A year ago, when Marquette bounced back from a three-goal loss to Denver in its regular-season finale by edging the Pioneers 10-9 to win the school’s first Big East title as a fourth-year program, it didn’t seem like a shocking development.

That senior-dominated team had lost just one league game in 2016 and had figured how to win close with its deliberate style. The Golden Eagles took an 11-4 record into the its first NCAA tournament as a No. 6 seed, before losing a 10-9 decision to eventual champion North Carolina in the first round.

This year’s Big East title appears stunning by comparison, starting with the fact that Marquette (8-7) had been crushed by Denver a week earlier, 16-8, and had entered its conference tournament sliding downward with a four-game losing streak as the Big East’s No. 4 seed.

What a difference five days made for Marquette junior goalie Cole Blazer. In the 16-8 debacle, Blazer did not record a save. In the Big East semifinal, he smothered the Pioneers with 12 saves to spark Marquette to an 11-8 victory. The Golden Eagles out-shot Denver 34-29 won the ground ball battle decisively 26-16 and helped to create 14 Denver turnovers and seven failed clears by the Pioneers.

Two days later, Marquette denied hosts Providence its first NCAA tournament trip with a 10-9 win that featured 11 more stops by Blazer.

The Golden Eagles will travel to South Bend to face fourth-seeded, injury-plagued Notre Dame, where offensive leaders Sergio Perkovic and Ryder Garnsey are ailing.

“The beauty of where most teams are is you always have that conference tournament looming at the end,” Marquette coach Joe Amplo said. “All along, we felt like we were getting better every week. It really came down to our best effort beating [Denver’s] not-so-best.

“We honestly needed a team that talented to be off their game. I knew we were going to play hard, but the [fifth-year] program is at the point where playing hard is not enough. We’ve got to execute when it really counts.”

Amplo added that he sensed the Golden Eagles were in a good place — oddly enough as Denver was blasting them midway through the fourth quarter of that regular-season finale.

Amplo credited seniors such as midfielder Andy DeMichiei, who earned recognition as a team captain last week. (The Golden Eagles name their captains at regular seasons’ end.)

“I’ll never forget it,” Amplo said. “It’s cold and it’s raining and we’re getting crushed in the fourth quarter, and I call timeout, because I want to give the guys a positive message about playing hard and finishing right. I walk over to our huddle and [DeMichiei] says to me, ‘We don’t need you here.’

“I heard Andy say exactly the right words to the team. Then after the game in the locker room, he calmly tells the guys, ‘If you don’t think we can win [the rematch against Denver], just hand your stuff in and we’ll go to the Big East tournament without you.’ That’s the culture we’ve created.”

Top-seeded Terps discover different ways to win

Maryland hasn’t been as dominant as last year’s team. The Terrapins were the game’s most consistent frontrunner from wire-to-wire in 2016 and were five minutes away from winning the school’s first national title since 1975, before losing a two-goal lead and falling to North Carolina in a crushing, overtime defeat.

Yet here are the Terps (12-3), back again with another well-deserved No. 1 seed. Here are the Terps, with a balanced team led by senior attackman and Tewaaraton contender Matt Rambo (34 goals, 33 assists) and junior Connor Kelly (37 goals). He is arguably the game’s deadliest midfield shooter entering the NCAAs.

And here are the Terps, who have won every which way a good team can and will seek to make another deep run in May, beginning with Saturday’s first-round clash with unseeded Bryant.

Maryland has jumped out to big leads and cruised, as it did in its 12-5 rout over Johns Hopkins in its regular season finale. Maryland has beaten up-tempo opponents such as North Carolina and Albany. The Terps tuned up for the NCAAs by winning three conference games over an eight-day span, starting with the Hopkins blowout. They followed that with an 8-6 grinder over Penn State in the Big Ten tournament semifinals then outlasted Ohio State, 10-9, in a riveting, six-on-six slugfest that decided the league championship.

Maryland nearly blew sizable leads over Rutgers, Yale and Ohio State in the regular season, yet prevailed by a goal each time. In games decided by two goals or fewer, the Terps are 5-3.

Maryland has won just 49.3 percent of its faceoffs, but opponents have averaged 13 turnovers per game, while the Terps have converted 41.4 percent of their man-up chances and cleared successfully on 90.3 percent of their attempts.

“It’s not always magic. You’re going to have win games that are ugly,” Maryland coach John Tillman said. “You’ve got to handle things when the flow of the game is difficult. We’d love to be more up-tempo, but it’s OK to win games 8-6. I’d like to think we can win a lot of different ways.”