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Postscript from UMBC vs. Johns Hopkins

Sunday's editions of The Sun briefly touched on junior attackman Zach Palmer's contributions for No. 2 Johns Hopkins in light of the absences of senior attackman Chris Boland and freshman attackman Wells Stanwick.

Sophomore attackman Brandon Benn hasn't been nearly as productive as Palmer, but Benn did set career highs in both assists (two) and points (five) in the Blue Jays' 12-5 rout of UMBC at theKonica Minolta Face-Off Classicat M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore Saturday.

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In the three contests that Boland (shoulder) and Stanwick (hand) have missed, Benn has compiled five goals and two assists. Not eye-opening numbers, but he has begun to establish himself as a capable crease attackman.

"I think I've definitely stepped up some," Benn said after Saturday's contest. "But like Zach said, it's really not that much different. We have guys who are doing their job in practice and stepping up when called upon. That kind of relieves some of the pressure."

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Coach Dave Pietramala said Benn and Palmer have developed a nice sense of playing off each other, and that has opened up scoring opportunities for them and their teammates.

"We've got two guys that we think are pretty good," Pietramala said. "I think Zach's really done a great job of doing what we've asked him to do, which is his job. Everybody thinks that when Chris goes down and then Wells goes down, Zach has to really pick it up and do a lot more. It's not the case. What he has to do is do his job to the best of his ability, and I think that's exactly what he's done. He's made really good decisions with the ball, hasn't turned it over a lot. I think he's been aggressive off the dodge. I think he's used both hands very well. And now when you add to the mix a guy who's slick off the ball, doesn't need to play with the ball in his stick, I think they've started to develop some really nice chemistry."

Other notes:

*The Retrievers lost the contest, but they did alter the tempo, slowing down the pace and forcing the Blue Jays to play a half-field game. It was a similar strategy that contributed to UMBC's 8-7 upset of No. 5 Maryland Tuesday night, according to coach Don Zimmerman. "We wanted to try to slow down the ball a little bit, take advantage of our one-on-one matchups," he said. "Their short-stick defensive middies played awfully well. They're very athletic. We had trouble breaking them down, and I think we got a little frustrated and started to mishandle the ball a little bit." Pietramala didn't fault Zimmerman for using that tactic. "I'm not going to stand here and say we should have a shot clock or that they slowed it down too much," Pietramala said. "You do what you've got to do to win. I don't care. We understood the plan they would probably have. We were prepared for that."

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*The Retrievers succeeded on just 10-of-19 clears Saturday, a 52.6 percentage that ranks as a season low. Zimmerman said the players were not prepared for Johns Hopkins' long, rangy players on the ride. "They were just very aggressive, and they're big, fast and athletic," he said. "They cover a lot of ground. It's something we're not used to seeing in practice. We knew that it was going to be a challenge for us to clear the ball. I just felt like our guys on a couple occasions had the opportunity and mishandled a little bit. When you're clearing the ball, you've got to spread out to take advantage of your extra man. That's the good thing. The bad thing is if you turn the ball over, you're spread out. Now they can come back and score some transition goals, which they did. Give them credit. A very good riding team."

*It wasn't all good news for the Blue Jays, who dominated every quarter except the fourth. UMBC outshot Johns Hopkins, 14-6, won 6-of-7 faceoffs, and matched the Blue Jays with seven groundballs each. Those numbers contradicted Pietramala's season-long mantra of finishing the game. "So we've got a lot of work to do in the fourth quarter," he said. "That being said, it'll be nice to actually have a full week of practice again. We need it, and we certainly need it when we're going to face a team like Syracuse. So happy with the win, pleased with the first three quarters, and we've got a lot of work to do to understand how to finish out a game."

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