COLLEGE PARK, Md. - No. 7 Rutgers men's lacrosse went down to the wire against the nation's top team, but fell 11-10 on the road to No. 1 Maryland (10-1, 3-0 Big Ten). The Scarlet Knights (8-4, 1-2) were led by three goals from midfielder Christian Mazzone, and four points (two goals, two assists) from both senior attackman Jules Heningburg and midfielder Casey Rose on a rainy afternoon. 

Max Edelmann made 11 saves in the loss, his fifth straight double-digit save game. Joe Francisco was 15-of-23 on faceoffs with a team-high six ground balls.

Rutgers led in shots 39-30 and were 15-of-25 on faceoffs. Maryland held them to 1-of-6 on extra-man opportunities.  

"We have to take care of ourselves," head coach Brian Brecht explained. "I didn't think we played as well as we could have today. I thought some guys played extremely well. I don't know if we all played our best and if we all played collectively how we needed to against a very good team on the road. We have a lot of work ahead of us. There's a lot of big games still ahead of us heading towards the month of May, starting with the next one in Penn State at home next Sunday."

Maryland opened up to a 4-0 lead after one quarter of action. Kieran Mullins scored RU's first goal in the opening moments of the second quarter, but the Terrapins answered with a tally with 12:51 showing on the clock.

Rutgers flipped the script from there, holding Maryland scoreless for the remainder of the quarter, going on a 4-0 run to tie the game at 5-5 heading into halftime. It was a transition goal that got things started, with a failed clear leading to a ground ball pickup from Garrett Michaeli, who started the fast break offense, and Heningburg slammed it home.

That was followed by Mazzone scoring the next two goals, getting the visitors within one with 1:35 left in the stanza. Following that, RU won the faceoff, earned an extra-man opportunity, then Mullins tied the game with 50 seconds remaining in the opening half.

"The second quarter was the way I would have liked to have started the game," Brecht said. "It doesn't make up for the poor start to the first 15 minutes by spotting the team that's No.1 in the country at home four goals. I'm proud of the way we rallied and made it a game into halftime."

In the second half, the Scarlet Knights struck first, as Casey Rose fired in a goal to give RU its first lead of the day at 6-5. Maryland answered at 10:22, but that tie didn't last long, with Mazzone completing his hat trick for a 7-6 lead at 9:23 of the third.

UMD came back with the next two tallies, taking an 8-7 lead. Rutgers scored the last goal of the third quarter, with Heningburg cashing in on another transition opportunity and sending the game to the final frame deadlocked.

RU scored the first goal of the fourth quarter, with Rose dodging and scoring to put the team in front 9-8. That lead held for nearly eight minutes, with Maryland scoring to tie the game at the 4:41 mark. That sparked the home team, who scored three goals in an eighty second span, taking an 11-9 lead with 3:21 left in the game.

Rutgers got one more back, working the transition game again, and it was a freshman in Tommy Coyne who scored with 2:44 to play and got RU back within one goal at 11-10. Rutgers won the resulting possession, but was unable to find an equalizer, and the Terrapins ran out the clock for the victory.

Next up the Scarlet Knights will host No. 14 Penn State on BTN next Sunday night at 7 p.m.

Postgame Notes

• Mazzone continued his goal-scoring streak, now at 16 games, the longest for any midfielder in the nation.
• Heningburg now has 196 all-time points, tying for fourth on Rutgers' career leaderboard, passing Scott Bieda and moving into a tie with Steve Luciano and Ryan O'Shea.
• He now has 112 career goals, moving into a tie for 8^th place all-time at Rutgers with Ed Trabulsky
• Heninburg now has a career-high 61 points. 
• Heningburg continues to lead the Big Ten in assists (29) and points (61), while ranking second in goals (32).
• Rose tied his career-high with two assists, and now has tied his career-high with five assists this season. 
• Rutgers is 3-3 against ranked teams this year, with wins over No. 12 Syracuse No. 17 Lehigh and No. 17 Michigan.
• Mark Christiano's assist was his first of the season.
• Kieran Mullins had a career-high four ground balls.
• Maryland's 11 goals were their second lowest output of the season.