Maryland men's lacrosse continued its strong offensive stretch against Albany

After scoring five goals or less in consecutive losses to Yale and Notre Dame, Maryland men's lacrosse had a lot to figure out. With Wednesday's 10-7 victory over No. 11 Albany, the No. 6 Terrapins (4-2) have scored in double-digits in their last three games, all wins.

Senior Bryan Cole said the improvement has come in practice every day.

"We've had a lot of guys staying after, working hard, shooting extra shots, working with the coaches, just doing whatever they need to do," said Cole.

According to Maryland Head Coach John Tillman,  coaching decisions and patience have helped unlock Maryland's potential.

"We changed some positions, and sometimes it takes some time," said Tillman. "Timmy Rotanz has been fantastic the last three games. He just looks so confident, and it took him a while to get [there]."

Rotanz has scored five goals in the last three games after being held scoreless to start the season.

Controlling the pace of the game has been important in the turnaround, according to senior goalie Kyle Bernlohr.

"The first quarter, we obviously want to set the tempo," he said. "We want to have other teams play to our speed and dictate the pace of the game."

The Terrapins controlled the tempo all game against Albany, winning 16 of 20 faceoffs.

Tillman pointed out that the dearth of scoring was not only because of shortcomings from Maryland, but strengths from their opponents.

"Those two teams we played, Yale and Notre Dame, they're just really good. Tip your hat," he said. "Certainly you can't be happy scoring four goals ever, but tip your hat. They were better than us, and it forced us to really look, ‘where can we get better?'"

The forced introspection has helped the Terrapins, as they are now playing their best lacrosse of the season.

"I think a lot of [the improvement] comes from the kids going, ‘I'm going to stay after and shoot, I'm going to work on my technique, I'm going to do some different things to individually get better,'" said Tillman.  "And that makes everything else better."