Laxers fall in faceoff with No. 7 Terps

By CARLA MOTKO
Collegian Staff Writer

Glenn Thiel knew faceoffs would be a key in the game against No. 7 Maryland and Brian Haggerty, the top lacrosse faceoff player in the nation.

So the No. 12 Penn State men's lacrosse team practiced faceoffs all week long to perfect the skill.

Thiel was pleased that his Nittany Lions (2-1) won 14 of 30 faceoffs against the Terrapins (3-1), but that was the only thing he was pleased about.

"We didn't play well at all," Thiel said. "We just left our legs somewhere else. We didn't run well, we couldn't get control, we didn't follow the game plan, we didn't do anything."

Before the Lions' 19-10 loss to the Terps yesterday at Maryland, the team was excited and felt it was well prepared for the match up. Although Penn State hadn't won a game in the 28 previous meetings between the two teams, it believed this was the game when its luck would change.

The week off at Spring Break gave the team an opportunity to get some extra practice in. After having two games postponed due to weather, everyone was itching to play, said Penn State attacker Kevin Haggerty, Brian's brother.

But nothing went in Penn State's direction -- especially not ground balls.

"They had control of the ball," Penn State attacker Chris Schiller said. "We couldn't get a hold of groundballs. They had three or four guys going for groundballs when we only had one."

The Terps' aggressive style gave them an edge over the Lions from start to finish. However, despite Maryland's first-quarter leads of 2-0 and 5-2, the Lions kept the game close through the first quarter and were never behind by more than three goals.

Although the Terps held a strong 5-2 lead with just over five minutes in the first quarter, Penn State brought it back to within one with goals by midfielder Mike Kern and attacker Will Driscoll.

But the Lions couldn't get it tied, although they did pull to within one on four occasions. After holding it to a tight 10-8 deficit at halftime, the Terps took advantage of a lagging Penn State defense and went on a five-goal scoring run in the third quarter, to make it 15-8.

Penn State showed some depth as nine different players scored, including attacker Don Mayerhofer who was Penn State's only multi-goal scorer. But with so many things going in Maryland's direction in the second half, the game ended at a lopsided 19-10.

After the game, Thiel said he could see very few positives in the game, something he wants to see reversed as Penn State will face Lehigh this weekend.

"Obviously we've got to turn it around," Thiel said. "We didn't have anybody step it up and play a good game when we needed them, but we'll need it this weekend. The score was 19-10 and that pretty much tells the story."