It was a busy weekend for Maryland athletics with non-rev sports in full swing. Breaking down the action:
Maryland women’s basketball back in Sweet 16
After blowing by Holy Cross in a 93-61 win on Friday afternoon, Maryland leaned on a big third quarter run to defeat Arizona 77-64 on Sunday afternoon. The win gives Maryland its eleventh consecutive Sweet 16 appearance as they move to 27-5 all-time in NCAA Tournament games in College Park and 21-4 in NCAA Tournament games at the Xfinity Center. Maryland also moves to 4-0 against Arizona, Frese’s alma mater.
Maryland leaned on its defense to open the game with a 17-8 lead before Arizona’s 7-0 run late in the first half threatened the game. After heading to the locker room down one, Maryland’s offense took off and outscored Arizona 29-9 in the third quarter as they maintained the lead through the final 20 minutes. Four Terps finished in double figures as 13 of Diamond Miller’s 24 points came in the third quarter. After sparking a 19-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, the veteran also tallied six rebounds and a career-high seven assists, part of Maryland’s 20 assists on its 36 made field goals. Maryland was able to counter Arizona in the fourth quarter to hold onto the 13-point win.
Maryland, who moves to 27-5 on the season, will face three-seed Notre Dame next Saturday at a time to be announced. Maryland defeated Notre Dame by two in South Bend back on December 1.
Maryland men’s lacrosse hands border rival first loss
In a battle of the last two NCAA champs, Maryland freshman goalie Brian Ruppel stole the show in the final minutes as Daniel Kelly’s overtime goal lifted third-ranked Maryland over top-ranked Virginia, 14-13, in Charlottesville.
After opening the game with the first three goals, Maryland went ice cold for the bulk of the first half as six unanswered goals from Virginia gave them complete control. Eric Spanos fired his way through to get the Terps on the board in the final minutes of the first half, taking a 6-4 deficit into the locker room, but Maryland came to life in the second half as a balanced performance on offense culminated in the Terps taking a one-goal lead into the third. After Erksa’s goals tied it at 7, Luke Wierman, Owen Murphy then Jack Koras beat Virginia’s offense to find the net.
Virginia, though, would answer with three goals in the final 3:41 of regulation to force overtime. But after Ruppel’s heroic efforts, Erksa set up Daniel Kelly with the eventual overtime winner.
https://twitter.com/USALacrosseMag/status/1637187365230858242
Maryland finished with nine different goal scorers with midfielder Jack Koras leading the way with a career-high four goals, his fourth hat trip in his last five games. Maryland now moves to 144-16 in games they score ten or more goals under John Tillman since 2011.
Maryland baseball stays hot
After entering the weekend on a five-game win streak highlighted by a weekend sweep against Maine last week, Maryland baseball won two of three against Albany inside ‘The Bob.’
The bats caught fire on Friday afternoon after Matt Woods, Eddie Hacopian and Bobby Zmarzlak all went yard while eight different players accounted for at least one RBI in the blowout win. Jason Savacool threw seven strikeouts to four hits allowed in seven shutout innings.
Albany would end the Terps’ six-game win streak with a 6-3 defeat on Saturday afternoon, though, as Maryland fell apart midway through. Up 2-1 in the fifth inning, an error jumpstarted a four-run inning for Albany and the Terps never recovered despite outhitting Albany, 10-6. One ray of sunshine was Matt Woods extending his hit streak to seven games, hitting .428 with 14 RBIs during the stretch.
But with Nate Haberthier on the mound on Sunday, Maryland allowed just two hits in a 4-0 shutout to win the series. Luke Shliger got the scoring going in the first with an RBI double before a Nick Lorusso single brought Shliger in. Four innings later, Matt Shaw belted a two-run shot for the final runs of the game.
Maryland returns to action against GW on Tuesday at 4 PM in College Park. Maryland will then travel to UCF next Friday for a three-game series.
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