By JAKE REVZAN
Journalism B Student
No. 3 seed University of Virginia defended the title and became back-to-back National Champions in a thriller against undefeated No. 1 seed University of Maryland. This win gave Virginia’s extremely successful lacrosse program their 7th NCAA title.
In a game where Maryland looked to complete their undefeated season, Virginia swooped in and shattered the hearts of the Terps organization. Many claim the game to be an instant classic, as the combined 33 points was the highest total in a final since 1975.
Maryland was the favorite to win, being led by star attackman Jared Bernhardt. Bernhardt had a historic season and was by far the best player in the country with 99 points on the season (a school record) and the national scoring leader. Being aware of this, Virginia came with a plan and held Bernhardt scoreless in the second half.
“Bernhardt is the best lacrosse player I’ve ever seen play,” Zack Revzan said. Revzan attended a Maryland game earlier this year and was in awe after seeing Bernhardt play for the first time.
Virginia’s plans to stop Bernhardt shifted their focus away from other players, which allowed attackman Logan Wisnauskas to step up and score 5 goals for the Terrapins.
The game was relatively close for the first three quarters. Virginia went up 5 goals in the middle of the 4th quarter and it seemed like hope was lost for Maryland. In a miraculous comeback, Maryland scored 4 goals back to back in a little over 4 minutes. Each goal was better than the last. You could tell the momentum completely shifted from Virginia to Maryland; they were on fire. This cut the lead to 1, with a score of 16-15. Virginia responded and made it a 2 point game with 3 minutes left in the 4th.
Nerves were high and Maryland just couldn’t seem to put the ball in the net. But, with 10 seconds left in the game, Anthony DeMaio scored to close the gap to 1 goal, 17-16.
With 10.8 seconds remaining on the clock, Maryland had a chance to tie the score up, but only if they won the ensuing faceoff.
Sophomore Luke Wierman stepped up to face off against Virginia. He won the faceoff, scooped the ground ball, and took off toward the goal. Weirman got a shot off with around 5 seconds left, shooting from 8 yards out. But Alex Rode, Virginia’s goalie, stuffed the shot and Virginia proceeded to win the game.
“It wasn’t a great shot in all honesty. Maryland’s guy shot it right at the goalie’s chest,” Adam Isaacson, a Terps fan and alumnus watching the game from home, said.
Virginia played amazingly, scoring 17 goals on Maryland, the highest amount of points the Terps have allowed all season. They came out attacking and never let their foot off the gas, which is what ultimately led to victory.
“The game was crazy. I don’t typically enjoy watching lacrosse, but this game was an exception. It was like watching a March Madness basketball game,” Rich Revzan, a father of 2 lacrosse players, said.
The Virginia vs. Maryland game will go down in history as one of the most exciting lacrosse games ever played.
This is part of a series of articles by Journalism B students, who wrote these for their final article assignment in the class. More will be posted in the coming days! Subscribe for an email update when a new article is posted.
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