Maryland's 15-12 setback to Big Ten rival Johns Hopkins on Saturday night was only the team's second loss this season and first since Feb. 21 when Yale scored a 10-6 victory.
So how will the No. 6 Terps (12-2) rebound for Thursday's conference tournament semifinal against No. 14 Ohio State (10-5) at 8 p.m. at Byrd Stadium in College Park? As they've done after a win or a loss this season, according to coach John Tillman.
"We're going to go back and look at the things that we can clean up and how we can get better," he said Tuesday morning during his weekly conference call. "… That's what we've been doing all year. The body of work with this team with all of the things we had kind of going against us has been pretty impressive. … When you don't get what you want, you move forward, you learn from it, and you have to be excited about going out there and playing again. You can't be a guy that only wants to play and practice when things go your way. That's not what athletics and life in competition are all about."
The benefit for No. 2 seed Maryland is that Thursday's matchup doesn't require major upheaval in the team's notes and research because the Terps and Buckeyes met on April 18. Maryland trailed for more than three quarters in that game, but rallied from a 9-5 deficit in the final five minutes of regulation until senior attackman Jay Carlson (St. Paul's) scored with 49 seconds left in overtime to secure the win.
But Tillman said the team will spend a considerable amount of time reviewing how it fell into a hole against No. 3 seed Ohio State.
"We'll go back and look at every aspect of the play, the personnel, the schemes, and we'll try to look at ways we can improve and get better," he said. "Obviously, they're going to do the same. So they'll have a good sense of who we are and what we do. I think it'll come down to a lot of little things – ground balls and faceoffs and who is a little bit sharper, who executes a little bit better. Obviously, we've got some things we need to clean up."