Led by a determined senior class, Maryland’s run through the postseason, beating No. 8 UNC, No. 1 Syracuse and No. 5 Duke, came up short on Monday in Baltimore, as the Terps fell to No. 7 Virginia, 9-6, in the Division I men’s championship.

“We’ve sacrificed so much this year. We could have easily packed it in. We got a new coach, things were different, we had a lot of adversity to overcome throughout the year, and we stuck together, that was our main thing,” Maryland senior attackman Ryan Young said after the game. “Stick together like brothers. We did that, it’s just sad to come up a little bit short, because it means so much to everybody on this team and the alums.”

“We’ve had a lot of bumps in the road, and we’ve become stronger and worked harder because of that,” said Maryland senior attackman Grant Catalino. “We were already a tight group as a senior class, but because of the bumps, we’ve become tighter.”

“This year has been crazy,” said senior defenseman Brett Schmidt, who played a solid game shutting down Virginia’s stellar attackman Steele Stanwick. “Ryan’s mom, and just up and down, and it just sucks to come up short. We have a lot ot be proud of.”

“I’m just so disappointed for them for all that they sacrificed,” said Terp head coach John Tillman in his postgame remarks. “…I think that’s probably the hardest thing, thinking about how they’ve invested, and the way they’ve done things. Walking into that locker room a second ago was pretty tough.

“I couldn’t be more proud to be around a group of 48 guys for what they’ve done for our university, our state, and each other,” he said.

The state seemed behind the Terps today, as 35,661 in attendance had a particularly red and black tint throughout much of the stadium. Maryland started the game strong, drawing first blood and seeing their freshman keeper Niko Amato make five big saves.

“Our team came out pretty excited,” Amato said. “…I saw a couple shots that I was comfortable with early. I was just trying to make the play for the team.”

Almost paradoxically, it was Virginia that could be blamed for playing a boring, deliberate style and not attacking at the end of the game. After Matt White scored his second in a row and third of the day with 5:29 left, the Cavs played keep away, running to open space and fighting the clock more than Maryland, which was left to chase on the sweltering field.

“It was just unfortunate that we couldn’t get a turnover at the end of the game, and then they got a late goal in the empty net,” Amato said. “…They worked really hard all day. Just the heat got to us, we were really tired.”

The heat didn’t seem a factor for one guy on the field though. Virginia’s junior middie Colin Briggs was suspended for Saturday’s semifinal against Denver, but came back today and scored five goals for the Cavs on fresh legs.

“Of course that’s an advantage for him,” Schmidt said of Briggs not having to make the quick turnaround of two games in three days like all the other players. “We all played in our game Saturday, and it was a bash-fest with Duke, just taking each other’s heads off. We were recovered today, but you could tell, if you don’t have to play on Saturday you might have a little extra pep in your step.”

This was surely a disappointing end to the careers of this senior class, a team that came in as the “Baby Terps” in 2007, stumbled in three-straight quarterfinals, and finally looked to be on the cusp of winning it all, but came up just short.

On Thursday night John Tillman talked about how this team had completely refocused after losing to North Carolina 11-6 on March 26. Since that game the team went 9-1 before falling in the championship. Now seniors, those “baby Terps” took this team over, instilling a work ethic, competitiveness and energy that showed the classes under them what it could mean wear that Maryland jersey.

“I think we took a huge step in the right direction this year.” Catalino said. “…I think getting here is a huge step. I think it will give the guys coming back next year a lot of confidence.”

“We’re still the runners up; we had a successful season,” Schmidt said. “We can’t get too down on ourselves but it sucks coming up a little bit short.”