D8 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MAY 15 , 2022
CollegesBY EMILY GIAMBALVOA perfect season for the Mary-
land men’s lacrosse program
hinged on these 10.8 seconds. The
Terrapins had just scored to climb
within a goal of tying Virginia in
the waning moments of last year’s
national championship game.
Luke Wierman prepared to take
the faceoff with two of the team’s
best offensive players waiting in
the wings.
At the climax of the season, “you
kind of have to forget everything,”
Wierman said, “because if you
don’t, you’re going to let it get to
you.” He remembers feeling confi-
dent, thinking methodically about
what would happen next. He
would win the faceoff. Maryland
would score. And the Terps would
have a chance to win in overtime.
“Everything’s g oing to be all right,”
Wierman t old himself.
As t he frenzied final play began,
Wierman won the faceoff and
sprinted toward the goal, with
those few remaining seconds tick-
ing away. Wierman launched a
shot, and the Cavaliers’ goalkeeper
made the save with his torso. Kool
& the Gang’s “Celebration” soon
became the soundtrack behind
Virginia’s joy and Maryland’s
heartbreak and for the moments a
stunned Wierman sat on the turf.
A year later, when asked about
dealing with the disappointment,
Wierman s aid, “I get that question
a lot.” After the 2021 season, his
family traveled to Colorado for a
white-water rafting trip, which
gave him some distance from that
game and the sport. He said his
teammates helped him move for-
ward, and amid the business of
another season, it’s easy to let
what’s ahead consume his
thoughts instead. But there’s no
way to fully f orget — n ot a moment
that big.
“That can b e traumatic for a guy,
or you can use it to a way where:
‘You know what? I’m going to use
this to make myself better, and I’m
going to be motivated and I’m
going to be inspired by it,’ ” Mary-
land Coach John Tillman said.
“A nd I feel like that’s what hap-
pened with Luke.”
Wierman rebounded with a
standout junior season, becoming
one of the nation’s most dominant
faceoff specialists. He wins
65.4 percent of his attempts, the
second-best mark in Division I — a
key reason the top-seeded Terps
(14-0) have thrived and enter their
opening NCAA tournament game
against Vermont on Sunday with
hopes of a national title r un. Wier-
in mid-April (before five straight
goals in the fourth quarter put the
Terps comfortably a head) i s one o f
the only times Maryland hasn’t
been the superior team from start
to finish this season. Wierman is
part of the r eason for that. A domi-
nant faceoff man can “mask” mis-
takes, Tillman said, and about two-
thirds of the time, Wierman se-
cures possession for the nation’s
most prolific offense at 18.4 goals
per game.
“ T here’s a reason why the of-
fense does that well and the de-
fense doesn’t have to play as
much,” Tillman said. “It’s incredi-
ble.... L ast year, w e were t rying to
get to 50 percent [at the faceoff],
and now if we’re 50 percent, we’re
disappointed.”
When Maryland opened the
postseason with a Big Ten semifi-
nal matchup against Johns Hop-
kins, Wierman had his worst per-
formance of the year. He secured
only 1 0 of 22 faceoffs in a 16-11 win,
just the second time all season he
has dipped below a 50 percent
success rate. Wierman left the
game disappointed — and moti-
vated.
Wierman rebounded two days
later with his best outing of the
season, winning 20 of 26 faceoffs
in Maryland’s commanding 17-7
victory over Rutgers in the Big Ten
championship game.
For Wierman, the entire season
has been an extended response.
Games depend on 60 minutes, not
10.8 s econds. But national champi-
onships are remembered for how
they end. And now, finally , Wier-
man and the Terps have an oppor-
tunity to provide an emphatic an-
swer i n the NCAA tournament.
“I think it just gives us all moti-
vation,” Wierman said, “really be-
ing that close to something we
worked so hard for and sacrificed a
lot for.”Cavaliers take down Bears
Payton Cormier scored five
goals and Connor Shellenberger
added four to lead Virginia (12-3)
to a 17-10 victory over Brown (10-6)
in the first round of the NCAA
tournament in Providence, R.I....
In other games, Yale (12-4)
claimed an 18-16 decision over
Saint Joseph’s (14-4) in New Ha-
ven, Conn.; P rinceton (10-4) ad-
vanced with a 12-5 win over Boston
University (12-5) in Princeton,
N.J.; and Penn (11-4) downed Rich-
mond (11-5), 11-10, in overtime i n
Philadelphia.man, the Big Ten specialist of the
year, already has broken Mary-
land’s single-season record with
236 faceoff wins.
“I think none of us could have
predicted t hat Luke had e volved as
much as he has,” Tillman said of
Wierman, who shared playing
time a t his position in 2021.
Wierman started taking face-
offs as a way to get on the field
while in high school in West Ches-
ter, Pa. He initially signed with
Fairfield University but reconsid-
ered when the school’s coach,
Andy Copelan, stepped down.
Copelan vouched for Wierman,
telling Tillman that if Maryland
needed a faceoff specialist, he
knew of one looking for a new
school. Tillman saw Wierman as
someone with upside because he
had played all over the field in highschool and would now focus solely
on faceoff duties.
When Wierman arrived at
Maryland, he remembers how fast
the game seemed to move, and he
had never encountered such in-
tense, detailed preparation. I t took
time to adjust, and he didn’t play
as a freshman during the short-
ened 2020 slate. Entering the 2021
season, Tillman’s s taff searched f or
a second faceoff specialist to com-
plement Justin Shockey. The
coaches had a player in mind, but
Wierman e merged instead.
“Some guys need to get it right
away or they kind of lose their
focus,” Tillman said. “A ll Luke’s
done is try to invest more, and it’s
just been so awesome to see. He’s
taken a step each year.”
Wierman enjoyed that shared
role because he said he “could easeinto it a little bit.” Shockey took
250 faceoffs, winning 51.2 percent,
and Wierman had 192 attempts
with a 45. 3 percentage. Shockey
handled the bulk of the attempts at
the start of the year, then Wierman
came in for a four-game stretch.
The Terps rode Shockey through
most of the postseason. Wierman
only took one faceoff in the nation-
al semifinal, and he entered the
championship game knowing his
teammate would start. But when
Shockey struggled early, Maryland
turned to Wierman — all the way
through the game’s final posses-
sion.
Carroll Kennedy, the team’s vol-
unteer assistant coach, arrived in
College Park this offseason, and he
works with the faceoff specialists.
He said he has never talked with
Wierman about that nationalchampionship game. But he men-
tioned that Wierman plays a posi-
tion that is the closest to a true
one-on-one matchup that lacrosse
has to offer. Learning to push let-
downs out of mind is key, and
Wierman s tays even-keeled.
As this season approached,
Kennedy saw Wierman trending
in a positive direction, so maybe
this breakout isn’t surprising, he
said. Wierman kept adding new
facets to his game to keep oppo-
nents guessing. Tillman saw
W ierman’s confidence grow
through last season. With Shock-
ey’s departure, Wierman said he
knew he needed “to work hard to
be that guy that w e can rely o n.”
Each season, Tillman expects
his group to weather ups and
downs. He s ays that’s an inevitabil-
ity. But trailing against Ohio StateFor undefeated Terps, Wiermanis an X-factor in the faceo≠ circleTAYLOR MCLAUGHLIN/MARYLAND TERRAPINS
A loss to Virginia in last year’s NCAA title game has provided constant motivation for Maryland faceoff specialist Luke Wierman.vidually best for themselves.”
Frese received a contract exten-
sion in April, and the two-time
national coach of the year is set to
stay in College Park through the
2028 -29 season. The team lost
12 games in the past two seasons
combined and advanced to the
Sweet 16 in the past two NCAA
tournaments. The Terps have
missed the NCAA tournament
only twice under Frese, with the
last coming in 20 10.
“ Two years ago when we were
hit with the graduations and the
transfer portal, we were able to go
in and get Chloe and Katie,” Frese
said. “A nd the n ext year, w e led the
nation in scoring. I was fortunate
enough to be named coach of the
year, and nobody left. But nobody
talked about that. Everybody was
happy.
“Then you go into this year, and
egos can change. Different things
that you want as you evolve as a
player changes. Those a re the indi-
vidual things that they have to
address. From our end, I know
who we are as a program.... I
think that’s the one thing when
players have left, they’ve found it’s
a heck of a risk. The grass isn’t
always greener somewhere else. So
we wish them all t he best.”court, I felt like I had more to
prove. I had more to give. H onestly,
just needed, like, a mentor. I felt
like it’s b igger than basketball. And
for me, the things I was dealing
with during that time, I really just
needed someone who cared [about
me] more t han being an athlete.
“Off the court, I was really able
to grow and mature as a player and
an athlete and also just as a team-
mate [at Ole Miss]. I was just able
to really piece s ome s tuff together.”
Frese dismissed the notion that
deeper issues led to player depar-
tures. She points to the portal
numbers and the fact that
262 players from Power Five
schools transferred, according to
WBB Blog. Maryland’s transfers
get more attention because of the
popularity and success of the pro-
gram, Frese a dded.
“I appreciate that our fans are
upset because it shows people are
invested in our sport and in our
program. That’s a great thing,”
Frese said. “But having 20 years
that I’ve been invested in this... I
think it’s disappointing because of
the fact that you build these rela-
tionships and invest so much time
and money in these players and
their families. But at the same
point, they’ve got to do what’s indi-college basketball at Maryland be-
cause not only am I from Mary-
land,” Meyers said in a statement,
“but I grew up going to the wom-
en's basketball games at the amaz-
ing Xfinity Center! I have tremen-
dous respect for the program and
all it has accomplished under
Coach Frese's leadership, and I
want to help continue to build the
winning legacy.”
Alexander, who led Vanderbilt
in scoring last season, added: “I've
had Maryland in my sights for a
while now. The winning culture
and an opportunity to play in the
Big Ten were both appealing to me.
After speaking with Coach Frese
and her staff, I really felt they
wanted to bring me into their fam-
ily.”
The transfer portal and name,
image and likeness rules have cre-
ated a form of free agency for
college sports. But even before the
full effects of those changes were
realized, Maryland lost talented
players such as Taylor Mikesell
(Oregon, then Ohio State), Shakira
Austin (Mississippi) and Olivia
Owens ( Kentucky).
“ It was a lot. It was a lot,” said
Austin, who was the third overall
pick in the WNBA draft by the
Washington Mystics. “On theoffseason. Two years ago, the Ter-
rapins added Katie Benzan and
Chloe Bibby and became the No. 1
offense in women’s basketball,
with Benzan being the top three-
point shooter in the nation. This
time it’s 6 -foot g uard Abby Meyers
(Princeton), 5-8 guard Elisa Pin-
zan (South Florida), 6-2 forward
Allie Kubek (Towson) and 6-foot
forward Brinae Alexander (Van-
derbilt). Maryland also added 6-1
forward Lavender B riggs (Florida)
during the season and signed in-
coming freshman guards Gia
Cooke and Brianna McDaniel a
month ago. The 5-10 McDaniel is
ranked as the 42 nd overall recruit
in the nation by ESPN, and the 5-9
Cooke is ranked 52 nd.
Meyers, a former All-Met at
Walt Whitman, is the reigning Ivy
League player of the year and was
named an honorable mention AP
all-American, while Pinzan was
the American Athletic Confer-
ence’s most improved player in
2021.
There are only four players re-
maining from the start of the 2021 -
22 season, and only three — Dia-
mond Miller, Shyanne Sellers and
Faith Masonius — played signifi-
cant minutes.
“I chose to play my final year ofwrote. “My goal was to have a great
career here and to win a national
championship alongside an amaz-
ing team. I c ould picture my j ersey
hanging in the rafters at Xfinity
Center.
“Unfortunately, events that
have transpired on and off the
court this year have led me to make
the very difficult but necessary
decision to continue my e ducation
and basketball career e lsewhere.”
Reserves Taisiya Kozlova and
Channise Lewis also left the pro-
gram via t he portal.
More than 1,200 players have
transferred this offseason, accord-
ing to WBB Blog, which monitors
the women’s basketball transfer
portal. Frese said this is just life in
college basketball in 2022. Coach-
es can expect to lose players every
year and have to re-recruit their
own rosters.
“ This transfer portal, they
opened the Pandora’s box,” Frese
said. “In one to two more years,
everybody will understand this is
the new normal. It’ll be what’s
wrong if you don’t have someone
leaving? This will be the new nor-
mal of what’s been created.”
Frese and her staff certainly
work the portal themselves and
have been particularly active thiswanted to get into grad school
here and didn’t have the GPA to
get in. So I think every kid has
different reasons.”
The losses sent shock waves
through women’s college basket-
ball. Reese was the highest-rated
recruit — No. 2 in the country —
Maryland had ever signed, a nd she
exited after just two seasons. She
led the team in points and re-
bounds last season and was named
a third-team Associated Press all-
American. Owusu was an honor-
able mention AP all-American af-
ter finishing second on the Terps in
scoring and assists. During her
career at Maryland, she was the
2020 Big Ten freshman of the year,
a two-time Big Ten tournament
MVP and a third team all-Ameri-
can in 2021.
Reese did not respond to an
interview request. Owusu de-
clined to comment, but in her Ins-
tagram post announcing her de-
parture, she referenced “events
that have transpired on and off the
court.”
“I have never started anything
that I haven’t finished, and finish-
ing was the plan when I decided to
come to College Park,” Owusu
MARYLAND FROM D1
After high-profile departures, Frese turns to portal to restock Terrapins’ roster
BY PATRICK STEVENSPart of building a strong team
defense in lacrosse is meshing a
variety o f strengths into one unit.
There are shutdown close de-
fensemen who can smother an op-
posing attackman in a one-on-one
matchup. Some guys are off-ball
aces, technicians with exceptional
stickwork. Some are deft a t picking
the ball up off the ground and
igniting transition.
And then there’s Will Bowen, a
former first-team all-American de-
fenseman at North Carolina who
has fortified Georgetown’s already
imposing defense and helped the
Hoyas (15-1) land the No. 2 seed in
the NCAA tournament. They will
host Delaware (12-5) at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday at C ooper Field.
“A guy like Will comes in as well
with all these different characteris-
tics, and he can fill any gap we’re
missing because he’s s o diverse as a
player,” defenseman James Don-
aldson said. “That was really what
he brought the most was his diver-
sity because we had most gaps
filled elsewhere. He just bolstered
almost everything we had when he
showed up. We w ere pumped to get
him.”
And rightfully so. The 6-foot-3,
220 -pound graduate student fig-
ured to be one of the most impact-
ful transfers available in last year’s
cycle, and he has delivered
34 caused turnovers as George-
town has rolled to an 11-game win-
ning streak and Big East regular
season and tournament titles.
Bowen was part of the Tar Heels’
program for three years, missing
2019 with an ACL tear before los-
ing the back half of the 2020 season
like everyone else when the coro-navirus pandemic hit. The time off
gave him the chance to sketch out a
long-term schedule, and he real-
ized he could earn an undergradu-
ate degree in three years.
Bowen wanted to pursue a spe-
cific two-year master’s program in
finance with an eventual aim of
working in the financial services
sector. Only a handful of schools
with nationally competitive Divi-
sion I lacrosse programs offered it,
narrowing Bowen’s options from
the start. (North Carolina, among
others, did not have the program
he sought).
Georgetown won out, and Bow-
en made his choice well before he
even began his final season at
North Carolina.
“Every coach thinks they’re real-
ly good at the recruiting piece, but
Will is so driven and has a plan in
everything he does, on and off thefield,” Hoyas Coach Kevin Warne
said. “He knew he had the ability to
graduate when he did and had the
opportunity to grab a two-year
master’s. He did a lot of the back-
ground work on his own.”
There was still an adjustment to
be made once Bowen joined the
Hoyas, and he didn’t want to over-
step any boundaries on a team that
was coming off a trip to the NCAA
quarterfinals and had most of the
pieces of an elite defense back.
So rather than immediately as-
sert himself, Bowen spent the fall
analyzing his new situation and
fitting into his new team.
“My No. 1 priority was building
relationships, letting the guys get
to know me, making sure I got to
know the guys so that this spring
could be so much easier,” Bowen
said. “Wherever there was friction
in the fall during that processwhere I was trying to meet people,
make myself known and just ac-
custom myself to this entire area
and campus community, it was
only a matter of time before it
became normal and was like I’d
been here for two or three years.”
That introductory period, per-
haps even more than his stellar
play, stood out to teammates who
knew Bowen only by his superb
on-field reputation less than nine
months ago.
“I give him a lot of credit for the
way he came in here because, being
the player he was, it would have
been easy to come in here and kind
of been top dog, and everybody
would have been okay with it be-
cause he has that clout,” Donaldson
said. “But he did the exact opposite
and treated everyone the same way
and really lived by the golden rule.”
Ultimately, the transfer checkedevery box Bowen thought it would.
The academic program met his
expectations. He knows he will
have the ability to tap into a second
alumni network once he gradu-
ates.
And Bowen earned Big East de-
fensive player of the year honors as
the Hoyas landed their highest
seed ever in the NCAA tournament
and are well positioned to make a
run to the final weekend of the
season for the first time since 1999.
“I honestly feel like I’ve doubled
my life in a sense, which is crazy
and maybe something I should
have expected coming into this,”
Bowen said. “It was a big move, in
all the best of ways. I’ve been ex-
tremely pleased with my time
here.”Georgetown lacrosse transfer got what he expected, including a title shotDelaware at Georgetown
Today, 7:30 p.m., ESPNUVermont at Maryland
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