2023 Men's Top 30: How Maryland Fared vs. Projections

Before USA Lacrosse Magazine looks ahead to what’s to come in 2024, our team of staff and contributors decided it was worth taking one last look at 2023.

After all, you have to look at the most recent results before making projections for what’s to come. To do that, we’re taking a journey through the top 30 teams in men’s and women’s lacrosse — what went right, what went wrong and what we should all think of that team’s season.

Was it a success? A failure? A mixture of both? You’ll find out our thoughts over the next month or so.

MARYLAND MEN’S LACROSSE

Nike/USA Lacrosse Preseason/Final Top 20 Ranking: 2/9
2023 record: 10-6 (3-2 Big Ten)

WHAT WENT RIGHT

The Terrapins beat a pair of eventual Memorial Day Weekend teams (Virginia and Penn State) in March and nearly toppled a third (Notre Dame, which needed three overtimes to win at Maryland). Braden Erksa (26 G, 22 A) was named the Big Ten’s freshman of the year and could be a future offensive cornerstone, while Brett Makar earned the league’s defensive player of the year nod. The Terps managed a No. 4 seed while reaching their 20th consecutive NCAA tournament.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Eric Malever, one of the few offensive contributors back from the undefeated 2022 title team, suffered a season-ending injury in the fall. Goalie Logan McNaney was lost for the year in February. Defenseman Ajax Zappitello watched the season’s last four games from the sideline with his arm in a sling. Maryland never really got on a roll, and its banged-up defense was limited late in the season.

SEASON HIGHLIGHT

Brian Ruppel’s flurry of three saves in about 10 seconds during overtime of the March 18 victory at Virginia will hold up for years as one of Maryland’s great goalie performances. Less than a minute later, Daniel Kelly deposited an Erksa feed to seal the 14-13 victory.

VERDICT

As remarkably consistent as the Terps were in 2022 for a variety of reasons, that’s how unpredictable they were in 2023. They still had their moments — the victory at Virginia in mid-March was one of the season’s best games — and they bounced back from an unexpected home loss to Johns Hopkins to beat the Blue Jays 12 days later in the Big Ten tournament. But in aggregate, it was a sobering spring for a program that had reached the NCAA semifinals in nine of the previous 11 tournaments.