Here is the seventh and final installment of a series that checks in with the seven Division I programs in the state to give a glimpse into the past and the future. Teams are scheduled to appear according to the chronological order in which their seasons ended. Monday's visit was with Loyola Maryland. Today's is with Maryland.
REVIEW
The good: Remember 2015, when the Terps won a program-record 15 games that included 11 straight victories, earned a share of the Big Ten regular-season championship, and advanced to the NCAA tournament final? They outdid themselves this past spring.
They won a school-high 17 contests, stitched together a program-best 16-game win streak, swept the conference regular-season and tournament crowns, drew the No. 1 seed in the NCAA postseason, and made their fourth title-game appearance in coach John Tillman's six-year tenure. It was quite a run for a team that had opened the year with back-to-back losses to Yale and Notre Dame within the first three contests.
"I thought it was just a tremendous year for our guys and for our school," Tillman said. "There are so many things to be proud of and the improvement the team made from the beginning of the year to the end, I just thought they did so many things right. There are so many great memories for the kids, and there is so much for our school to be proud of. Even being down 1-2 at the beginning the year, the kids continued to stay focused, stick with each other, and stay positive."
**As mentioned above, Maryland's win streak was the school's longest, surpassing a 12-game spurt to open the 1987 campaign. The team avoided several scares in one-goal decisions against Michigan (8-7), Penn State (11-10 in overtime) and Brown (15-14 in overtime) and averaged a 4.3-goal margin of victory during the streak. But even Tillman acknowledged that a 16-game win streak was off his radar.
"In our sport, you never rule anything out and you try not to be surprised by too much, but yeah, I never anticipated a 16-game winning streak," he said. "… You know that you've won a game, but we live in the moment, and it's such a quick turnaround that you can't sit back and reflect back and be too content because you have that next challenge in front of you. … That's something we never talked about with the team just because you know you have to keep looking at what's happening down the road, and it's more about how do we get better than sitting back on your laurels."
**The Terps averaged 11.6 goals on offense and 8.4 goals on defense, ranking 15th and 10th, respectively, in Division I. In fact, Maryland, Yale and St. Joseph's were the only programs to finish the season ranked in the Top 15 in offensive and defensive production. Tillman was pleased to see the team find harmony on both ends of the field.
"I think that was something we were hoping for, that we would be a more balanced team," he said. "I felt like we had the ability to be more balanced just with some of our experience and having more depth. That was important if we were really going to maximize what our potential was going to be. We were trying to play faster, we were trying to be deeper."
The bad: As successful as the season was, the Terps fell short of their ultimate goal. The 14-13 overtime loss to unseeded North Carolina added another year to the program's NCAA title drought, which began after the 1975 squad won it all. The pain was multiplied by the general acknowledgment that this was perhaps the school's best opportunity to snap the skid. Maryland is now 0-4 in championship finals under Tillman, who conceded that the coaches and players are still grappling with the saying "Time heals all wounds."
"I think what's difficult always is the farther you go and the closer you get to a goal, when it doesn't happen at that time, it's very difficult for young people to digest, and if it didn't impact our kids, you'd question how much that impacted them," he said. "So certainly our kids were disappointed because they didn't achieve every goal and they were quite close to it. Yet you kind of have to as an educator or someone who works with young people help them get through a tough time and help give them perspective and point out a lot of the good things they did do and not focus on the very last goal or overtime, and I know that's hard to do in athletics."
**The team owned a 13-11 advantage with four minutes left in regulation before the Tar Heels rallied to send the contest into overtime and then win it in the extra session. The Terps had multiple chances to cement a win – ranging from junior attackman Colin Heacock's shot off the crossbar in the final two minutes to sophomore midfielder Connor Kelly's unsuccessful attempt on an extra-man opportunity to open overtime to senior long-stick midfielder Mike McCarney's cross-checking penalty that led to UNC's game-winning goal. But Tillman refused to play the what-if game.
"There are so many plays within a game that you can't look back and point to one thing or another," he said. "Things happened, we worked really hard, and we invested a lot knowing that there are going to be things that are going to happen that you've got to overcome. We played very hard, and if you are playing hard and you're physical and you're aggressive, things are going to happen. … One play didn't win or lose the game, and we haven't really focused on that at all just because in a game that goes to overtime, there are hundreds of plays – whether it's missing a ground ball or missing a shot or not sliding or losing a faceoff – that could sway a game like that."
**Maryland scooped up 27.8 ground balls per game for the season, which ranked just 34th in the country. The team was actually 9-0 when opponents had more ground balls and 8-2 when the Terps had more loose balls. Ground balls can be linked to a team's prowess on faceoffs, but Tillman said a priority in the offseason is refining players' ability to get after loose balls.
"I thought we were inconsistent, and I think that's something we tried to improve upon over the year," he said. "… I do think that's an area we've just got to keep working on. That's something we take a lot of pride in, and that's something we'll continue to work on and focus on because it's always going to be a big part of what we do here."
PREVIEW
Personnel changes: The biggest hole on the field is in the cage, where goalkeeper Kyle Bernlohr was a two-year starter who was a first-team All American in 2015 and a second team choice this season. Bernlohr, who ranked ninth in the nation in goals-against average (8.3) and 22nd in save percentage (.533), played more than 97.5 percent of the minutes lodged in the net this past spring. But Tillman expressed confidence in redshirt sophomore Dan Morris (6.64 GAA, .735 save percentage in 15 appearances) to assume the reins.
"I'm certainly excited about Danny Morris who is the next guy in line right now," Tillman said. "I think Danny's done a great job in practice. We have a ton of confidence in him. We can't expect him to be Kyle just like we didn't expect Kyle to be [predecessor] Niko [Amato]. We just want Danny to be the best goalie he can be. Luckily for us, we think his ceiling is very high, and he just needs to play the way that works best for him."
**The defense also lost a pair of starters in defenseman Matt Dunn (Loyola Balkefield) and long-stick midfielder Greg Danseglio. The departure of Danseglio (66 ground balls and 17 caused turnovers) figures to be mitigated by the return of sophomore Matt Neufeldt (57 GB, 21 CT in 2015 before suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament), but replacing Dunn (17 GB, 8 CT), a second-team All American, could be more difficult. While redshirt freshman Nick Brozowski (4 GB, 2 CT) is a candidate, sophomore Bryce Young (15 GB, 5 CT) appears likely to join juniors Tim Muller (42 GB, 24 CT) and Mac Pons (10 GB, 8 CT) as starters on close defense or back up Neufeldt at long-pole.
"I thought Bryce down the stretch did a great job for us," Tillman said. "So I'm not sure where Bryce will be. But my anticipation is that he's going to get a ton of work next year. He's going to be a key cog for us."
**An offense that returns the entire starting attack of juniors Matt Rambo (43 goals and 32 assists), Heacock (42 G, 12 A) and Dylan Maltz (29 G, 9 A) also graduated Bryan Cole (21 G, 29 A) and Henry West (17 G, 11 A) from the first midfield and Pat Young (15 G, 6 A) from the second line. Although redshirt sophomores Tim Rotanz (11 G, 7 A) and Lucas Gradinger (6 G, 3 A) might have the edge to move from the second line to the first with Kelly (31 G, 13 A), junior Ben Chisolm, redshirt sophomore Christian Zawadzki and sophomore Adam DiMillo could have a say in the matter.
"What you're hoping is while guys are here but are not in the limelight, they're focused on competing every day and working hard so that at any moment's notice, they are ready to step in and make a play," Tillman said. "You're going to lose good players, but there are other good players who are going to evolve and see this opportunity and realize that it's their time."
Forecast for 2017: Partly sunny. Defense has been the hallmark of the Maryland program and could be a strength again if Morris can redeem Tillman's faith in him. Young and Neufeldt should fill the other holes on defense, but which defenseman will pick up Dunn's role as the vocal leader? The offense should be in good hands with Rambo, Heacock, Kelly and Maltz, but the unit's success this spring was rooted in the development of a reliable second midfield. Replenishing that line will be an important task in the offseason, and getting consistent returns on faceoffs will be key. But seeing the Terps vie for a Big Ten championship and return to the Final Four would be a surprise to hardly anyone.