COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Penn State got attackman Grant Ament back from injury Sunday. It also provided Maryland — and the rest of Division I — a reminder it isn’t a one-man band on offense.
The Nittany Lions scored eight goals in the first quarter, then fended off a Terrapin push to earn a 13-10 victory. Penn State, already the top-ranked team in the Inside Lacrosse media and USILA coaches polls, supplants Yale at No. 1 in the Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Men’s Top 20.
Ament sat out Penn State’s March 23 triumph at Cleveland State, a worrisome sign for a player who missed all of last year with injury. Coupled with an open date the weekend before, and Ament had three weeks of rest coming into Sunday.
The redshirt junior had two assists in the first quarter, giving him 48 on the season.
“Getting Grant back at the end of the week was an injection of spirits that was certainly very tangible on the field,” coach Jeff Tambroni said after the Nittany Lions (8-1, 1-0 Big Ten) earned their first victory in 37 tries against Maryland (8-2, 0-1). “I think everybody felt getting on that bus that as long as we kept a simplistic game plan that we were going to have a chance to win this one.”
Ament was knocked down in the middle of the second quarter and the Nittany Lions holding an 8-1 lead and remained on the field for a minute before trudging to the sideline. He would later return, but it was a combination of a few timely forced turnovers and some slick play from the supporting cast on offense that helped Penn State repel Maryland when it closed within 8-7.
“After that second quarter, I probably wasn’t at my best, but Jack Kelly dodged his rear end off for those two quarters and did tremendously,” Ament said. “Dan Reaume did very well. Cole Willard gave us a spark when we needed it. It feels very good to lean back on, because when it comes to the playoffs we’re going to need to lean back on those guys. It’s not always going to be the top guys, necessarily.”
Nike/US Lacrosse
Division I Men’s Top 20
April 1, 2019 |
W/L |
Prev |
Next |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Penn State | 8-1 | 2 | 4/7 vs. No. 6 Ohio State |
| 2 | Yale | 6-2 | 1 | 4/6 vs. Dartmouth |
| 3 | Loyola | 7-2 | 6 | 4/6 vs. No. 14 Lehigh |
| 4 | Maryland | 8-2 | 3 | 4/6 vs. Michigan |
| 5 | Virginia | 8-2 | 8 | 4/6 vs. No. 19 North Carolina |
| 6 | Ohio State | 7-1 | 4 | 4/6 at No. 1 Penn State |
| 7 | Notre Dame | 5-3 | 10 | 4/6 at No. 8 Duke |
| 8 | Duke | 8-3 | 5 | 4/6 vs. No. 7 Notre Dame |
| 9 | Denver | 6-3 | 7 | 4/6 vs. Villanova |
| 10 | Penn | 5-3 | 18 | 4/6 at Brown |
| 11 | Cornell | 6-3 | 11 | 4/6 at Harvard |
| 12 | Towson | 6-3 | 12 | 4/6 at Fairfield |
| 13 | Syracuse | 5-3 | 9 | 4/2 at Hobart |
| 14 | Lehigh | 7-3 | 13 | 4/6 at No. 3 Loyola |
| 15 | Army | 8-2 | 14 | 4/6 vs. Boston University |
| 16 | Rutgers | 6-4 | 17 | 4/6 at No. 20 Johns Hopkins |
| 17 | UMass | 7-3 | 15 | 4/6 at Hofstra |
| 18 | High Point | 8-2 | 16 | 4/6 vs. Air Force |
| 19 | North Carolina | 7-3 | 20 | 4/6 at No. 4 Virginia |
| 20 | Johns Hopkins | 5-4 | 19 | 4/6 vs. No. 16 Rutgers |
Also considered (alphabetical order): Delaware (8-2), Georgetown (7-3), Hobart (8-1), Marquette (5-4), Villanova (6-4)
Nike/US Lacrosse Rankings
Division I Men | Division I Women
Division II Men | Division II Women
Division III Men | Division III Women
HOT
Penn (+8)
The Quakers make a massive leap after toppling Cornell and Yale in consecutive weeks. And truth be told, Penn has played reasonably well in all but one game this season, shrugging off an 0-3 start that included one-goal losses to Maryland and Penn State to rattle off five victories in a row.
Penn has an abundance of scoring options, and midfielders Tyler Dunn and Sam Handley delivered the tying and winning goals against Yale. Goalie Reed Junkin turned in a stellar performance with 22 saves, and by the end of the afternoon, Penn had snapped a seven-game slide against Yale with a triple-overtime thriller. There’s still work to do, but the one-goal triumphs the last two Saturdays are anything but flukes.
Virginia (+3)
Who owns the longest active winning streak? It’s more like Hoo owns it. The Cavaliers have claimed seven in a row after sweeping two games in three days from Richmond and Utah, piling up the victories by a combined 33-13 margin.
Virginia’s jump has something to do with inertia; Denver, Duke, Maryland and Ohio State all lost this week. But Lars Tiffany’s team is playing well, and it can clinch the top seed in the ACC tournament with a victory over visiting North Carolina on Saturday.
Loyola (+3)
The Greyhounds appear to have sorted out some of their defensive issues since absorbing an early March loss at Duke. Loyola has rattled off three victories in a row, giving up a total of 19 goals in that span.
That’s less than what Charley Toomey’s team mustered in 60 minutes against Colgate on Saturday. The Greyhounds shouldn’t be expected to replicate that 21-7 rout against Lehigh, but it bodes well for Loyola that it is playing well heading into a game that could ultimately decide who hosts the Patriot League tournament next month.
Notre Dame (+3)
The Fighting Irish closed out an up-and-down — but never, ever boring — March with perhaps its most complete showing of the season. Well, at minimum, its most complete half. Notre Dame built a nine-goal lead before the break on Syracuse, then hung on to win 13-10 to even its ACC record at 1-1.
The Irish picked off Maryland, Denver and Syracuse in March, but it also ceded games to Virginia (on the road) and Ohio State (in overtime at home). They’ve played seven consecutive games decided by three goals or less, and it’s safe to assume Notre Dame isn’t done with tight contests.
NOT
Syracuse (-4)
The Orange remain a puzzling bunch, and the inability to put together a complete game is a striking trait both in good results (a comeback victory over Duke) and bad (a lousy final 20 minutes against Virginia and then a poor first half Saturday at Notre Dame).
That just leaves the Orange as part of a massive, largely indistinguishable scrum between No. 7 and around No. 16 (give or take a spot or two). No results involving two teams in that range qualify as a surprise. The parity in that area of the top 20 is real.
Duke (-3)
The Blue Devils have dropped consecutive games in a single season for the first time since April 1 and 10, 2016. A week after Syracuse rallied past Duke, North Carolina dealt the Blue Devils a 10-8 defeat.
This is still a team with a fine set of victories, including Denver, Loyola, Towson and (in what suddenly looks like a valuable early rout) Penn. But back-to-back losses have caused Duke’s stock to drop a little for now.