COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Eight members of the Virginia men's lacrosse team weren't even born the last time the Cavaliers were held to just two goals. But that's just what happened to Virginia Saturday for the first time since May 16, 1984, as No. 1 Maryland (8-0, 3-0 ACC) downed No. 10 Virginia (3-5, 0-1) in an 11-2 drubbing to clinch the regular season conference title.
The Terrapins wasted little time to begin the onslaught, scoring four unanswered goals in the first quarter. Maryland then tallied a fifth before Virginia finally got on the board at the 5:19 mark of the second quarter with a goal by sophomore Foster Gilbert, who reeled in a high feed from J.J. Morrissey and snuck a shot into the lower right-hand corner of the goal.
The story of the first half was Maryland's patient possession of the ball and Virginia's inability to mount any sort of counterattack. Virginia won only two of eight faceoffs in the first half and successfully cleared the ball only five times in 11 tries.
"I think that you can owe that to a general sloppiness," sophomore defenseman Michael Culver said of the team's inability to clear the ball. "We just weren't concentrating enough on all aspects of the game."
The Terrapins demonstrated more energy and hustle than the Cavaliers, scooping 22 first-half ground balls to Virginia's eight. Maryland made the most of its chances, converting that ball control into increased scoring opportunities.
"We got down early," sophomore defenseman Steve Holmes said. "They came out and got a lot more ground balls and a lot more faceoffs from the beginning. They had more opportunities to score."
The high-octane Terrapin attack, which had been averaging 13 goals per game, was led by sophomore Xander Ritz, who tallied three goals and three assists. Joe Walters, the ACC's leading scorer, added three assists of his own for the Terps and notched one goal -- a hard shot from 20 yards out that barely beat both the buzzer and Virginia goalie Tillman Johnson at the end of the first quarter.
Johnson made 14 saves on the afternoon, but his performance was outshone by Maryland's Tim McGinnis, who stopped 17 of the Cavaliers' 19 shots on goal. McGinnis, a three-time Division III All-American at Gettysburg College, transferred to Maryland this year and is competing as a graduate student. The 17 saves was a Maryland high for him, though he did record a 22-save performance at Gettysburg.
Virginia beat McGinnis only twice in Gilbert's second-quarter score and an unassisted third-quarter goal by Jared Little. None of the Cavaliers' top six scorers recorded a point in the game. Top scorer Matt Ward saw his team-best 13-game goal scoring streak end at the hands of a Maryland defense that entered the contest allowing only 6.7 goals per game, which was good for seventh in the nation.
With the loss, Virginia failed to defeat the country's top-ranked team for the second straight week after beating then-No. 1 Johns Hopkins, 9-8, the week before. The Cavaliers fell to 11-4 against first-ranked teams under coach Dom Starsia, who said he was disappointed with the loss considering last week's upset.
"Here we went from playing with probably as much poise as we've played with last weekend to the least amount that we've had in some time," Starsia said. "We had a really good week of practice. I thought we were going to be ready to play."
Virginia's postseason tournament hopes remain in doubt after the loss. The Cavaliers continue the conference stretch of their schedule with games the next two weeks against UNC and Duke.
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