Maryland men's lacrosse: Four preseason All-Americans for the Terps

Inside Lacrosse gave a little love to the Maryland men's lacrosse team when they named four Terps to their preseason All-America team. One Terp made the first team, two were named to the second team, and the fourth found a spot on the third team. Virginia was the only other school with four players named though they had no one placed on the first team. (I didn't count the extensive list of honorable mention players.)

Mike Earhardt led the way for Maryland as the only Terrapin player named to the first team. The senior defender from Westbury, New York started all fourteen games for the Terps last season. He was third on the squad picking up fifty-three groundballs and second only to Jesse Bernhardt causing fifteen turnovers.

Two Terrapins were named to the second team - also both on the back line - defender Goran Murray and goalkeeper Niko Amato. Murray returns for his junior season having played in all fourteen games last season after picking up nineteen groundballs and causing thirteen turnovers. Amato started all fourteen games and played ninety-three percent of all the minutes in goal for the Terps. He finished the season with a goal against average of just under eight per game. In 2013, Amato's .594 save percentage placed him in seventh in the NCAA and fifth best among returning goalies for the current season.

Mike Chanenchuk rounded out the Terps All-Americans with a spot on the third team. The senior midfielder led Maryland in goals scored last season with twenty three after starting all fourteen games. Chanenchuk added fourteen assists to finish second on the team in scoring with thirty-seven points. He led the Terps with seventy-three shots and put nearly sixty-two percent of those on goal scoring on just over half of those shots while connecting about thirty-two percent of the time overall.

Although I don't place much weight on preseason rankings, I should also mention that Inside Lacrosse projects Maryland as the sixth best team in the country behind Duke, Syracuse, North Carolina, Notre Dame, and Denver. Sixth best team in the country, fifth best in your conference. Whew!