SURPRISE THAT WASN’T
Army bounces Maryland
Sometimes, you just have to trust what your eyes tell you. Those who saw Army, especially over the last month, knew the Black Knights were solid everywhere, had answers on faceoffs and in the goal and were unlikely to be overwhelmed by any moment.
Anyone who saw Maryland in the second half of the season knew it was anyone’s guess which version of the Terrapins would show up. They were beleaguered by injuries at the defensive end, and lacked the alpha figure on offense they’ve come to be known for (though Braden Erksa could well be that guy moving forward).
The result was that Army pounced early, ran past Maryland’s defensive midfielders for much of the night and could summon an answer every time the Terps flirted with a run. The Black Knights (13-3) wound up with a 16-15 victory and their first quarterfinal appearance since 2010, while Maryland’s attempt to defend its national title ended in the tournament’s first weekend.
BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES
Payton Cormier, Virginia
While the most welcome part of Saturday’s blowout of Richmond for Virginia was Connor Shellenberger continuing to get back on track, Cormier did his part with a six-goal showing. He scored all five goals for Virginia in a 14-minute stretch that saw the Cavaliers’ advantage grow from 11-5 to 16-7.
Knox Dent, Army
OK, the goal the senior accidentally kicked into the net was a new one, especially for him. But there was far more good than bad for the Black Knights’ goalie, who made 16 saves to spur Army’s 16-15 victory at Maryland.
Ethan Long, Penn State
The sophomore came into the tournament with 12 goals on the season. He scored five times on seven shots in the Nittany Lions’ 13-12 defeat of Princeton, eventually drawing a pole after helping to spur Penn State’s rally from a six-goal hole.
Will Lynch, Notre Dame
Conventional wisdom suggested that maybe — maybe — Notre Dame would be vulnerable to Utah’s faceoff game. Then Lynch went out and won 15 of 19 draws as the Irish effectively polished off the Utes by the end of the first quarter.
Coulter Mackesy, Princeton
The Tigers’ star attackman broke Princeton’s single-season scoring record with his six-goal showing in a 13-12 loss at Penn State. Mackesy finished the year with 55 goals, and the half-dozen goals against the Nittany Lions puts him in the company of Tiger legends Jesse Hubbard and Chris Massey as the only Princeton players to hit that plateau in the postseason.
Russell Melendez, Johns Hopkins
What’s the solution to this equation: Melendez + five goals + four assists = ...? Just the Blue Jays’ single-game postseason points record. Several players had delivered eight points in an NCAA tournament game for Hopkins, most recently Dan Denihan in 2000.
Peter Thompson, Michigan
The Ann Arbor native played four years at Georgetown before taking a fifth season at Michigan, and he scored four goals (including the overtime winner) and added an assist in the Wolverines’ NCAA tournament debut.
TEWAARATON WATCH
Tucker Dordevic, Georgetown: The graduate student scored six goals, including four during a stretch when the Hoyas rallied from an 8-3 deficit to tie it at 9 against Yale. Dordevic is up to 63 goals on the season, Georgetown’s single-season record.
Pat Kavanagh, Notre Dame: Three goals, four assists, business as usual for the Fighting Irish star. It was a spread-the-wealth sort of day for Notre Dame as it scored the first eight goals in a 20-7 pummeling of Utah, and Kavanagh did his share to help the Irish advance.
CJ Kirst, Cornell: The Big Red’s star had two goals and an assist on 10 shots while committing two turnovers in an overtime loss. Given the award’s long history of going to a player whose team goes deep into May, that probably ends Kirst’s chances of winning this season.
Brennan O’Neill, Duke: It wasn’t the most statistically prolific tournament opener for O’Neill, who had a goal and three assists against Delaware. But his one score was a deft bit of agility and stickwork off a loose ball and put the Blue Devils ahead for good in the fourth quarter.
Connor Shellenberger, Virginia: Shellenberger adjusted to the swampy field conditions in the Cavaliers’ 17-8 defeat of Richmond, delivering two goals and four assists. It is the first time all season Shellenberger has posted at least four points in three consecutive games, and Virginia is going to have the version of the redshirt junior that can dodge to both feed and score, it is going to be a handful and then some over the next two weeks.
NUMBERS OF NOTE
1
Goal margin of victory for top-seeded Duke against Delaware, the closest a No. 1 seed has come to losing in the first round since the tournament expanded to 16 in 2003. The previous closest call was in 2015 when Notre Dame upended Towson 12-10.
7
Years between NCAA tournament victories for any service academy team, a streak ended by Army’s 16-15 triumph at Maryland. It was the first time an academy team won a postseason game since 2016, when Navy toppled Yale 13-10 in the first round. That was the second-longest academy drought in tournament history, behind only the 11 years between Army’s first-round defeat of Maryland in 1993 and Navy advancing past Penn in the first round in 2004.
16
Years to the day between NCAA tournament victories at home for Georgetown, which rallied past Yale 19-17 on Saturday. The last time the Hoyas won a postseason game on the Hilltop was May 13, 2007, when they outlasted Princeton 9-8 in overtime in a first-round game.
16-4
Record for No. 4 seeds in the first round of the tournament since it expanded to 16 teams in 2003. Maryland became the first No. 4 seed to lose its opener since Yale fell to Navy in 2016. The other No. 4 seeds to stumble in the first round were 2008 North Carolina (against Navy) and 2014 Penn (against Drexel).
36
Goals scored in Georgetown’s 19-17 defeat of Yale, the fifth most in an NCAA tournament game. The record is 38, set in 1994 (Johns Hopkins’ 22-16 victory over Towson in the first round) and matched in 2019 (Yale over Penn State 21-17 in the semifinals). There have also been two 37-goal games: Syracuse winning 21-16 in the 1992 semifinals against Hopkins, and Yale outlasting Penn 19-18 in the 2019 quarterfinals.
58
Goals for Virginia attackman Xander Dickson, who broke a tie with Doug Knight (56 goals in 1996) for the most in a season by a Cavalier with a two-goal showing Saturday against Richmond. The fifth-year player had 52 career goals coming into the season.