The Terps look to respond after their first loss of the season.
For the first time this season, No. 7 Maryland men’s lacrosse will prepare for an opponent following a loss. After its defeat at the hands of No. 4 Notre Dame, the Terps return home to take on Brown on Saturday.
“You can’t dwell on last week,” Maryland head coach John Tillman said. “You got to learn from it, but we got to focus on Brown. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves and keep thinking about that.”
Saturday’s game is set to start at noon and will stream on Big Ten Plus.
Brown Bears (0-4, 0-0 Ivy League)
2023 record: 6-8, 2-4 Ivy League
Pegged to finish sixth in the Ivy League in the conference’s preseason poll, Brown has had a rough start to its 2024 campaign. The Bears lost their opening three contests to unranked teams before most recently falling to No. 10 Georgetown, 11-5.
Last season, head coach Mike Daly led Brown to a fifth-place finish in the Ivy League, missing the conference tournament by one game. Like many other Ivy League schools, Brown lost a number of contributors to the transfer portal, including one to Maryland in midfielder Griffin King, who has not seen much playing time this year.
Players to watch
Aidan McLane, junior attackman, No. 43 — McLane, the team’s sole nomination to the Tewaaraton Award watch list, has led the Bears this season with four goals through 10 games. McLane failed to register a point last week when matched up with Georgetown star freshman defenseman Ty Banks, and will have another tall task ahead of him this weekend as Ajax Zappitello’s likely assignment.
He’s the younger brother of Devon McLane, who was Brown’s captain in 2023 before transferring to Notre Dame. He posted a hat trick against the Terps last week.
Charlie Cave, sophomore midfielder, No. 21 — Cave is the team leader in both caused turnovers (4) and ground balls among non-faceoff specialists (11). As a long-stick midfielder, he should become used to seeing Maryland’s top midfielders, likely either Eric Spanos or Ryan Siracusa.
Ben Locke, senior attackman, No. 38 — Locke is second only to McLane in goals so far this year (5) and was the only member of the team to record multiple goals against Georgetown.
Strength
Man-down defense. The Bears have proved to be undisciplined at times, giving opponents 19 man-up opportunities through four games. However, they’ve thrived in those situations, stopping opponents 68.4% of the time to the tune of just six goals allowed. Maryland has scored on 46.2% of its man-up chances this season.
Weakness
Offense. Brown is averaging 8.25 goals per game, well below the Division I average. Its highest offensive output of the season was an 11-goal showing against a Providence defense which gives up an average of almost 14 goals per game.
Three things to watch
1. Maryland’s response. As previously mentioned, Saturday will be Maryland’s first time playing off a loss this year. Despite its struggles last season, Maryland did not lose twice in a row in the regular season. In fact, Tillman has not lost two regular-season games in a row since 2017.
2. Maryland vs. Ivy League. The Terps have won 12 consecutive games against Ivy League opponents. Their last loss came against Yale in 2016.
3. Faceoffs. Luke Wierman had his worst performance of the year last weekend, splitting draws evenly with Notre Dame’s faceoff platoon. Maryland will expect him to return to form this weekend against Brown’s duo of Dash Sachs and Teagan Bultman, who have both struggled this season.