After winning their first nine victories by an average margin of seven goals, Maryland has won each of its last three games by one goal.
The Terps outlasted Loyola Maryland, 11-10, on April 8; Rutgers, 9-8, on April 12; and No. 11 Ohio State, 10-9 in overtime, on Saturday. Those narrow wins may cause a few upset stomachs and gray hairs for those associated with the program, but coach John Tillman said the tight nature of those victories is a testament to the team's competition.
"We've played some really good teams, and at this time of the year, teams have a really good feel for what you do and how you do it," he said Tuesday morning during his weekly conference call. "People are getting a sense of who you are, so you really have to play your best lacrosse, 60 minutes of lacrosse. We kind of felt that with this group, there weren't going to be a lot of easy games for us going into the season, and we kind of feel like that's where we are right now. We feel like we have the ability to beat anybody, but we could lose to anybody. We have a lot of belief in our guys and we believe that if everybody plays well, we can be successful. But if we don't play at our best, we're pretty vulnerable."
No. 2 Maryland (12-1 overall and 4-0 in the Big Ten) can claim the conference's first regular-season title by defeating Johns Hopkins (6-6, 3-1) on Saturday at 8 p.m. courtesy of that victory at Ohio State. The Terps trailed 9-5 with less than five minutes in regulation before rallying to send the contest into overtime and getting the game-winning goal from senior attackman Jay Carlson (St. Paul's) with 49 seconds left in the extra session.
Tillman acknowledged that the players could have conceded the contest to the Buckeyes, but demonstrated an inner fortitude.
"We were a little frustrated," he said. "Anytime you're not having the success that you'd like, there's always going to be a little bit of frustration just because our guys are competitive. When you're having success, it's one thing. When you're not, you're a little disappointed. Yet, we didn't let that get the best of us. There was no sense of panic. There was an increased sense of urgency just because we were beginning to run out of time. So we had to be a little more aggressive. Yet, we didn't get away from the things we wanted to do."