Men’s Lacrosse Team Captures NCAA Championship

The Maryland men's lacrosse team completed a perfect 18-0 season to claim the 2022 national championship Monday with a 9-7 victory over seventh-ranked Cornell.

Before a crowd of 22,184 at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn., the No.1-ranked Terps became only the fourth undefeated team in the sport’s NCAA history and the first since Virginia in 2006. The win was also payback for Maryland’s thwarted perfect season last year, when it fell to the Cavaliers on the same field.

"Our guys were focused all year long, and I give them a lot of credit,” said Head Coach John Tillman, a Cornell graduate who also led the Terps to the national title in 2017. “The leadership: We had so many selfless guys … great role models for young people.”

Anthony DeMaio led the heavily favored Terps with a season-high four goals, his fifth hat trick in his last six games, all in the postseason. He added one assist for a five-point game. He scored his 100th career goal in the first quarter, as he scored the final three goals of the first quarter. He had 17 in the postseason after scoring 16 in a dozen regular-season games.

In his final game with the team, Logan Wisnauskas racked up four points on two goals and two assists. He became the first Terp to record 100 points in a single season, breaking the record of 99 set by Jared Bernhardt last season to become the program’s all-time leading point and goal scorer.

His assist on DeMaio's first goal of the game in the first quarter set the record. DeMaio's second goal, 48 seconds later, was the 100th tally of his career.

Leading the Terps' stellar defense, goalie Logan McNaney made 17 saves and finished with 61 in the NCAA Tournament. Matt Rahill shut down the nation's leading scorer, Jack Piatelli (65 goals entering the game), limiting him to one goal and one assist.

Both defenses were strong early; no one scored for the game's first 7:32 before Cornell's Kirst scored. The Terps evened the game as Malever ripped a feed from Jack Brennan with 5:47 left in the first quarter. Demaio then recorded the natural hat trick with three goals in a span of 2:09. The Terps led 4-1 to end the period.

In the second quarter, Owen Prybylski scored the first goal of the season to give Maryland a 5-1 edge. Kirst got one back for Cornell before DeMaio added his fourth of the first half. Wisnaukas got on the board just before halftime to make it 7-2 at intermission. Cornell was just 2-of-22 shooting in the first half as McNaney made 10 saves in the half. All seven of the Terps' goals in the first half were assisted.

Wisnauskas opened the second half's scoring and Donville scored against his former team to make it 9-2. The Terps held Cornell scoreless for 22:15 before Aiden Blake scored with 4:34 left in the third quarter to put the Terps up 9-3.

In the fourth quarter, Cornell closed the gap to two at 9-7 with four straight goals.

This is Maryland's fourth NCAA title, following those in 1973, 1975 and 2017, and 13th overall men's lacrosse national championship, as it also won nine USILA crowns. Overall, it is Maryland’s' 47th national championship and first since the women's lacrosse program won its record 15th time in 2019.