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Lacrosse bracket projection, May 5, v2.0

For those looking for the final lacrosse bracket projection of the year, you can find the full breakdown over at Lacrosse Magazine.

That link offers insight into every team in contention for a bid. But the bottom line is this projected field:

College Park

(1) BIG EAST/Syracuse vs. NORTHEAST/Bryant
(8) Cornell vs. Loyola

Indianapolis

(4) ECAC/Ohio State vs. PATRIOT/Lehigh
(5) Denver vs. Duke

College Park 

(3) North Carolina vs. COLONIAL/Towson
(6) Maryland vs. AMERICA EAST/Albany

Indianapolis

(2) Notre Dame vs. METRO ATLANTIC/Detroit
(7) Penn State vs. IVY/Yale

Check back for more after the 9 p.m. selection show.

--- Patrick Stevens

Maryland's offense gets well in rout of Colgate

The time for truth arrived this week in College Park, the time to face the growing sense Maryland's lacrosse season was headed to a bad place after three listless offensive performances in a row.

Assistant coach Ryan Moran opened the floor to his experienced offense, nearly all of whom were struggling in some form.

The Terrapins had 18 goals over three games against Johns Hopkins, Yale and Virginia.

They matched that total in an 18-6 rout of Colgate at Byrd Stadium that likely locked up a home game in this month's NCAA tournament.

"We weren't afraid to hold anything back," midfielder Jake Bernhardt said. "Right now, it's do or die. You might as well not have any regrets leaving here and we might as well let it all out."

One single outburst, particularly against a freshman goalie with all of 28 collegiate minutes to his name before Saturday, doesn't mean all is well for Maryland (10-3). Indeed, it might just be a one-week mirage, and the Terps will find out soon enough.

But Maryland couldn't help but to be encouraged. The entire lineup was engaged. The Terps got multi-point games from eight players. They scored the first five goals.

And for the first time in a while, Maryland didn't look cautious as it picked apart the Raiders (8-7).

"We just want to keep things simple and we're better when we share the ball," attackman Kevin Cooper said. "You could probably tell our sets were more basic and simple today and we just knew our looks."

Simplicity might not work against Denver or Notre Dame or Syracuse or whoever might be sitting down the road. But it did earlier in the season, and it did Saturday.

While coach John Tillman wouldn't say it, there had to be some relief in seeing the Terps still could muster something this deep in the season. They couldn't against Hopkins three weeks earlier. They struggled to coax the eight goals needed to dispatch Yale.

And the ACC tournament ouster against Virginia was a lifeless mess, as clear a sign as there could be the Terps might be watching the quarterfinals in their own stadium rather than playing on the season's penultimate weekend.

The Terps' hopes go beyond that, go to Philadelphia where they hope to put an end to a 37-season title drought. The possibility of pushing through seemed so promising early in the season, at least until an offense with plenty of steady players but no superstar sputtered in April.

A team that, in its own verbiage, thrived on singles started trying to hit home runs and failed miserably in doing so.

"It always happens to any good team --- everyone wants to make something happen, even if it might not be there," Bernhardt said. "We're really a group of unselfish guys, and really the home run plays are throwing it to someone so they can score. I think it just comes with being a good team. Unfortunately, you hit those lows in the season. Hopefully, this game sparked us."

Cooper shrugged off a lackluster three-game stretch with a six-point day. Bernhardt produced his first three-point day since the season opener. Jay Carlson's hat trick surpassed his scoring from the previous four games combined.

That's how it goes for Maryland: One guy playing well ensures things get a bit better for everyone else. And that's how it worked Saturday.

"If you're not playing fast, how do you make it faster?" Tillman said. "You go back to what they're comfortable with and what they know and now you can play a little more extensively. Simplifying was definitely part of it."

And so Maryland takes some good vibes into the postseason. It has its 11th straight 10-win season secure, and will have as good a chance as anyone to return to a third consecutive final four.

Saturday could prove a one-day phenomenon. But the truth is, it's something to work with, something to illustrate the Terps acknowledged a growing problem and tried to address it.

Whether it's a long-term fix is anyone's guess, least of all the players seeking to extend their season deep into May.

"Everyone kind of knew something just wasn't going right," Bernhardt said. "Honestly, we didn't have an answer and we don't have an answer for it. I can't sit here and tell you I have an answer for it even after playing well today."

--- Patrick Stevens

Early end arrives for Virginia after ACC title game defeat

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. --- Virginia lacrosse coach Dom Starsia found himself in an unusual but not unprecedented place Sunday afternoon at Kenan Stadium.

It's a spot neither he nor the Cavaliers intend to repeat anytime soon.

Next year usually doesn't arrive for Virginia until mid-May at the earliest. Most seasons, it doesn't come until Memorial Day weekend.

Yet a 16-13 loss to North Carolina in Sunday's ACC tournament final sent the Cavaliers into the offseason far earlier than they are accustomed after an undeniably odd year. The setback clinched a losing season for Virginia (7-8), its first since last missing the NCAA tournament in 2004.

"It's going to be strange to wake up tomorrow and not be getting ready for practice, I'll tell you that," Starsia said. "It just happened. You have to live with it and work through it and pick up the pieces and get going. I'm sure tomorrow we'll have thoughts of 2014 already."

Considerations of 2013 are sure to linger as well. For all that went wrong for Virginia, from its six-game losing streak in the middle of the season to lackluster goalie play for much of the year, the Cavaliers still found themselves in position to make matters interesting on the final day of the season.

Senior Matt White tied an ACC tournament record with seven goals. Attackman Nick O'Reilly set event records for assists in a game (seven) and a tournament (nine).

Offensively, Virginia looked like Virginia again, rattling off four straight games with at least a dozen goals to close the season. The Cavaliers might not have made a run at a national title, but a team that blitzed Maryland and tested North Carolina (12-3) would have been a headache next month.

"I think we left a lot of good lacrosse out there," White said. "It's a bummer."

If the Cavaliers' loss in the teams' first meeting was a reflection of their own problems, Sunday was indicative of North Carolina's strengths. The Tar Heels won their first ACC tournament since 1996 thanks to the potent combination of a wickedly talented offense and and R.G. Keenan's stout faceoff work for much of the day.

For as hollow a day as it was for Virginia, it was equally vital for the Tar Heels. For so many years, Carolina was the sport's chronic underachievers once the conference and NCAA tournament arrived (and sometimes before then). One day doesn't erase that label, but it's not difficult to imagine Carolina finally ending a two-decade absence from the NCAA final four.

Virginia will miss the season's final weekend in consecutive years for only the second time under Starsia (1997-98 was the other), and it is worth observing the Cavaliers roared to a national championship the year after that stretch.

That feat might seem a bit out of reach in the near-term, particularly as Virginia contends with the anguish of a season with a premature end. After keeping Carolina within sight for much of the first half, Virginia yielded five straight goals to the immensely precise Tar Heels to fall behind 12-7 and could never get back within two.

"We all know what was at stake," O'Reilly said. "It was discussed. It's hard to deal with."

Nonetheless, there's enough in place to believe this won't become a trend. Virginia, wiped by graduation a year ago, didn't have a large senior class this year. Star attackman Mark Cockerton will be back. The Cavaliers' goalies have actually played.

There's also hope in how Virginia recovered from its last losing season. The dysfunctional 2004 team gave way to a younger, capable group that made its way to the semifinals a year later and lost a wild, memorable storm-delayed semifinal to Johns Hopkins and went on to a perfect season in 2006.

These Cavaliers didn't endure the same sort of unrest as they did in '04, yet did at times succumb to youthful errors. Virginia doesn't lack of talent and never has under Starsia, but this spring there weren't as many polished players as usual. Even to the end, it was part of the difference between the Cavaliers and long-suffering North Carolina on Sunday.

"At the end of the day, we just weren't quite good enough, frankly, but we worked hard trying to be," Starsia said. "It just didn't happen today."

Or this spring, hence a early-arriving offseason in Charlottesville. Next year begins Monday for Virginia, and chances are good it will be more fulfilling than this one was.

--- Patrick Stevens

Cavaliers a game away from crafting own chapter in Virginia's lacrosse legacy

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. --- Virginia's 2003 national championship team convened in Charlottesville for its 10-year reunion earlier this month, coming to town as the Cavaliers were ensconced in what would become a six-game losing streak for one of college lacrosse's proudest programs.

A 10-7 loss to North Carolina that weekend didn't stop Virginia's current edition from looking around and wondering just what was happening --- especially since the Cavaliers' accomplished predecessors were doing exactly that themselves.

"You could just see them being like 'What is going on here? Let's get a win here, boys,'" junior midfielder Bobby Hill said.

It took a while, but Virginia finally snagged a couple entering Sunday's ACC title game at North Carolina.

The stakes are simple for the Cavaliers (7-7). Win, and they collect a second top-10 win, capture their first ACC tournament in three years and harbor hope for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament for another week.

Lose, and Virginia is saddled with its first losing season since 2004 and won't play into May.

"If we can get this game, at the risk of being melodramatic, it would be sort of a storybook ending to this season for everything we've been through," coach Dom Starsia said.

The Cavaliers have been through enough.

Their most experienced goalie (Austin Geisler) transferred to High Point after fall ball, leaving a freshman (Dan Marino) and a sophomore (Rhody Heller) to handle the job. Arguably their best player (Chris LaPierre) played in only three games before he was shut down for the season with an injury.

All of that doesn't even include the exodus of talent from last year: Steele Stanwick and Chris Bocklet from the attack, Colin Briggs in the midfield, Matt Lovejoy on defense. There was already bound to be a dip; it just turned into a crater as the losses stacked on top of each other.

None of Virginia's defeats was all that stunning on its own when it happened, with the possible exception of a home loss to Ohio State. Only a 15-8 stumble against Johns Hopkins was a full-fledged throttling.

But it was not a Virginia-like season.

"I stopped paying attention to the record," senior midfielder Matt White said. "I was just paying attention to how hard we worked every day and if we were getting better. I think we did get better over the course of those games. Obviously, the scores didn't show it because we had a couple of one-goal losses early and a couple of not one-goal losses later on."

Remarkably, the midseason skid didn't evoke many comparisons to the Cavaliers' ill-fated 2004 season beyond simply losses. That was a bunch coming off a national title that lost a couple games early in Colorado and never fully recovered despite the presence of some remarkable talents.

That group went 5-8 and remains Starsia's only losing season in 31 years as a head coach.

"In both situations, we were a little short personnel-wise," Starsia said. "We were really injured that year and short at a couple spots. But that team was eating its young, so to speak. There was a self-destructive nature to that group, and there's been none of that here. This has been as positive an experience as I can recall overall. Just with the schedule we play, we weren't getting a break."

Perhaps a strong second half last week against Bellarmine was all Virginia needed. The Cavaliers rumbled past Maryland 13-6 in Friday's semifinal, dominating the final 18 minutes to turn a one-goal game into a blowout.

Now comes the rematch with North Carolina (11-3), three weeks after a strong part of the Cavaliers' lacrosse legacy watched Virginia struggle mightily to muster even seven goals. Only now, Virginia has climbed into a more comfortable place as it looks to save its season.

"Everyone likes winning," White said. "When you have a couple straight one-goal losses, morale goes down a little bit and you lose another one and it takes a lot out of you. I'm just glad the guys never quit and never stopped working."

It's possible just one game remains, but there are encouraging hints Virginia could pull another surprise and keep itself in the postseason conversation. Heller is playing better. Attackman Mark Cockerton (46 goals) remains a one-man highlight reel. White has hat tricks in two of his last three games. In general, Virginia's offense has become more efficient.

Considering how the Cavaliers recruit, there was never much doubt about talent. The uncertainty was whether it would develop. Starsia is the first to acknowledge Virginia simply wasn't good enough throughout March and early April.

The end of the season, though, could turn out quite differently.

"I tell these guys, they're going to tell stories about you guys, especially if you win [Sunday]," Starsia said. "We'll talk about this team in the future as one that wasn't winning on Saturdays but came to practice every day. It seems like I'm making it up, but all I can ask is that  you come and work hard every day and we did that."

--- Patrick Stevens

Just how did a standard-issue slash on Virginia became a nonreleaseable penalty?

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. --- You watch enough games and you're bound to see something different.

Take the odd scenario that unfolded in the third quarter of the Maryland-Virginia ACC semifinal at Kenan Stadium on Friday.

With the Cavaliers up 6-3, Virginia defenseman Scott McWilliams committed a slash as Maryland attempted to set up a goal. Just seconds later, the Terps' John Haus and the Cavaliers' Pat Harbeson barked at each other and were called for unsportsmanlike conduct.

That set up a 5-on-4 for Maryland, which cashed in seven seconds later. Yet McWilliams remained on the bench, and the Terps added another extra-man goal to temporarily tighten things.

"I've never seen a situation where with simultaneous fouls like that, the first foul wasn't released after the first extra-man goal was scored," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said after the Cavaliers' 13-6 victory. "I couldn't imagine why Scott McWilliams wasn't back on the field at that point, but because they said the fouls had happened at exactly the same moment, that's how it's played. I was in no position to argue because I had no idea what they were talking about. I wasn't happy to be facing off with one guy at the faceoff line."

The rulebook actually supports the ruling --- if you assume McWilliams' slash occurred at exactly the same moment as the unsportsmanlike conduct.

In the section on simultaneous fouls (Rule 7, Section 6, Subsection b, Line 3), it notes releasing players is dealt with in Rule 7-2-d. That, in turn, reads as follow:

"For the purpose of determining when a player or players may be released from a penalty, for all time-serving penalties called on players of opposing teams from the time the flag is dropped or the whistle sounds stopping play (whichever occurs first), until the sounding of the whistle resuming play, the longest common penalty time between players of opposing teams is nonreleaseable, as is all penalty time of a shorter or equal duration."

In other words, because the common penalty time was one minute (for the unsportsmanlike conduct calls), any other penalty that was one minute or less (like the slash) was nonreleaseable.

And that's the rules interpretation, unusual as it is.

--- Patrick Stevens

Disappearing offense leaves Terps puzzled, out of ACC tournament

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. --- John Tillman was here last year. And the year before.

Now, his Maryland lacrosse team is struggling to figure out what's wrong as the regular season winds to a close.

Again.

"Having a reference point helps, but it's kind of frustrating to put ourselves in that position again," Tillman said in a tunnel at Kenan Stadium Friday after Virginia hammered the Terrapins 13-6 in the ACC semifinals. "It's something we're trying to avoid, yet we keep put ourselves in that spot."

This isn't a matter of whether Maryland (9-3) will make the NCAA tournament or not. It will.

It's not a matter of whether the Terps can earn a home game in the first round of the postseason. It can.

But there's a creeping sense this Maryland edition will struggle to replicate the efforts of its two immediate predecessors, which reached Memorial Day before falling in the national title game.

The issues reside on offense, which not long ago appeared built to fully exploit rules designed to enhance scoring opportunities. It just seems like it was long ago.

The Terps managed four goals against Johns Hopkins, eight against Yale and now seven against Virginia (7-7) over the last three weeks. The Terps did encounter a pair of desperate outfits (Hopkins and Virginia) in that span, losing to both of them.

Regardless, Maryland simply cannot count on scoring much with the postseason fast approaching. What's worse, there isn't an obvious reason why.

"I don't think there can be one single answer to that," attackman Owen Blye said. "It's a culmination of a lot of things. Offense is kind of a tricky thing, where there's six guys out there who have to gel together. I don't really judge us on how many goals we score in a game. I judge us on how much we'll sacrifice for each other throughout the week of practice and how much we're coming together."

Choose to judge the Terps in any way you wish, but their season's expiration date will surely arrive earlier should it not fix its offense. And the way this particular team is built ensures it is a valid question whether that will happen.

Maryland's strength lies in its ability to involve all six players, with its weakest offensive player serving as far less of a liability than most teams --- at least when things are going well.

All six starters have 15 goals, an incredible bit of depth. None have more than 20 goals, which suggests there isn't an unstoppable force in the bunch.

In turn, no one is carrying Maryland when several of its solid players fall into slumps. Kevin Cooper hasn't scored in three games. Neither has Jay Carlson. John Haus snapped a two-game scoreless streak Friday. Jake Bernhardt is 2-for-18 over the last three games.

All have played well for much of the season, and Maryland needs most (if not all) of them to offer effective play.

"In college lacrosse this year with most of the teams, if your best guys aren't playing well, it really hurts you," Tillman said. "You've invested a lot with those guys, they've been through the wars. They are your best guys. You hope that even if they don't have an A-game, they have a B-game and they're going to play well. We need our best guys to play well. We don't need them to be perfect, but we're hoping we get a good positive game."

It was a flustered Tillman who lingered after a postgame press conference. This particular loss was especially vexing considering both how flat Maryland played from the start and how much Virginia invited the Terps to stick around. Even after a clean first half, Maryland closed within 6-5 on a pair of extra-man goals late in the third quarter.

The Terps wouldn't score again until the final minute, its offense out of sync for most of the night.

"I don't think amongst our team it's a panic mode or a stress-out mode," Blye said. You have to look yourself in the mirror and decide what you can do to help your team."

Tillman is not a coach for knee-jerk reactions, and his patience with players was eventually rewarded during his first two Mays in College Park.

Yet with a three-week vanishing act on offense, this might be different. This could require a true reinvention on the fly, something beyond simply infusing some excitement that was strikingly absent Friday.

It's OK if Tillman decides Maryland will have to adopt its usual rugged persona to thrive in May. But the Terps will have to rediscover its offense soon as it reached an undeniable crossroads.

"This is not uncharted waters for us," Tillman said. "It's not where we want to be, but it's where we've been the last couple years when we've had a couple losses late and you've had to really looking at some things and redefine who we are, whether it's personnel, schemes or whatever it might be. I think we have to think about it."

--- Patrick Stevens

2013 lacrosse lookback and lookahead: Navy

ANNAPOLIS --- A deeper look at Navy's forgettable 2013 lacrosse season --- what with its school record for losses (10) and consecutive losses (seven) still more than fresh --- went up within the last hour.

But there are plenty other odds and ends worth passing along about the 3-10 Midshipmen as they head into the offseason, both in terms of reviewing what happens and trying to figure out what is to come.

1. Navy graduates exactly 40 percent of its starts from this season.

Goalie Nolan Hickey, defensemen Jay Christopher and Austin Miller and midfielder Bryce Dabbs were all seniors and each started all 13 games, so Navy figures to have a different look next year --- at minimum on the defensive end.

Hickey finished his sole season as a starter with a .530 save percentage and a 10.38 goals against average. The 6-foot-7 Hickey provided more-than-capable play well into the season (a .573 save percentage and 8.69 GAA entering the final five games), giving Navy a chance to collect some wins before the schedule stiffened down the stretch.

"We were solid at the goal position," coach Rick Sowell said. "We felt he’d be solid and it played out that way."

2. Hickey's replacement could be marginally more experienced than he was this year.

The senior entered the season having played all of 30 minutes (the second half of a loss to Jacksonville last season). John Connors, Hickey's top backup this spring, logged 52 minutes as a freshman. Third-stringer Paul Zimmerman played 95 seconds.

Regardless of the numbers, Navy will break in a new starter in the cage for the second consecutive season.

3. In the micro, the most lingering question of the season will be what happened to Tucker Hull.

Hull wasn't perfect his first two seasons, but seasons with 38 and 47 points suggested the Mids would rely on him heavily as a junior.

But Hull's struggles reflected the offense's as a whole. He had just 13 goals and eight assists, shot a career-low 24.1 percent and generally just never got going. He had just nine points in Navy's last nine games.

"I think we expected him to have just as good a year if not better, and I suspect next year we’ll get more of what we thought we were going to get this year," Sowell said.

4. Navy didn't get much help from its sophomore class.

Attrition of various kinds has already whittled the Mids' class of 2015 down to nine players. This was the group that was entering the academy at the same time Sowell arrived.

Of those nine guys, only two (midfielders Alex Heyward and Gabe Voumard) played in at least 10 games this season. Only three played in more than three contests.

There are a couple ways to interpret that, but it's already a distinct possibility this turns into a fairly hollow class in terms of overall production. That's a thought to tuck away for the next couple years; it's easy to imagine the Mids being described as "young" in 2015.

5. There's no getting around the faceoff issue.

Navy tried six guys on faceoffs. None managed to win more than 50 percent of their draws, with freshman Sean Reilly (31-for-62) the most promising long-term option after evenly splitting his tries.

Navy's overall mark of 45.8 percent was actually improvement over the 42.0 percent from 2012, but the Mids still aren't securing enough possessions. That was especially stark in the final three games, when Navy was a meager 23.1 percent (15 of 65) in rivalry games with Maryland, Army and Johns Hopkins.

"I think we have a couple young kids," Sowell said. "We have a couple plebes who work extremely hard. We have a young man Carlos [Hargett] who was hurt most of the year. I’d like to hope they’ll be that much better. We have a young man coming in who we think is pretty talented. That was a big question mark before this past season and it will be a big question mark next seasons. We’ll just have to see how it plays itself out."

6. The schedule (or at least its order) will be changing.

The Patriot League adds Boston University (which debuts its team in 2014) and Loyola next year, so there's two extra games for Navy to wedge into its schedule.

Count on Detroit being a one-year opponent, opening a mid-February weekend for a nonconference game. Navy will open Patriot League play in late February, with order of conference games expected to be Bucknell, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, Colgate, Boston University, Loyola and Army.

The Hopkins game will remain in the same spot, with the annual date with Maryland moving to May and out of the April 3-10 range it has occupied since 1993.

7. The freshman class offered Sowell some optimism for the future.

Among the freshmen who earned considerable playing time this season:

* Attackman T.J. Hanzsche, who had 10 goals and an assist while starting eight games after not even playing in three of the first four contests.

"We knew he was going to be a good player," Sowell said. "It was just a matter of when.  He didn’t play those first few games, but once we got him in there he didn’t seem to be fazed by anything. We certainly feel his future is bright."

* Defenseman Jules Godino got into a dozen games and started the season opener.

* Attackman Patrick Keena played extensively on Navy's extra-man unit and had three goals and four assists.

* Sowell described midfielder Kevin Wendel as "a nice surprise" after he played in all but one game this season.

"He needs to get strong, which he will, and we see a bright future for him," Sowell said.

Sowell also was upbeat about the work put in by Connors and defenseman Pat Menezes, who could both be in line for extensive playing time next year.

"No doubt we feel like not just the plebes but the kids at NAPS and also the recruits in high school, we feel like we have some pretty good players coming into the program," Sowell said.

--- Patrick Stevens

Sowell looking forward after Navy's rough spring

ANNAPOLIS --- There is no sugar-coating it, no escaping it, no hiding from it.

It was a historically bad spring for Navy's lacrosse program.

The Midshipmen flirted with scoring less than 100 goals for the first time since 1968 (they wound up with 103). They endured the first seven-game losing streak in school history. They lost 10 games for the first time.

The net result? Navy's season was over after Saturday's 15-4 loss at Johns Hopkins, and it will be nine-plus months before the Mids play again.

Coach Rick Sowell pondered that sobering reality Wednesday as he reflected on his just-completed second season at the academy.

A re-evaluation is coming and is probably in its nascent stages already. But whatever the analysis Sowell and his staff ultimately undertakes, one conclusion is obvious: Navy badly needs something different on offense to avoid a rerun of this year's 3-10 season.

"It starts with me. I take responsibility for everything," Sowell said. "We thought our offense would be improved. Why it didn’t turn out that way, it’s too early to tell now. We’re reviewing film and I’m thinking about some of the things I’ve done in the past that I got away from. I’m certainly at this point second-guessing some of the decisions I made with regards to the offense and developing an offense and the schemes that we run. Everything’s under the microscope right now."

It's an appropriate choice of words, considering the attention that comes with one of the sport's more demanding fanbases --- certainly more than Sowell ever experienced in his previous head coaching stops at Dartmouth, St. John's and Stony Brook. An apparent regression on the field and an undeniable one in the win column certainly wasn't the follow-up anyone in the program had in mind to Sowell's sometimes-rocky debut season.

Yet even that ended on a welcome note, an 8-2 silencing of Johns Hopkins to savor throughout the offseason. There will be no such pleasant thoughts this summer, and questions will surely persist well beyond then.

"I understand the expectations are high," Sowell said. "I understand that the fanbase is very passionate about their lacrosse team. I understand that the media wants to know why and a lot about Navy week in and week out. That’s part of the deal."

From the outside, a 3-3 start that featured a couple routs, a few missed opportunities in one-goal losses at Fairfield and Georgetown an an ugly offensive performance at Bucknell didn't seem too far out of line for the Mids. It wasn't great, but it was a plausible month's worth of results for a team coming off a .500 season and with a realistic chance of landing in that neighborhood again.

But then Navy was held scoreless in the final 22 minutes of an 8-7 home loss to Towson and fell to Holy Cross for the first time ever. Instead of being 5-3, the Mids were 3-5 as the schedule turned more arduous. In the final five games, Navy was outscored by an average margin of 12.6-5.8.

Nonetheless, Sowell said he did not sense concerns about a freefall after eight games from his players.

"Having beaten Colgate the year before and having beaten Hopkins, I think we thought we had a couple of upsets in us," Sowell said. "I think we did. Certainly the practices, I didn’t sense a noticeable change in attitude by way of not working hard or not doing what we were supposed to do on the practice field. Not that every practice was perfect, but it wasn’t like we were kicking them out of practice and frustrated because we weren’t getting anything accomplished."

But by then, Navy's identity was essentially forged. Its defense was generally solid enough, perhaps prone to eroding like most units would when stuck on the field too long. It got decent goalie play out of one-year starter and team captain Nolan Hickey. Penalties and turnovers were chronic bugaboos, and the offense often appeared inert.

Navy returns plenty next season, including nine of 10 players who scored at least three goals. Sowell praised the play of several plebes and expressed optimism about players committed to join the program who are either at the academy's prep school or still in high school.

"Looking at the present and looking at the future, I do think things are moving in the right direction," Sowell said.

Next year would be the logical time for it. Navy has a large class of rising seniors. Only two current sophomores played in at least 10 games this year, compared to five freshmen who did the same. The Mids figure to take a significant dip in on-field experience in 2015.

Whether it's that far into the future or now, one of the few sure things is the scrutiny Sowell will receive. Like this spring's unsightly record, there's no avoiding it. Yet Sowell isn't backing down from the task of making Navy competitive again after it missed the Patriot League tournament for the third straight season and the NCAA tournament for the fourth year in a row.

"In terms of the decision to come here and take on this challenge, I’ve never wavered," Sowell said. "Not one second. I feel confident that we are going to turn things around. You mention some of the programs that I have been at, and none of them were overnight wave-a-wand-and-be-significantly-better [situations]. It takes time."

--- Patrick Stevens

Justin Anderson departs Maryland football program

Maryland defensive end Justin Anderson is leaving the program at the end of the semester, a team spokesman said.

Anderson had six tackles (one for loss) in six games last season for the Terrapins. He missed the entire 2011 season with an injury suffered early in preseason camp.

Anderson's most productive season came in 2010, when he started all 13 games at Anchor (strong-side defensive end) and made 22 tackles (5.5 for loss) and recorded his only two career sacks.

In the final week of spring practice, defensive line coach Greg Gattuso suggested Anderson was in line to be the Terps' top reserve end as they attempt to replace starters A.J. Francis and Joe Vellano. Keith Bowers and Quinton Jefferson are atop the post-spring depth chart released Tuesday.

"Justin's a guy, we would like him to be out third end and he can play both sides, which he can," Gattuso said. "He's not going to get nervous when Florida State walks on the field. I think he doesn't have the confidence in himself he should, and it's my job to try to keep building that with him because he's a better football player than he gives himself credit for sometimes."

With Anderson's departure, Maryland has only nine scholarship seniors for the 2013 season. Of the 10 defensive linemen listed on the Terps' post-spring depth chart, only three took a snap in a game last season.

--- Patrick Stevens

Maryland has its going-away ACC hoops schedule, and it's what you'd expect

Remember all those folks wondering if they'd witnessed the final Duke-Maryland game in College Park for a good long while?

They had.

And everyone wondering if they'd see North Carolina anytime soon after last season?

They won't.

And even if teams like Clemson and N.C. State would be back after playing their lone games against Maryland at Comcast Center last season?

Those will be road trips for Maryland this year.

In fact, Maryland's home schedule could be passed off as a circa 2001 Big East slate, and a lot of folks wouldn't really be able to tell the difference. Take a look:

ACC HOME

Florida State
Georgia Tech
Miami
Notre Dame
Pittsburgh
Syracuse
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest

ACC ROAD

Boston College
Clemson
Duke
Florida State
North Carolina
N.C. State
Pittsburgh
Virginia
Virginia Tech

This really shouldn't be a surprise, considering the litigious acrimony set off by Maryland's move to the Big Ten in time for the 2014-15 school year. But it is one more thing for Terrapins fans to gripe about on the way out the door.

While that isn't going to be the easiest schedule for the Maryland ticket office to sell, the greater issue at hand is whether the duplicate opponents are going to help the Terps.

Pittsburgh (an NCAA tournament team this year) and Virginia (a borderline bunch that should be better) will. Florida State could. Virginia Tech, minus league scoring leader Erick Green, has a chance to be memorably bad --- and thus won't help a bit.

Fans won't like the fact Duke and North Carolina are road-only opponents, but the nastiest bit of scheduling on the ACC's part has to be dealing Virginia Tech to Maryland twice. It probably won't matter a ton, but it is anything but a favor in terms of RPI and overall strength of schedule.

--- Patrick Stevens