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The UVM men's lacrosse team (9-4) makes its NCAA Tournament debut Sunday afternoon against No. 3 overall seed Maryland (12-0) in College Park.
 
Faceoff between the Cats and Terrapins is slated for 2:30 p.m. on ESPNU.
 
RELATED LINKS
Live Video | Live Stats
NCAA Tournament Bracket
 
TITLE GAME TRIUMPH
After a back-and-forth first half, Vermont used a 6-0 run spanning the final seconds of the second quarter and the first six minutes of the third to take control and dispatch of UAlbany to win its first America East championship, 15-10. Thomas McConvey scored four goals and dished out two assists while Tommy Burke went 23-for-29 at the faceoff X with 16 ground balls on his way to Tournament MVP honors. The Catamount defense held the Great Danes to just three goals in the second half and just one in the fourth quarter.
 
CLICKING
Since a 10-7 loss to Binghamton on April 24, UVM has won four straight and averaged nearly 14 goals per game during that stretch. McConvey (10G, 9A) and David Closterman (12G, 7A) both have 19 points in that span while Liam Limoges (11G, 5A) has a hat trick in three of four and Michael McCormack has 13 points (8G, 5A). In the first half against UAlbany last weekend, Vermont had eight goals from seven different players.
 
MOP
Tommy Burke's 2021 season has been one for the record books. His 118 ground balls are already a new single season program record and he is four faceoff wins away from breaking the single-season mark for faceoffs won. He currently ranks third in the country with a .720 win percentage at the X and fourth in the country with 9.08 ground balls per game. He is the first Catamount in program history to be named conference tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
 
ALL-LEAGUE HONORS
Seven Catamounts earned nine spots across the America East All-Conference teams, it was announced last week, headlined by four members of the First-Team. Burke was named to the First Team, Rookie Team and All-Academic Team – the first player in program history to do that. He was joined by McCormack, McConvey and Will Jones on the First Team. Closterman was a second-team selection for the second time in his career while Nick Alviti and JJ Levandowski also joined Burke on the All-Rookie Team.
 
TERP-CAT CONNECTIONS
Head coach Chris Feifs and assistant coach Jake Bernhardt both played their collegiate lacrosse at Maryland and both were Terrapin captains at one point in their careers. The connections go far deeper for Bernhardt, too, as both his younger brothers – Jesse (coach) and Jared (attack) – are part of the 2021 Maryland squad.
 
SCOUTING THE TERRAPINS
Maryland is making its 43^rd NCAA Tournament appearance and an NCAA-best 18^th straight. The Terrapins secured the Big Ten's automatic bid by defeating Johns Hopkins in the conference title game, 12-10. The Terps boast a lethal offense (16.17 goals per game) led by Jared Bernhardt (53G, 22A) who scores almost five goals per game. Logan Wisnauskas ranks second on the team with 56 points (4.67 per game – 15^th in the country). The Maryland defense also led the Big Ten holding opponents to just 9.67 goals per game thanks in part to Logan McNaney who enters the weekend with a .525 save percentage.
 
INSIDE THE SERIES
The series history is brief between the Catamounts and Terrapins with the latter holding a slim 1-0 edge all-time. February 2007 saw the only meeting between the two teams and Feifs scored a goal for Maryland in that contest. The Cats are 3-8 all-time against current members of the Big Ten.