Georgetown at Maryland: Three things to watch

When No. 17 Georgetown visits No. 3 Maryland tomorrow at 1 p.m., the biggest storyline will entail how the Hoyas intend to defend the behemoth duo of 6-foot-6, 260-pound junior Will Yeatman and 6-5, 240-pound sophomore Grant Catalino. Some other game factors to keep an eye on:

1) Georgetown graduated its first- and third-leading scorers from last season’s squad, but the team does return junior attackman Craig Dowd (14 goals and 23 assists to rank No. 2 last year), junior midfielder Andrew Brancaccio (18, 2, No. 4) and junior attackman Ricky Mirabito (15, 5, No. 5). Will the Terps blunt the Hoyas’ offense by assigning close defensemen Max Schmidt and Brian Farrell to Dowd and Brancaccio? "That’s a good question," Georgetown coach Dave Urick said. "Our attack is an entirely different look with Brendan Cannon and Andy Baird no longer there. It’ll be interesting to see how teams match up. I’m not sure who they feel is going to be more of a threat to them. Certainly, Brancaccio is someone that everyone is well aware of. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that they bump two poles up and try to defend one of our attackman with a short stick. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that throughout the season."

2) The Hoyas also lost goalkeeper Miles Kass, paving the way for redshirt sophomore Jack Davis to begin his first year as a starter. Urick has praised Davis for his ability to limit rebounds and get the ball upfield to start fastbreaks. The dilemma for Maryland is that there’s very little film of Davis for its offensive players to study. "We don’t know enough about him," Terps coach Dave Cottle said. "The good news is we won’t yell at them for not shooting at the right spot because we have no idea where the right spot is. So the kids are just going to play, shoot hard, and try to score. Maybe in the long run, that’s a good thing for us."

3) Maryland has played two games thus far, while Georgetown wrapped up its preseason scrimmage schedule just last week. While Urick said he’s not concerned about rust, he acknowledged that tomorrow’s contest will be much different than the scrimmages his younger players have experienced. "The atmosphere is going to be an adjustment," Urick said. "We’ve had two preseason scrimmages, and there isn’t a lot of hype around those. There are no TV cameras there. There isn’t a lot of the intangibles that are going to be around this game. So how we react to that is going to be awfully important."