For the first time in 22 years, the Maryland men's lacrosse team will not be part of the NCAA Division I Tournament. The Terps, who entered the season as the preseason No. 1 team in the country, were shockingly left out of the 18-team field when the bracket was revealed on ESPN Sunday night. This ends a remarkable streak of 22 consecutive tournament appearances, the third-longest in the sport's history behind Johns Hopkins (41) and Syracuse (24).
Maryland's absence marks a stunning fall from grace for a program that has been a perennial powerhouse. Over the past two decades, the Terps earned a top-eight seed and a home game in the first round 18 times, reached the Final Four 11 times, and played in the national championship game nine times, winning titles in 2017 and 2022. But this season, the magic simply wasn't there.
The Terps finished with a 7-6 record, snapping a 22-year streak of at least 10 wins in a season. Their six losses before the playoffs were the most since the 2009 squad went 9-6. More critically, Maryland struggled against top competition, going just 1-6 against teams ranked in the top 10 in RPI—the selection committee's key metric. That included two losses to Penn State, the most recent coming in Thursday's Big Ten Tournament semifinal.
The selection committee ultimately chose Duke (9-4) and Yale (9-5) for the final at-large spots over Maryland and Harvard (9-5). It's a bitter pill for a program that has been a tournament staple for so long. Coach John Tillman is expected to address the media on Monday, and it will be interesting to hear his thoughts on what went wrong.
In a twist of fate, Johns Hopkins (9-5)—a team that missed the tournament entirely last year—earned an at-large bid. The Blue Jays will face No. 7 seed Cornell on Saturday in the first round. Meanwhile, Towson fell to Stony Brook in the CAA Tournament, adding to a tough weekend for local lacrosse fans.
For Maryland, this is a rare moment of reflection for a program that has defined excellence in the sport. The question now is: how will the Terps respond?