Maryland men's lacrosse team ends 42-year drought, wins NCAA title [View all]

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Last edited Tue May 30, 2017, 10:01 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: Washington Post

Maryland men’s lacrosse team ends 42-year drought, wins NCAA title

By Roman Stubbs May 29 at 4:24 PM

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The reality of the Maryland men’s lacrosse team’s first national championship since 1975 had not hit John Tillman yet, so the Terrapins’ head coach did the only sensible thing he could think of as the final seconds of Monday’s 9-6 victory over Ohio State ticked down. He hugged everyone he could. Tillman stayed behind on the sideline as his players threw their sticks and helmets into the air, releasing 42 years’ worth of weight and pressure, thanking everyone he could for sticking with a program that had been snake bitten for nearly four decades.

“This program means so much, and you are motivated to work hard because you know when you win, it makes some people happy,” Tillman said. “When you win a championship, no one has to talk about it anymore.”

Wearing simple white uniforms with red block letters and numbers, the kind of old school threads that the program’s last championship team wore, the Terrapins stayed on the turf as long as they could to soak up their most important win in more than four decades, which came after losses in the national championship game in each of the previous two seasons.

The Terrapins’ win marked a sweep for the school — the Maryland women’s lacrosse team won a national championship on Sunday, clinching their third title in four seasons. But while that group added another chapter to a dynasty, the men were just looking for a breakthrough on Monday. After losing in nine national championship game appearances since 1975, including in the previous two seasons to Denver and North Carolina, respectively, the Terrapins (16-3) played as if there were no other option against a budding Big Ten rival. ... “We didn’t see any other option, of any other outcome,” senior midfielder Nick Manis said. “We believed we were going to get this moment.”
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Roman Stubbs covers the University of Maryland athletics for The Washington Post.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2017/05/29/maryland-mens-lacrosse-team-ends-42-year-drought-wins-ncaa-title/