Coaches for No. 1 seed Notre Dame, No. 4 seed Denver, No. 6 seed Maryland and Johns Hopkins participated in a conference call Tuesday morning prior to Saturday's semifinals of the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse tournament at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Here are some news and notes from the coaches in the order in which they spoke.
**As the top seed in the postseason, Notre Dame (12-2) has a wealth of experience regarding championship weekend after playing in four of the last six Final Fours and advancing to last year's title game against eventual champion Duke. The Fighting Irish are still seeking that elusive Holy Grail and the memory of that 11-9 loss to the Blue Devils may still seem fresh to the 35 players who were on last year's roster. But coach Kevin Corrigan said the team's sole focus is Saturday's semifinal against Denver.
"I think one of the tricks on this thing is to eliminate all of the distractions and eliminate all of the outside noise about anything," he said. "It's great stuff for everybody else, but if you're in it, you've got to stay focused on what your job is, and that's the team in front of you and the preparation for that game."
**After outlasting the second-most prolific offense in the country in No. 2 seed Syracuse in a 16-15 win in Sunday's quarterfinal at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Johns Hopkins (11-6) now faces a Maryland team that raced to a 13-2 advantage before cruising to a 14-7 rout of No. 3 seed North Carolina. The Terps have long been considered a program that slows tempo and favors drawn-out possessions thanks to senior faceoff specialist Charlie Raffa and redshirt junior goalkeeper Kyle Bernlohr. Blue Jays coach Dave Pietramala noted that preparing to defend Maryland will be different from studying the Orange.
"We've seen it from [the Terps], we've seen it from Ohio State, we've seen it from Rutgers," he said. "… So it's not something that is unfamiliar to us. The question is, are we going to be good enough and perform well enough at the X and the goal to get stops? Can we clear the ball and get it to our offense and let our offense do what they're capable of doing?"
**Maryland (14-3) was surgical in dissecting North Carolina's defense and suppressing the third-ranked offense in the nation, but coach John Tillman is fully aware of the fleeting nature of a team's dominance from one contest to the next. That's why he sounded like he was eager to put the memory of that convincing victory in the past and begin studying a Johns Hopkins opponent that has won its last seven games.
"I think it's kind of a catch-22 with a game like that," Tillman said. "You want to build on that confidence, but also realize that what happened last week, happened last week. We realize that every week is its own entity and we have to realize we can't focus on what happened. We have to get ready for a really talented opponent [in Johns Hopkins] – one that, much like North Carolina, is very talented in a lot of different ways. So we are hopefully going to keep building momentum and realize that there is more work to be done. We know that we can do better. We are playing arguably the hottest team in the country right now, and if you watch them on film, they are really dangerous. So we need to work on some things and look at things that we could do better."
**Last season, attackman Wesley Berg led Denver in goals (48) and points (68), but in the offseason, the program had an opportunity to add Maryland's 2014 Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year Connor Cannizzaro as a transfer to the mix. The move has paid off as Cannizzaro leads the Pioneers (15-2) in goals (55) and assists (33) and Berg ranks second in goals (55) and points (70) en route to being named one of five finalists for the Tewaaraton Award. Coach Bill Tierney said he approached Berg in the offseason about accepting Cannizzaro.
"I went to Wesley first because he's our leader, and when he said to me, 'Coach, Connor's a great player and a great kid, and I just want to win. It will all work out,' that to me validated all the other things that we do because look, young men are young men," Tierney recalled. "You've got your highest scorer, your All American, your Tewaaraton candidate, your Canadian World Team member, and he could have easily said to me, 'Coach, we've got it good with the way we have it. Let's pass on this one,' and I would have. But thank God he didn't, and Connor has come in and been very, very special. He's a great kid and a great student, and he gives us some explosiveness from behind the goal that we've never had."
**A number of local players were named United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association All-Americans:
First team
Denver attackman Connor Cannizzaro (Maryland)
Maryland defenseman Casey Ikeda
Maryland goalie Kyle Bernlohr
Second team
Johns Hopkins attackman Ryan Brown (Calvert Hall)
Duke midfielder Deemer Class (Loyola Blakefield)
Third team
Maryland midfielder Joe LoCascio
Johns Hopkins midfielder Joel Tinney
Virginia midfielder Ryan Tucker (Gilman)
Johns Hopkins midfielder Michael Pellegrino
Maryland defenseman Matt Dunn (Loyola Blakefield)
Ohio State defenseman Robby Haus (Gilman)
Bryant goalie Gunnar Waldt (St. Paul's)
Towson goalie Tyler White
Honorable mention
Notre Dame attackman Conor Doyle (Gilman)
Johns Hopkkins attackman Wells Stanwick (Boys' Latin)
Maryland faceoff specialist Charlie Raffa
Notre Dame defenseman Garrett Epple (Calvert Hall)
Loyola Maryland defenseman Patrick Frazier
Towson defenseman Jojo Ostrander
Navy defenseman Chris Fennell