The Maryland men’s lacrosse team capped off an undefeated campaign with a national championship. It was anything but easy, however, as the Terrapins held on for dear life to prevail 9-7 against Cornell in the title game on Monday before a Memorial Day crowd of 22,184 in East Hartford, Connecticut.
C.J. Kirst got Cornell (14-5) on the board first. But Maryland (18-0) took charge for the rest of the first half as Anthony DeMaio notched four goals and an assist. A stout defense backed by tournament most outstanding player Logan McNaney, who recorded 10 saves in the first half, helped Maryland build a 7-2 cushion heading into intermission.
The Terps stretched the lead to 9-2 when Jonathan Donville finished a feed from Logan Wisnauskas with 11:55 remaining in the third quarter. The Terrapins appeared to be on their way to another dominant victory, like so many they’ve enjoyed during the season. But they wouldn’t score again, committing an uncharacteristic 14 turnovers in the second half to finish with a season-high 22 for the game.
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The Big Red, meanwhile, began chipping away at the deficit. A tally by Spencer Wirtheim with 7:27 left in the fourth cut the margin to 9-6 as the Maryland defense was visibly gassed. But McNaney preserved the margin with a couple of key stops in the final minutes, finishing with 17 total saves for the game. McNaney was coming off a career-best 19-save effort in Saturday’s semifinal win against Princeton.
Cornell’s John Piatelli, the nation’s leading goal scorer with 65 entering the contest, finally got on the board with 36 seconds left to pull the Big Red within two, but Maryland’s Luke Wierman won the ensuing faceoff and the Terrapins were able to run out the clock.
This is the second title for Maryland under coach John Tillman, the last coming in 2017, and the Terps are the first undefeated Division I men’s champions since Virginia ran the table in 2006.
Wisnauskas, the only Tewaaraton Award finalist to reach Championship Weekend, had two goals and two assists for the Terrapins to conclude his season with 103 points on 61 goals and 42 assists. Kirst with two goals and an assist paced the attack for Cornell. It capped a remarkable bounce-back season for the Ivy League, which sent five teams in all into the NCAA tournament with two reaching the semifinals a year after the league’s widely criticized decision to keep its athletic programs shuttered due to the COVID19 pandemic.
