East Hartford, Con. – The Maryland men’s lacrosse team completed the work.
Top-seeded and undefeated Terrapin defeated seventh-seeded Cornell 9-7 on Monday afternoon to claim their fourth NCAA title of the year after their perfect season in the national championship game at the same ground.
Maryland (18-0) won its first championship since 2017 and won its second title in seven title games under coach John Tillman. The Terps are the first undefeated champions since Virginia in 2006.
In front of 22,184 at Rentschler Field, Logan McNaney saved 17 and was named the best player in the NCAA Tournament. Anthony DeMaio – the last link on the Terps roster for the previous title – had four goals and one assist.
Attackman Logan Wisnoscus broke one last record in his final game, securing Maryland’s single-season points record. He scored two goals and two assists on Monday and finished last season with 103 points, surpassing Jared Barnhart’s 99-set score.
Maryland have won 35 of the last 36 games of the 2020 season, the only defeat against Virginia in last year’s championship game.
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CJ Kirst scored twice for the Big Reds (14-5). The first goal gave Cornell a 1-0 lead, leaving Maryland only trailing in their fifth game of the season. But the Terps soon recovered.
DeMaio scored a natural hat-trick to close the first quarter and give Maryland a 4-1 lead, then assisted on a long pole by Owen Pribilski and restarted instantly in the second two minutes.
The Turps took a 7-2 lead at halftime and the Wisnoskas helped extend the lead early in the second half, scoring once and assisting Jonathan Donville 9-2.
From there, Maryland struggled to survive after beating Princeton 13-8 in the semifinals on Saturday. The Turps wound up with a season-high 22 turnover and five clearers, but the cushions were enough to avoid too much stress in the final minutes.
Cornell’s John Piatelli doubled the Big Red with 35.3 seconds remaining – matching Maryland’s closest game of the season – but the Turps won the upcoming match and fifth-year senior Bubba Fairman ran the clock to start the festivities.
