As fans fill M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore to see the No. 7 Terps take on No. 9 Duke in their ACC opener, already it’s clear that the crowd will favor the in-state squad – even if they’re technically listed as the “away” team.

The match between the Terps (2-0) and Blue Devils (2-1) kicks off a triple-header of games today at the Konica Minolta Face-off Classic. Two more local schools, No. 4  Johns Hopkins and No. 10 Loyola, round out the event with matches against No. 8 Princeton and No. 5 Notre Dame, respectively.

The Terps come in off a 15-13 come-from-behind victory at Georgetown last weekend, which coach Dave Cottle believes should boost their confidence coming into this conference rivalry. Duke also won last weekend, beating unranked Pennsylvania 16-11, but lost to Notre Dame the week before that, despite coming into the year at No. 2 in the nation. Though the Terps hold a 55-17 in the series, the Blue Devils have won two of the last three meetings.

But the Terps beat them 11-8 at last year’s Face-off Minolta Classic, even without the help of injured star long pole Brian Farrell, who went into surgery during the game. Read the story here. And this year, with Farrell back in the game – and newly named to the Tewaaraton Award watch list along with attackman Ryan Young – the Terps plan to repeat last season’s success.

As his team goes for the win, junior attackman Grant Catalino will go for the 100^th point of his career. The leading scorer currently sits two points away. But he’ll have to get by older brother Mike Catalino, a senior midfielder for the Blue Devils.

Kate Yanchulis is the Terrapin men’s lacrosse team beat writer for The Diamondback . She can be reached at kyanchulisdbk@gmail.com.

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