Coming off of a sloppy overtime win to a winless Brown team, Maryland looked to get back on track in another top-five matchup, this time against Virginia. However, Virginia had other plans and they would wind up taking the win 14-10.
In the first quarter Maryland jumped out to a 2-1 lead thanks to two goals from Eric Spanos, his tenth and eleventh goals on the year. However, Virginia would go on a five goal run to end the opening stanza into the second quarter. The Terps offense was turning the ball over and the Terps defense was facing constant pressure from Virginia and wearing the Terps down.
Virginia kept on scoring and getting stops to start the second quarter before Eric Malever stopped the Virginia five goal run with 7:39 to go in the second quarter scoring his eighth goal on the year. Daniel Kelly and Ryan Siracusa would then score to help the Terps go on a three goal run of their own to cut into the Virginia lead to just one. But, that would be the closest the Terps would get for the rest of the game. Virginia would score a goal with 2:49 left in the half to extend their lead to two before the half and take a 7-5 lead into halftime.
To start the third quarter, Virginia and the Terps were trading goals scoring two each. Braden Erksa would get his 16th goal of the season while Siracusa would score his second goal on the day and his ninth on the season. Virginia would however go on another long run scoring three goals and extending their lead to five.
After Virginia would get the first goal of the fourth quarter making it a 12-7 game, the Terps did not give up and went on yet another three goal lead. Malever and Kelly would both get their second goal on the day while Daniel Maltz would enter the score sheet with a goal as well. The Terps would keep trying to claw back and complete the comeback but the Virginia defense stood tall for the last 11 minutes of the game and Maryland was not able to find the back of the net again. Virginia would add two more goals giving them the 14-10 win and ending the Terps three game win streak over Virginia.
While he did not play this week, Luke Wierman did come back this week and would go 16-for-28 on face-offs, adding to his school record 747 face-off wins in his career.
The story of the game this week was turnovers once again. Virginia turned the ball over just eight times to Maryland’s sloppy 16 turnovers. If the Terps want to take that next step and become one of the best of the best, fixing the turnover issues on offense will be key for that to happen.
The Terps will open up conference play next week where they will take on Michigan where they will be looking to avenge two of their losses from last season. The game is in Ann Arbor and is on Saturday, set to face-off at 2:30PM EST. The game will be airing on the Big Ten Network.
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