May 5, 2016
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BALTIMORE -- Fourth-seeded No. 17 Penn State men's lacrosse (8-7) fell to top-seeded No. 3 Maryland (13-2), 16-9 in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals Thursday evening at Johns Hopkins' Homewood Field.
Six Nittany Lions registered at least one goal, led by junior Nick Aponte's fourth straight showing with a team-high four goals. Freshman Grant Ament, senior TJ Sanders, redshirt junior Matt Florence, junior Mike Sutton and freshman Kevin Hill all scored on goal apiece.
Sanders and junior Dan Craig tied for first on the team with two assists each.
Senior James Burke matched a career-high mark with a team-high six ground balls. Sophomore Josh Wellman finished second on the team with three, while also finishing 16-for-23 from the faceoff "x."
"I tip my cap to Maryland first and foremost," head coach Jeff Tambroni said. "I I thought they came out with a pretty good plan in the first quarter -- going down six to nothing set the tone for the game, they could play a style and a pace that was much more conducive to a Maryland lacrosse team and Penn State really had to climb and push with a lot more urgency than we would have liked from the opening minutes."
Maryland jumped out to a fast start, scoring six unanswered goals to take control of the lead with 5:18 left to play in the first quarter. The Nittany Lions broke up the streak moments later as Hill scored his sixth man-up goal of the season after the Terps were called for unsportsmanlike conduct. Aponte followed with a goal to cut the deficit to four, 6-2, as time expired in the first quarter.
Penn State continued its momentum into the second quarter as a goal from Sanders off a pass from Keenan lifted the Nittany Lions within three, 6-3 with 13:44 remaining in the second quarter. The Terps responded with two consecutive goals in less than four minutes to move back up by five, 8-3 with 7:08 left to play in the first half. Maryland followed with two more goals, scoring 15 seconds apart to surge ahead 10-3 with less than five minutes remaining in the second quarter.
Rallying back, Ament opened a 2-0 strike with a wrap-around goal to make it 10-4. Florence followed with his first goal of the afternoon as his shot narrowly crossed past the Maryland keeper to cut the gap to five, 10-5 with 2:25 left in the first half.
The Nittany Lions came out of the locker room with two consecutive goals to stretch its scoring streak to four straight. Aponte scored his second of the day off a pass from Sanders before Sutton connected on an extra-man opportunity off a pass from Craig to narrow the deficit to three, 10-7, with 7:31 remaining in the third quarter.
Maryland responded a 4-0 run to bolster its advantage to as many as seven, 14-7, scoring the final goal of the streak with 34 seconds left in the third quarter.
Penn State and Maryland were scoreless throughout the early part of the fourth frame, until a Terrapin goal put UMD ahead, 15-7 with 8:42 remaining.
The Nittany Lions answered back 39 seconds later with Aponte's third goal of the game, which made it 15-8. Aponte added his second consecutive goal with 7:12 remaining in the game, 15-9, but the Nittany Lions could not sustain the momentum as the Terps added one more goal to close out the fourth quarter with a 16-9 final decision.
NOTES: Nick Aponte matched a Big Ten Tournament single game record with four goals ... He set the record just before Maryland's Connor Kelly's fourth goal in the fourth quarter ... Aponte has scored four goals in each of the last four games, stretching his point-scoring streak to 33 consecutive games dating back to April 5, 2015 ... John Wellman's 16 faceoff wins are the most for a Nittany Lion in a single Big Ten Tournament game ... Kevin Hill joins a group of four Nittany Lions to have registered a man-up goal in a Big Ten Tournament game.