Terps

Deputed Testamony is 32-years-old. His dark brown coat is shaggy, and his biggest excitement is going into his paddock at Bonita Farm for three or four hours of grazing each day. He is a pensioner, an icon. The oldest living winner of a Triple Crown race. But when Billy Boniface looks at the horse in his paddock, he sees the striking colt that was born and trained at the family farm and raced to victory in the 1983 Preakness - the last horse bred or trained in Maryland to do so. "Oh my gosh, I still get goose bumps when I look at him and remember that day," said Boniface, who was 18 then and had just taken over the breeding operation at the farm.

It wasn't for the national championship this time, but the Maryland and Northwestern women's lacrosse teams staged another classic NCAAtournament showdown Friday night at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium. The two traded national titles the last two years, but this time, defending champion Northwestern earned only a trip to the title game by slipping past the Terrapins, 9-7, in the semifinal. Taylor Thornton, one of five finalists for the Tewaaraton Award , scored the eventual game winner to give No. 2 Northwestern an 8-6 lead with 16:19 to go and added an insurance goal with 1:26 left.

Maryland's 11-point win over Albany last season featured the debut of Alex Len , but was an otherwise unremarkable non-conference game for the Terps. For Great Danes guard Logan Aronhalt , however, the late-December matchup was unforgettable. “It was a fun game to play in,” Aronhalt said. “It was definitely one of those experiences that gave me goose bumps, playing in front of so many people in a nice arena against a program with such a rich tradition.” Aronhalt, who finished with 13 points and six rebounds, thought back to his first and only visit to College Park many times this spring as he considered where he wanted to finish his college basketball career.

For the second time in the last two years, these Atlantic Coast Conference rivals will meet for a third time in the season. Maryland is 59-20 against Duke. The two sides split their earlier contests with the Terps winning, 10-7, on March 3, and the Blue Devils returning the favor with a 6-5 decision in the ACC tournament semifinal on April 20. No. 3 seed Duke (15-4) defeated Syracuse, 12-9, in the first round and Colgate, 17-6, in the quarterfinals. Maryland (11-5) upended No. 7 seed Lehigh, 10-9, in the first round and No. 2 seed Johns Hopkins, 11-5, in the quarterfinals.

Mike Smith appeared dazed in the moments after his horse, Bodemeister, was again beaten by Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another - this time by a neck in Saturday's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course . The veteran jockey wore the frozen smile of a man hardly able to fathom what had just transpired. "I swear I don't know how he ran me down, man," Smith said after trainer Bob Baffert approached in the fading sunlight. "You did a good job," the 59-year-old trainer told the 46-year-old jockey, a fellow Hall of Famer and former Preakness winner who recently passed 5,000 career victories.

The biggest overachiever in Maryland basketball history -- maybe in the modern college game -- is trying to beat the odds again. At age 33, a decade after leading the Terps to the NCAA men's championship, three years removed from his last NBA game and now rehabilitating an injured left knee, Juan Dixon is plotting his comeback. "Don't count me out," Dixon said Thursday in his first extensive interview since being banned in February 2010 from playing in Europe after failing a drug test the previous season.

Top-seeded Loyola is the most balanced team, but unseeded Maryland will be the toughest to push out of the Division I men's lacrosse final four. The four remaining teams were determined Sunday after No. 4 Notre Dame beat No 5. Virginia, 12-10, in one quarterfinal, and No. 3 Duke routed unseeded Colgate, 17-6, in the other. Loyola (16-1) will meet Notre Dame (13-2) in one semifinal Saturday in Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., and the Terps (11-5) will play Atlantic Coast Conference-rival Duke (15-4)

Maryland and Northwestern haven't played during the regular season since 2007, but the two most successful NCAA women's lacrosse tournament teams are well-acquainted with each other. In 2010, the Terrapins won their 10th NCAA title by beating the Wildcats, 13-11, to end Northwestern's string of five straight championships. Last year, the Wildcats took the title right back, edging Maryland, 8-7. This year's showdown between the teams that have combined to win 15 of the past 20 NCAA titles comes a round earlier, in a national semifinal.

As the final seconds ticked off the clock Saturday in Annapolis, there was more celebrating on the Maryland sideline than usual. This wasn't just emotion; it was record-setting emotion. With the Terps' 11-5 quarterfinal win against No. 2-seed Johns Hopkins, Maryland coach John Tillman became the first head coach in NCAA Division I lacrosse history to lead unseeded teams to back-to-back appearances in the final four. Maryland (11-5) didn't sneak in, either. The Terps physically dominated and outhustled a Hopkins (12-4)

Albany transfer Logan Aronhalt's commitment to Maryland this week was big news in the shooting guard's hometown of Zanesville. WHIZ, the local TV station in the southeastern Ohio town, caught up with Aronhalt and his father, Scott, the Zanesville High basketball coach, to discuss the fifth-year senior's decision to become a Terp. "Maryland jumped in about a week ago," Aronhalt said, "and with my brothers being so close I couldn't say no. " Check out WHIZ's video piece on Aronhalt's Maryland decision here . * Annapolis Area Christian point guard Conner Lipinski , who previously accepted a preferred walk-on offer to play at Maryland, was awarded a two-year scholarship by the Terps this week, according to the Capital's Mike Peters.

- Monday's NCAA tournament final will be an all-Maryland affair. The Maryland men's lacrosse team punched its ticket to the national title game with a 16-10 thumping of No. 3 seed Duke on Saturday evening before an announced 31,774 at Gillette Stadium. The Terps, who advanced to the tournament final as an unseeded team for the second consecutive season, will meet No. 1 seed Loyola at 1 p.m. Monday. The Greyhounds (17-1) outlasted No. 4 seed Notre Dame, 7-5, earlier in the day. Monday's title game will feature two teams from Maryland for the first time since 1979 when Johns Hopkins defeated the Terps, 15-9.

John Haus hasn't heard from his younger brother this week. Of course, the Maryland men's lacrosse midfielder hasn't exactly tried to reach out to him either. No hard feelings. It's just the nature of sports. "It's game week," said Will Haus, a freshman starting on Duke's defensive midfield, "so there's not much talking going on. " John's Terps will face Will's Blue Devils in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament Saturday night at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

Albany transfer Logan Aronhalt's commitment to Maryland this week was big news in the shooting guard's hometown of Zanesville. WHIZ, the local TV station in the southeastern Ohio town, caught up with Aronhalt and his father, Scott, the Zanesville High basketball coach, to discuss the fifth-year senior's decision to become a Terp. "Maryland jumped in about a week ago," Aronhalt said, "and with my brothers being so close I couldn't say no. " Check out WHIZ's video piece on Aronhalt's Maryland decision here . * Annapolis Area Christian point guard Conner Lipinski , who previously accepted a preferred walk-on offer to play at Maryland, was awarded a two-year scholarship by the Terps this week, according to the Capital's Mike Peters.

The One Love Foundation, the nonprofit organization created in 2010 to honor the memory of Yeardley Reynolds Love (YRL), announced that Maryland attackman-midfielder Joe Cummings (Loyola High) and Virginia Tech senior attacker Ryan Rotanz were selected as the 2012 YRL Unsung Hero Award recipients. The award is given annually to one men's and one women's lacrosse player within the Atlantic Coast Conference for their dedication to leadership, for their community service, and for being a positive role model on and off the field.

Let's look at what we know so far about Maryland's men's basketball nonconference schedule. We know about the Kentucky game in Brooklyn (the Barclays Center Classic) on Nov. 9. We know about the game at Northwestern in the ACC / Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 27. Maryland is committed to play again in the BB&T tournament at Washington's Verizon Center in December. While final details are being worked out, the Terps are expected to play George Mason this year. And then there are three more games - LIU-Brooklyn, Morehead State and Lafayette - that the Terps will host as part of the Barclays tournament.

Drew Snider, Maryland Senior, Seattle, midfielder Snider was a catalyst in helping the Terps become the first unseeded team to advance to back-to-back semifinals in NCAA men's lacrosse history. The 6-foot, 175-pound midfielder scored a game-high three goals on four shots in Saturday's 11-5 upset of No. 2 seed Johns Hopkins in an NCAA tournament quarterfinal. All three of his goals occurred in the first half, when Maryland built a 6-2 advantage. Snider, who had scored three times in the Terps ' 10-9 win over No. 7 seed Lehigh in the first round, has recorded three hat tricks in six career NCAA tournament games.

Seth Allen wasn't quite satisfied. Sure, the Fredericksburg (Va.) Christian combo guard is part of an incoming Maryland basketball class brimming with possibility. It's a confident, five-member group that knows it has the opportunity to make a swift impact on a Terps team that was depth-challenged and faded late in the regular season, finishing 17-15. "I've got a history of playing young kids," coach Mark Turgeon said this week. "And I'm going to play the best players.

Each week, The Baltimore Sun publishes a Q&A with an area college lacrosse player to help you become more acquainted with the player and his/her team. Today's guest is Maryland senior attacker Kristy Black , a Glenelg graduate. Black is one of the key cogs in a balanced Terrapins attack, ranking fourth on the team in scoring with 37 goals and 21 assists. She still holds several state tournament scoring records from her days as an All-Metro midfielder at Glenelg. She and the No. 3 seed Terps will play in their fourth straight NCAA semifinal when they meet Northwestern on Friday at 8 p.m. in Stony Brook, N.Y. Why did you choose to play at Maryland?

•There were no youth leagues in their native Warrenton, Va., when David and Matt Miller wanted to begin playing lacrosse. And a journey that began in the backyard with their mother teaching them how to play while using the wooden women's sticks from her college days continues this weekend, with both brothers playing in the Division I men's semifinals. David Miller is a senior at Maryland and a starting short-stick defensive midfielder. Matt Miller , a junior, is starting defenseman for Notre Dame, the top-ranked defense in the nation.