Preview: Men's Lacrosse looks to get back to their winning ways to start conference play

#7 Maryland 5-2 at #19 Michigan 5-3 Where: Ann Arbor, Michigan When: Saturday, March 23rd, 2:30PM EDT TV: Big Ten Network Betting: Maryland -3 (-115), ML -360 (Per DraftKings 12AM Saturday) The Terps will be looking to get back to their winning ways when they open up conference play for the 2024 season against the one team they were never able to beat last season in the Big Ten in the Michigan Wolverines.  Just like the Terps, Michigan is coming off a loss to an ACC foe. The Wolverines lost last week 19-9 to Notre Dame. However, Michigan lost the week before as well to Harvard 13-11. With the Wolverines on a two game losing streak and their NCAA tournament hopes hanging in the balance, they will be hungry to pull off the upset at home and make it three wins in a row against the Terps.  On offense for Michigan, they have only scored in single digits once this season. While they lost their second top scorer from last season they still have a very solid offense. They are led by Michael Boehm and Justin Tiernan. Boehm was the Wolverines leading scorer from last season scoring 73 total points, including 11 points in the two games against the Terps. Boehm was more of a scorer last season but has turned into the quarterback of the Wolverines’ offense and has led to him becoming more of a balanced attacker. What makes Boehm so lethal is he is great at winning his matchups and either getting an open shot for himself or causing slides and finding open teammates for easy shots. While Boehm is the main threat on the Michigan offense, Tiernan, who is a grad transfer from Lehigh has helped take some of the pressure off of Boehm and filled in the role the Wolverines lost in their second leading scorer from last season. Tiernan has 35 points on the year with 32 goals and three assists. Boehm loves to look for Tiernan and the connection has worked very well for them this season.  Michigan’s defense was their weakness last season allowing over 12 goals a game. While they are still the weakness of the team, they still have improved and are only allowing 11.8 goals per game. The Wolverines are led by Beau Pederson and Cathal Roberts on defense. Pederson and Roberts are both grad transfers from Princeton that were brought in to help the Michigan defense take it to the next level this season. And while they have improved statistically, their chemistry has been off with the rest of the defense at times to start the season. Pederson is a short stick defensive midfielder that is also a threat on offense. This season, Pederson has two goals and an assist on offense while also tallying six caused turnovers and 11 ground balls on defense. Pederson will likely be matched up with the Terps top offensive midfielder while he is on the field. He plays very physical and uses his size to shut down the players he is guarding. Roberts is a close defender and is leading the Wolverines in caused turnovers with 15 so far this season while also picking up 17 ground balls. Roberts will likely be looking to shut down Braden Erksa who is the Terps top offensive threat this season. Once again, the Terps will need to play a lot cleaner on offense if they want to win. If they cough up the ball constantly like they have this season, the Wolverines will make them pay and will pull off the upset over the Terps.  This will be a closer game than most people might think. It will be a game of strength on strength and weakness on weakness. The Terps offense is one of the best in the country while Michigan has a very strong offense. The Terps offense has struggled a lot this season but they will be facing a Michigan defense that has struggled to cause turnovers and get stops this season. If the Terps offense plays a clean game and the defense can not get caught having to slide constantly, I like their chances to start off conference play 1-0. I see this being a hard fought physical game with a final score of 13-11 with the Terps pulling out the win.  The Terps will be looking to bounce back and get back to their winning ways against a team that they struggled against more than any other team last season. The game is set to face off at 2:30PM EDT and will be airing on the Big Ten Network.