Maryland's hopes of relying on a veteran defense to anchor a developing offense seemed to suffer a hit with the news two weeks ago that senior defenseman Goran Murray had been ruled ineligible for the 2015 season.
Murray, a three-year starter, recorded 17 ground balls and 11 caused turnovers en route to being named a first-team All-American by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association in May. He was expected to be part of a Terps defense that ranked third in Division I after allowing just 7.2 goals per game and returned two other starting defensemen in senior Casey Ikeda and junior Matt Dunn (Loyola Blakefield) and one starting short-stick defensive midfielder in sophomore Isaiah Davis-Allen.
But coach John Tillman expressed faith in the team's ability to find a replacement for Murray and a trio of graduates in goalkeeper Niko Amato, long-stick midfielder Michael Ehrhardt and short-stick defensive midfielder Brian Cooper.
"In terms of Goran, we really believe in a system here," Tillman said. "It's not too different from the system I was exposed to at Navy and ran at Harvard, and obviously, we've carried that on here. We're very fortunate to have Coach [Kevin] Conry here who does an awesome job with our defense, and the system will stay the same. We definitely will tweak little things -- whether it's where we slide from, how aggressive we are, maybe where we force people, mixing in zones to keep people off balance.
"But we do believe in the system and we really believe in making sure that we're able to slide and recover when we need to. We certainly love to win matchups, but there are so many talented players out there that you know inevitably there are some people that are going to win some matchups against you, and it's really about the system working together. Goran not being here won't change the system at all."
Tillman said senior Eric Parnon, sophomore Tim Muller and freshman Bryce Young are competing to replace Murray. Because Murray has not been with the team since the end of the 2014 season, Tillman said the current roster has grown comfortable with the idea of playing without Murray.
"We're very fortunate because Goran wasn't with us in the fall," Tillman said. "So the freshmen only know the team that we have. So there's really no change from what we've been doing since August. The same parts have been there."