Thursday night's 9-6 upset of No. 2 seed Maryland in a Big Ten tournament semifinal at Byrd Stadium in College Park moved No. 3 seed Ohio State one step closer to cementing an at-large spot in the NCAA tournament.
Perhaps just as important to coach Nick Myers, the win ended a two-game slide and provided team a sense of stability.
"The last two weeks have been a little bit of an emotional roller coaster, and I think coming into this weekend, we understood what was on the line," he said. "Challenged our men to play Buckeye lacrosse, challenged them to go out there for 60 minutes-plus and play their best stuff, and I just felt like from the first whistle, we were there to compete. I thought that was a big difference for us."
While the Buckeyes (11-5) could help themselves by upending top seed Johns Hopkins (8-6) in Saturday's Big Ten title game and securing the conference's automatic qualifier to the NCAA postseason, the Terps (12-3) appear to be locked in for a top-eight seed.
Thursday night's loss could still hurt depending on whether the selection committee pits Maryland against a dangerous opponent like Albany or Colgate or funnels the team to a quarterfinal in Denver. But coach John Tillman said the Terps are ready to accept any challenge.
"This is a good group of young men," he said. "They've worked very hard. We'd love to represent Maryland and get another opportunity, and we'll obviously be excited about that opportunity and try to put our best foot forward. I think for this group, maybe a few extra days of rest might be exactly what we need. Kind of re-start and maybe look at a new opportunity and a new challenge and try to make the most of it."
Circling back to "Three Things to Watch" …
1) Remaining diverse on offense. Four players scored Maryland's six goals when the team desperately needed more. Senior midfielder Joe LoCascio and sophomore attackman Matt Rambo paced the offense with two goals each, and Rambo appeared to complete the hat trick late in the third quarter. But an official ruled that Rambo dove into the crease while scoring and took the goal off the scoreboard. About a minute later, Ohio State senior midfielder David Planning converted a pass from sophomore midfielder John Kelly (Calvert Hall) with just one second remaining. So instead of taking a 6-3 advantage into the final period, the Terps only led, 5-4. Tillman did not dispute the call, but pointed out how significant the swing in momentum was.
"If we go up three, maybe it's a little different," he said. "Give credit to Ohio State. I'm not being critical of the call. They had a better view than I did. But we were that close to get it to three late in the third, and that really changes your mindset."
2) Blanketing Jesse King. King, the Buckeyes' senior attackman, continues to torment Maryland. After lighting up the defense for four goals on six shots and two assists in Ohio State's 10-9 overtime loss to the Terps on April 18, King recorded one goal and three assists on Thursday night. King, who leads the offense in both goals (36) and assists (26), is a difficult player to mark, according to Maryland senior defenseman Casey Ikeda.
"He's a great player obviously," said Ikeda, who was named the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year earlier in the week. "Really big, strong player, good shot. So he was someone we definitely focused on coming into the game, and he had a great game still."
3) Closing decisively. The Terps' last two games have been losses, and those losses have coincided with fourth-quarter collapses. They led Johns Hopkins, 10-9, after three periods on April 25 before the Blue Jays rallied for a 15-12 victory. They led the Buckeyes, 5-4, after three quarters before Ohio State opened the final stanza with four consecutive goals. In both setbacks, Maryland won just one faceoff and lost the ground ball battle by at least five.
"It's something we certainly have to look at it," Tillman said. "It's the second straight game where we won one faceoff in the fourth quarter. We won one out of seven, and they won six out of seven in a close game where you're [not] getting the ball back over and over again. That just puts a lot of pressure on the defense. And then when you're down, you've got to start chasing. We can certainly do those things, but that's not really who we are."