Lax News: Maryland brings home hardware to go 33-1 in the last two seasons

The Terps were a team of destiny in 2022, and today they’ve made history

John Tillman has been the head lacrosse coach of the Maryland Terrapins for 12 years. He finally saw the fruits of his labor pay off in 2017, when the Terps won their third national championship in program history.

The fight for the fourth was just as difficult - if not even more - than the first seven years of the Tillman era. In 2018, the top-seeded Terps were bounced by Duke in the Final Four. With 2020 canceled due to the pandemic, Virginia enjoyed eliminating the Terps in back-to-back years (2019 and 2021)...the latter in the National Championship game just a year ago.

So for Tillman and the Terps, there was only one way to fulfill their destiny in 2022. “All I wanted to do was see these kids not crying this year,” he told the media after the game.

“Be The Best” was the slogan of this year’s Maryland program, and it was on display all season, culminating in a 9-7 win over #7 Cornell in East Hartford, CT today. The Terps made NCAA history, earning the most wins in a single season without a loss after racking up a monstrous 18-0 record; Virginia was the first team to go undefeated and win the Natty in 2006, but their 17 wins were trumped by Maryland today.

Make no mistake; the success of Maryland this year was not by accident. The culture of “being the best” embedded in their program, John Tillman hit the transfer portal hard this offseason. In particular, two impact players immediately found homes with the Terps after exercising their graduate season. Keegan Khan, who was an All-BIG EAST First teamer at Villanova last year, was the second-leading goal scorer with 35 in his final collegiate game. Jonathan Donville, who played lockdown midfield at Cornell last year and was chosen 16th overall in the PLL Draft by Chaos LC, chipped in a casual 53 points this year, too.

But it wasn’t just the transfers. Logan Wisnauskas finished as the 4th-all-time leading goal scorer in the history of men’s college lacrosse. Holy cow!! He grabbed 205 goals during his time with the Terps. Luke Wierman, one of the nation’s leading face-off specialists in the game, finished his career with 298 wins. Sixth-year senior Anthony DeMaio had four goals in the tournament and five hat tricks in the Big Ten and NCAA tourneys…he had NONE in the regular season. Logan McNaney, one of the best goalies in the nation this year, grabbed 17 saves.

It’s for certain this Maryland team is full, well-rounded, and talented from top-to-bottom.

Maryland has a well-deserved ring in 2022. We’ll see how John Tillman handles rebuilding this program next year, but there shouldn’t be a doubt that he’ll continue to “Be The Best,” and build the best program possible.