DURHAM, N.C. — Finally, some sun.

The Terrapin men’s lacrosse team is set to face Duke in the ACC Championship at 3:30 p.m. in Koskinen Stadium, and for the first time in four games and since March 26, the Terps won’t be playing in a downpour.

And after Friday’s fiasco — an open-air press box isn’t the best thing when there’s a rainstorm and you’re using a laptop — I’m just as happy as the Terps are to finally be playing in some good weather.

But I digress.

Today’s game gives the Terps (9-3, 1-2 ACC) a chance to avenge their loss on March 5 to the Blue Devils (11-4, 3-0 ACC). In that game, the Terps came storming back from a 7-4 deficit in the fourth quarter on goals from midfielders Landon Carr, Michael Shakespeare, Joe Cummings and John Haus to take a one-goal lead with 3:48 left to play. But a late goal from Duke attackman Zach Howell, who rifled a shot past goalkeeper Niko Amato with just three seconds remaining, sent the game into overtime.

In the extra period, the Blue Devils won the opening faceoff, and attackman Jordan Wolf scored his third goal of the ensuing possession, giving Duke a 9-8 victory.

Since that game, the Terps and Blue Devils have had success and enter today’s game ranked No. 6 and No. 7, respectively, in Inside Lacrosse’s national media poll. After semifinal victories on Friday — the Terps topped North Carolina, 7-6, in a fourth quarter comeback and Duke defeated Virginia, 19-10, in a shootout — the two teams find themselves on opposite sides of the field for the second time this season.

Only this time, the winner garners the title of ACC Champion and earns the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which starts with first-round action May 14 and 15.

In ACC Tournament history, the Terps have won the last two against Duke, but the Blue Devils claimed the first five matchups.

If the Terps are able to pull out a victory today, they’ll earn their first ACC title since 2005 and fourth since the conference switched to a tournament format in 1989. In 2005, the Terps topped Duke, 9-5, at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

This is the second straight year that the Terps have played in the ACC Championship. Last season, they lost to Virginia, 10-6, as the Cavaliers went on to win their sixth conference title.

I don’t have a confirmed list of starters yet, but here are today’s probable lineups:

MARYLAND

Goalie — Niko Amato

Defense — Ryder Bohlander, Max Schmidt, Brett Schmidt

Midfield — Jake Bernhardt, John Haus, Drew Snider (with Joe Cummings and Kevin Cooper as the first two off the bench)

Attack — Grant Catalino, Ryan Young, Owen Blye (with Travis Reed as the unit’s fourth man)

Face-off — Curtis Holmes (with Brian Farrell and Scott LaRue on the wings)

DUKE

Goalie — Dan Wigrizer

Defense — Tom Montelli, Chris Hipps, Bill Conners

Midfield — Robert Rotanz, Justin Turri, Jake Tripucka

Attack — Jordan Wolf, Zach Howell, Christian Walsh

Face-off — CJ Costabile

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter for live, in-game updates and read Monday’s Diamondback for a full recap from this afternoon’s action.

Jakob Engelke is The Diamondback’s Terrapin men’s lacrosse beat reporter. He can be reached at jengelke@umdbk.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jakob_Engelke.

The Terrapin baseball team lost to Virginia Tech, 11-2, at Bob “Turtle” Smith on Saturday, securing their seventh straight ACC series loss. The defeat comes after a 7-2 loss on Friday night. Regardless of how the Terps (17-24, 4-16 ACC) play in tomorrow’s series finale, they will end the weekend still in search of their first ACC series win of the season.

Starting pitcher Brady Kirkpatrick followed up a gem against Miami last weekend with a dud. The freshman allowed eight runs in four innings, with two errors behind him not helping his cause. The Terp bats had hits in every inning and ten on the game, but still managed only two runs, which came in the seventh on a Charlie White single and in the ninth with a pinch-hit solo home run by third baseman Curtis Lazar.

The Terps stranded eight runners on base and grounded into three double plays.

The Hokies (22-19, 6-14 ACC) entered the weekend tied with the Terps for last place in the ACC. The series loss further buries the Terps in the conference basement, making an ACC Tournament berth even less likely and all but ending any hopes of an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Jeremy Schneider is The Diamondback’s baseball beat writer. He can be reached at schneider@umdbk.com Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jschneider_.

DURHAM, N.C. – In the Terrapin men’s lacrosse team’s first meeting against North Carolina on March 26, the Tar Heels switched from man-to-man to a zone defense after going down by four goals early.

The move worked to perfection, as they outscored the Terps 11-2 for the rest of the afternoon en route to a 11-6 victory inside Byrd Stadium.

The Tar Heels used the same tactic yesterday and had success in the game’s early going, but it wouldn’t last. After holding the Terps to just two goals in 45 minutes, the Tar Heels’ defense began to fall apart and the Terps capitalized, scoring five unanswered goals in the fourth quarter en route to a 7-6 victory.

The Tar Heels used a 3-3 zone hybrid in which they would lock off attackman Grant Catalino with a short-stick defender on the crease. The complicated scheme, coach John Tillman said, led to confusion among North Carolina’s defenders.

“When you change defenses that much, there are points in time when guys might get confused in the defense themselves,” Tillman said. “There’s a couple times that happened. … There were some seams that were there.”

A bit of confusion is what eventually led to the game-winning goal from Catalino, who found himself wide-open on the crease for the first time all afternoon and finished a behind-the-back shot off a feed from midfielder Kevin Cooper.

The Terps prepared for a zone defense all week, believing that the Tar Heels would go back to what they were so successful with on March 26, and stuck to their original game plan yesterday — using outside shooters and quick cuts to the crease to break the zone — despite being limited in the game’s first three quarters.

When things began to open up, the momentum swung and the Terps never looked back.

“Once you get down, you can’t start taking shots that you don’t usually take,” attackman Owen Blye said. “You can’t start forcing things because those shots aren’t going to go. You have to stick to your game plan and keep trying to make those plays. Eventually they will go.”

Jakob Engelke is The Diamondback’s Terrapin men’s lacrosse beat reporter. He can be reached at jengelke@umdbk.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jakob_Engelke.

The Terps celebrate after defeating UNC in the first round of the ACC Tournament. Charlie DeBoyace/The Diamondback

DURHAM, N.C. — With 13 seconds left on the clock, Terrapin men’s lacrosse attackman Ryan Young simply threw the ball into the air before turning toward the scoreboard and watching as the time ticked down to zero.

When time expired, the Terp faithful that had made the five-hour drive to Durham erupted in cheers and players streamed onto a rain-soaked field at Koskinen Stadium, engulfing Young while looking up at the scoreboard, which read: Terps – 7, North Carolina – 6.

For the Terps and Young, it was the culmination of an emotionally taxing week. Young’s mother, Maria, died Sunday night after losing her four-year fight with pancreatic cancer. The Terps came out in full support of Young — coaches donned purple UnderArmour polos, players had purple stickers on their helmet with the initials “MY,” and fans wore purple shirts with “Maryland Lacrosse” on the front and a script “Forever Young, MY” on the back — and following the contest, the team’s emotion was palpable.

“This week was hard because of the loss to Hopkins, but it was 1000 times harder because we lost somebody that we really cared about in Maria Young,” coach John Tillman said. “It took us a few days to get past the emotional hurdles. We didn’t know what was going to happen with our guys today. They’re young guys and a lot of them haven’t had someone that close to them pass. The thing that’s good for us is we have a very strong brotherhood. The guys leaned on each other.”

The Terps responded to the adversity off the field with a resounding, comeback win on it.

After finishing the third quarter trailing 6-2, the Terps scored five unanswered goals in the final 15 minutes of action. An unassisted goal from attackman Owen Blye notched the score at six with 5:08 remaining, and a tally from attackman Grant Catalino — who caught a pass from midfielder Kevin Cooper on the crease and, in one swift motion, rifled a behind-the-back shot that beat Tar Heel goalkeeper Steven Rastivo to the opposite post — gave the Terps a 7-6 lead with just more than three minutes remaining.

That score would stand.

“As far as the goal, I don’t really know what happened except that I got the ball and shot,” Catalino said. “We were getting our looks. We weren’t necessarily capitalizing in the first half, but we know the ball can’t roll your way the whole game. We knew it had to turn sometimes. Some of our shots started to fall. Some of the looks we had been getting all game actually opened up for us.

“That one time at the end, they lost me. Then I just shot and scored.”

Midfielder Drew Snider and Blye paced the Terps offensively, scoring two goals a piece. Midfielder John Haus added a goal and an assist, while Young notched one assist and Catalino scored one goal — the game-winner.

With the win, the Terps avenged their loss to North Carolina on March 26, when the Tar Heels overcame a four-goal, first quarter deficit to win, 11-6.

“We kept our poise,” Tillman said. “Everybody was extremely positive even staring down 6-2 going into the fourth. The guys just took it one goal at a time. We kept grinding away and grinding away.

“It was eerily similar to what happened in College Park. We got up early, they got momentum and we were on our heels a little bit. We didn’t respond. Today it was the opposite. Everybody stayed together and we just kept grinding and grinding and things went our way.”

The Terps now have a day off before playing Duke — who is beating Virginia, 19-10, as I type this — Sunday in the ACC Championship.

Check back then for more updates and read Monday’s Diamondback for a full recap of this weekend’s action.

Jakob Engelke is The Diamondback’s Terrapin men’s lacrosse beat reporter. He can be reached at jengelke@umdbk.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jakob_Engelke.

Brett Schmidt, who has 20 caused turnovers this season, earned his second All-ACC selection today | Photo courtesy of umterps.com

The ACC announced its all-conference team today, and three Terps landed on the squad: Midfielder Joe Cummings, defender Brett Schmidt and goalkeeper Niko Amato. This is Schmidt’s second straight year making the team, while Cummings and Amato earned their first selections.

The Terps, North Carolina and Virginia all garnered three selections, while Duke received two. Virginia attackman Steele Stanwick was named the conference’s Player of the Year, North Carolina attackman Nicky Galasso was named Freshman of the Year and Duke coach John Danowski was named Coach of the Year.

Cummings’ (24 goals) and Schmidt’s (20 caused turnovers) selections come as no surprise, but Amato over Virginia goalkeeper Adam Ghitelman could be seen as an upset. Amato boasts better stats — his 6.65 goals against average and .584 save percentage are good for best in the ACC — but Ghitelman has proven to be one of the nation’s best goalkeepers over the past four seasons.

Amato’s inclusion is the result of a breakout freshman campaign in which he has stated his claim to be considered among the nation’s elite at his position.

Here’s the entire all-conference team:

ATTACK

Jordan Wolf (freshman, Duke)

Billy Bitter (senior, UNC)

Nicky Galasso (freshman, UNC)

Steele Stanwick (junior, UVA)

MIDFIELD

CJ Costabile (junior, Duke)

Joe Cummings (junior, Terps)

Colin Briggs (junior, UVA)

Chris LaPierre (sophomore, UVA)

DEFENSE

Brett Schmidt (senior, Terps)

Ryan Flanagan (senior, UNC)

GOALIE

Niko Amato (freshman, Terps)

The Terps play in the first round of the ACC Tournament tomorrow in Durham, N.C., at 5 p.m. against North Carolina. The second semifinal, starting at 7:30 p.m., pits Duke against Virginia. The conference championship is slated for Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

The All-ACC team is selected by the conference’s four head coaches.

Jakob Engelke is The Diamondback’s Terrapin men’s lacrosse beat reporter. He can be reached at jengelke@umdbk.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jakob_Engelke.

The Tewaaraton Award — essentially the Heisman Trophy of lacrosse — whittled its list of finalists down to 25 players from Division I, II and III lacrosse this week.

Among the list are three Terps: attackmen Grant Catalino and Ryan Young and long pole Brian Farrell. All three of the players, although they might not be frontrunners, make viable candidates for the award. Young leads the team in points (31) and assists (19) while Catalino is second on the team in scoring (20 goals). Farrell, meanwhile, provides an offensive (seven goals, five assists) and defensive (27 ground balls, 13 caused turnovers) presence for the Terps.

There are four other ACC players on the list (UNC- 1, UVA – 1, DUKE – 2) and Syracuse boasts the most nominees with four.

There are three weeks left in the regular season and conference tournaments yet to be played — the No. 6 Terps face No. 10 North Carolina on Friday in the ACC Semifinals — so a lot could change. But at the moment, my frontrunners have to be Jeremy Boltus (Army), Steele Stanwick (Virginia) and Rob Pannell (Cornell). Pannell (30 goals, 31 assists) is by far the leading candidate as of today.

Here’s the entire list of candidates (italicized ACC, bolded Terps):

M Peter Baum, Colgate

A Billy Bitter, North Carolina

A Jeremy Boltus, Army

M Zach Brenneman, Notre Dame

A Jay Card, Hofstra

A Grant Catalino, Maryland

LSM C.J. Costabile, Duke

M Kevin Crowley, Stony Brook

M David Earl, Notre Dame

LSM Brian Farrell, Maryland

G John Galloway, Syracuse

A D.J. Hessler, Tufts

A Zach Howell, Duke

A Shayne Jackson, Limestone

D Brian Karalunas, Villanova

A Stephen Keogh, Syracuse

D John Lade, Syracuse

A Rob Pannell, Cornell

M John Ranagan, Johns Hopkins

M Adam Rand, Stony Brook

D Kevin Ridgway, Notre Dame

A Steele Stanwick, Virginia

A Garrett Thul, Army

LSM Joel White, Syracuse

A Ryan Young, Maryland

Jakob Engelke is The Diamondback’s Terrapin men’s lacrosse beat reporter. He can be reached at jengelke@umdbk.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jakob_Engelke.