With Maryland men’s lacrosse ahead, 6-5, against Notre Dame in the third quarter on March 1, junior defenseman Will Schaller was in a bit of a pickle.
Graduate goalie Logan McNaney had wandered away from the goal and couldn’t handle a pass from Schaller, who was left to try to clean up the mess after a turnover. Notre Dame midfielder Matt Jeffery had what appeared to be an easy goal, only for Schaller to dive to the rescue:
The play turned out to be a pivotal moment in an 11-10 win against Notre Dame in Atlanta. The victory pushed Maryland to 5-0 overall and into the No. 1 spot in the national rankings. The defending champion Irish had been the top team in the nation heading into last weekend.
Schaller played hockey growing up, which came in handy when it came time to prevent a goal by Jeffery.
“I wasn’t thinking anything about being a hero. I’m just thinking, ‘Look, we’ve got to stop this ball from going in the cage,'” Schaller said on Glenn Clark Radio March 6. “Obviously got a little bit of that hockey background shining through a little bit — just blocking shots, putting your body on the line. Instinct just kind of took over at that point. Whatever we can do to stop that ball from going in the cage and get it up to the offense is our job. … Nine times out of ten, that one probably goes in.”
Maryland has faced off against Notre Dame in nonconference play in each of the past 10 seasons, and the rivalry includes some beauties — a 14-13 overtime loss for the Terps in 2019, a 14-13 overtime win in 2021 and a 13-12 triple overtime loss in 2023. The two teams faced off in the national championship a year ago, with the Irish rolling to a 15-5 win to cap off a 16-1 season.
The Most Outstanding Player in last year’s NCAA Tournament was Irish attackman Chris Kavanaugh, who returned to South Bend for his senior season this year. Schaller was part of the unit tasked on March 1 with slowing down Kavanaugh, who scored four goals to bring his career total to 125.
Schaller earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors for his work against Notre Dame.
“I think one of the things that has been working in our favor is just the preparation we put into it every week and our ability to play as six [or] seven guys out there on defense,” Schaller said. “The better we can play together and as a whole defense, the better we’ll be. It’s not just one guy out there taking it to the goal every time in a 1v1 fashion, right? It’s about all of us.”
Maryland head coach John Tillman put together a difficult-as-usual nonconference schedule this year, and his team responded with wins against Richmond, Loyola, Syracuse and Princeton prior to the neutral-site game against Notre Dame. The Terps face Delaware and Virginia next before jumping into Big Ten play.
Maryland’s closest call came at Loyola, which was ahead 5-2 heading into the fourth quarter. The Terps eventually won, 8-7, in overtime.
“That’s huge for us. Going through that adversity and breaking the seal of being in tough spots is huge,” Schaller said. “We try to do our best to simulate that in practice. Obviously I’d be lying if I said we want to be down at half for the past two or three weeks in a row now, but we are. We stick together, we work as a 50-man unit and we crawl out of that.”
Schaller is a full-time starter for the first time in his Maryland career. The 6-foot, 210-pound defenseman has picked up eight ground balls and caused five turnovers in 2025, bringing his career totals to 33 and 20, respectively.
A native of Bel Air, Schaller attended The Hill School in Pottstown, Pa., to play hockey, but he eventually followed his father’s path. His dad, Chris, played lacrosse at Michigan State and Penn State. Schaller understands the expectation at Maryland is to win national championships, but he’s taking it week by week.
“There’s no doubt that’s in the back of our minds, the top of the mountain that we all want to get to. That’s the end-all, be-all goal,” Schaller said. “We understand that we’ve just got to take care of business this week — go 1-0 this week, go 1-0 the following week and from here on out. It’s not going to be perfect. We’re going to have to face some challenges, some adversity, but the more we can just be process- and goal-oriented as opposed to outcome-oriented, the better off we’ll be.”
For more from Schaller, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics