith Masonius to return to Maryland women’s basketball next season

This is the Maryland Minute, a short story followed by a roundup of Terps-related news.

Maryland women’s basketball seniors Lavender Briggs and Faith Masonius plan to use an extra year of eligibility to return to the Terps next season, per Baltimore Sun reporter Edward Lee.

They join fellow senior Brinae Alexander in their decision, who announced her decision to return on the Testudo Times Podcast on March 15.

Briggs, a University of Florida transfer, came to Maryland prior to the 2022 spring semester while nursing a season-ending leg injury. After a sluggish start to the season, Briggs has played her best basketball of late, cementing herself as a go-to perimeter option off the bench.

Head coach Brenda Frese has continuously called Briggs the team’s “x-factor”.

She hasn’t been able to match the offensive output that she managed at Florida, but the career 1,000-point scorer is averaging 7.2 points while playing 24.6 minutes per game.

Unlike Briggs and Alexander, Masonius has been a mainstay on the Maryland roster for four years. The Belmar, New Jersey native joined the program ahead of the 2019-20 season as a top-50 recruit in America. Referred to as the team’s “glue player” by staff and teammates, Masonius was named a team captain ahead of this season.

She’s started every game this season after missing the second half of last season due to a torn ACL. She averages 5.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game in her career, but is more known for her defensive prowess. Masonius has scored double digits in three of the past four games, though.

Masonius also announced that she plans to attend graduate school, and therefore be eligible for two additional seasons, instead of one. Next season will be Briggs and Alexander’s final.

Outside of Diamond Miller, who is a projected top three pick in the WNBA draft, Briggs, Masonius and Alexander were the only seniors on the active roster with remaining eligibility.

In other news

Andrew Chodes recapped No. 2-seed Maryland women’s basketball’s 76-59 win over No. 3-seed Notre Dame on Saturday to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2014-15.

Damon Brooks Jr. provided his takeaways from the victory.

Chodes and Brooks Jr. then previewed the Terps’ regional final matchup against No. 1-seed South Carolina. That matchup is set for Monday at 7 p.m.

Maryland baseball took the series against UCF with an 8-6 win in the rubber match on Sunday. Jack Parry wrote about it. Jonathan Iacovacci recapped the first game of the series, Ben Wolf had the story for game two.

Ryan Alonardo covered No. 2 Maryland men’s lacrosse’s thrilling 13-10 win against No. 10 Penn State.

Maryland men’s basketball senior guard Jahmir Young visited local students ahead of his annual camp, which he’ll host in July. Young is also expected to announce his decision on whether he’ll return to Maryland next season soon.

Maryland women’s basketball shared its locker room celebrations after advancing to the Elite Eight.

Three Big Ten women’s basketball teams made the Elite Eight, the most in conference history. This is Maryland’s 11th Elite Eight appearance.

No. 24 Maryland softball was swept by Indiana in its conference-opening series this past weekend. It lost 11-4 Sunday to fall to 22-8 overall.

Maryland tennis (13-3) took down Rutgers on Sunday, 6-1.

Maryland track and field won 10 individual and two team events at the Navy Springtime Invite. It took home first place in the men’s and women’s 4X400 relay. Only Navy won more events (20) of the five competing teams.

Maryland women’s golf’s Patricie Mackova performed well at the Clemson Invitational over the weekend.