Too much Delaware defense, plus too much Alex Smith equaled a long afternoon for the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
Delaware held UMBC?s highly-touted attack to four goalsand Smith won 12-of-19 face-offs as the Blue Hens advanced to the school?s first men?s lacrosse Final Four with a 10-6 come-from-behind victory over the Retrievers in a quarterfinal game played at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.
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Senior midfielders Dan Deckelbaum (Owings Mills) and Jordan Hall each had three goals and one assist for Delaware (13-5), which trailed 3-1 midway through the second quarter. The Blue Hens next play Saturday against Johns Hopkins in the national semifinal at M&T Banks Stadium in Baltimore. Hopkins returns to the Final Four after a one-year absence following its 14-6 win over Georgetown Saturday in Princeton, N.J.
“From our conference playoffs through our last few weeks playing in the NCAA tournament our team seems to be playing at the next level up,” said Delaware coach Bob Shillinglaw, who is now 240-214 in 29 seasons with the Blue Hens. “I definitely had some concerns in the first half. I didn?t think we had been playing as great of lacrosse that we have been playing.
“The good thing is that the players weren?t panicking and on the outside the coaches weren?t panicking. But, I thought we settled down, got them in the locker room at halftime and talked a lot more about what they had to do and execute.”
Much like Virginia last week, UMBC?s attack could not get any offensive consistency against Delaware, which scored six of the game?s final eight goals. Along with Blue Hens goalie Tommy Scherr (Mount St. Joseph) coming up with six critical saves, the Retrievers (11-6) found themselves with limited possessions thanks to Smith. Also, the Blue Hens held a 36-24 advantage in ground balls.
UMBC senior attack Drew Westervelt (John Carroll) closed out his career with two goals and two assists in the loss. In addition, freshman attack Cayle Ratcliff and senior attack Andy Gallagher scored just once each after scoring 41 and 34 respectively coming into the game. Retrievers? goalie Jeremy Blevins finished the contest with 10 saves.
“We definitely didn?t get a rhythm going,” Westervelt said. “We were on the same page but didn?t get it flowing.”
UMBC coach Don Zimmerman said Delaware?s defense was extremely tough to prepare for and expects Johns Hopkins to have a hard time against them next week.
“They didn?t allow for any synchronization and forced us to play helter-skelter,” Zimmerman said. “It really threw us off. We were looking to score more than six goals.”
UMBC/DELAWARE NOTES
>>Delaware?s Alex Smith broke the NCAA record for face-offs attempted in a single season with his 406th during the third quarter. He broke the previous record of 405 set in 2001 by Towson?s Justin Berry.
>>UMBC?s six goals matched its season low set in a 15-6 loss March 6 to Johns Hopkins.
>>UMBC freshman attack Cayle Ratcliff finished tied for sixth place on the school?s single-season goals scored list when he tallied his 42nd on the year Sunday.
