Quick Hits About The 'Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland men's lacrosse plays the final game of a three-game road trip on Wednesday, February 27, at Towson University.
- Faceoff is set for 6 p.m. on at Unitas Stadium.
- The game will air live on Lax Sports Network.
- Dating back to March 23, 2016, Loyola is averaging 12.5 goals over its last 48 games. The Greyhounds have scored less than 10 only six times in that span.
- Pat Spencer now holds the Patriot League career records in both assists (174) and points (187). In the 2018 Patriot League title game, he broke the Loyola career assists mark.
- Kevin Lindley finished his freshman season ranked fourth in NCAA Division I, converting 52.1 percent of his shots in 2018. He has converted 13 of 24 shots this year, good for 54.2 percent.
- Jacob Stover had made 443 career saves, ranking seventh on the NCAA's active leader board.
- Pat Spencer has recorded two or more points in all but two of the 54 games to start his collegiate career, and he has 33 multi-goal and 43 multi-assist games. He has scored a point in all 54 outings.
Last Time Out
- Pat Spencer posted a hat trick in the game's first three minutes, 26 seconds on Saturday, helping the No. 1-ranked Loyola men's lacrosse team jump out to a 6-2 lead at No. 18 Rutgers, and Jacob Stover backstopped the defense with 18 saves in a 13-7 non-conference victory.
- Spencer finished with five goals and two assists for his third seven-point outing in as many games this season. Kevin Lindley added four goals, the third time this year he has had four or more. Chase Scanlan tallied three goals, and Alex McGovern posted goal and two assists.
- Loyola also controlled the face-off 'X,' as Bailey Savio went 16 of 23 with a career-best 11 ground balls.
- Spencer took control on Loyola's offensive end of the field quickly after Rutgers scored the game's first goal, completing a hat trick by 11:34 to play in the first quarter.
- Stover's 18 saves match his season-high from the opener against the University of Virginia.
- The Greyhounds had a 41-30 advantage in ground balls, led by Savio's 11 and Ryan McNulty's six.
- Loyola held the Scarlet Knights to seven goals after they were averaging 14 prior.
In The Polls
- Loyola moved up to one in both the USILA Coaches Poll and the Inside Lacrosse media version on February 18 and remained there this week; it is its highest ranking since the Greyhounds spent the last seven weeks of 2014 ranked No. 1.
- Towson is seventh in both polls.
Series History
- The Loyola-Towson rivalry is the most played series in the history of men's lacrosse at both schools. Wednesday's game will be the 62nd all-time meeting between the teams, dating back to 1959, the first year of intercollegiate lacrosse at Towson.
- Of Loyola's opponents, only Towson (61), Johns Hopkins (56) and Penn State (52) have played the Greyhounds 50 or more times.
- Loyola built a 4-1 lead early in last year's second quarter, and while the game tightened over the middle 50 percent, the Greyhounds never allowed Towson to tie the score or lead during a 12-8 victory on February 28, 2018.
- The Tigers got within one on six occasions during the second, third and fourth quarters, but each time, Loyola had a scoring answer to keep the visitors at bay.
- Pat Spencer led all players with seven points with game-highs of four goals and three assists, while Kevin Lindley tallied three goals for the Greyhounds. Jay Drapeau and Aidan Olmstead each had two goals and an assist, and John Duffy produced a goal and an assist.
Watch The Action
- Wednesday's game will be broadcast live on Lax Sports Network with Travis Eldridge calling the play-by-play and Davey Emala providing the analysis. Fans can watch via the Loyola Greyhounds Facebook page.
Preseason Prognostications
- Loyola was picked as the Patriot League favorite for the sixth time in as many years since joining the conference in 2014, picking up all of the available first-place votes.
- Pat Spencer was named the Patriot League Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, and he was joined on the Preseason All-Patriot League Team by John Duffy and Jacob Stover.
- Spencer was also named the Preseason National Player of the Year by Inside Lacrosse's Face-Off Yearbook and Lacrosse Magazine. He was named the Face-Off Yearbook Preseason All-America First Team, while Stover and long-stick midfielder Ryan McNulty earned honorable mention.
Conference And National Honors
- Following the Greyhounds' 13-7 win over Rutgers on February 23, four Greyhounds earned Patriot League weekly honors. Pat Spencer (Offensive Player) and Jacob Stover (Goalkeeper) earned their second honors of the year, and Ryan McNulty (Defensive Player) and Bailey Savio (Faceoff) were recognized for the first times.
- Spencer also garnered recognition on the USILA Team of the Week for the third time in as many weeks.
Alone At The Top
- Pat Spencer set the Loyola single-season assist and points records during the 2018 NCAA First Round win over Virginia. He assisted on a Kevin Lindley goal in the first two minutes of the second quarter, breaking his own assist record of 55 set last season. His assist on a Lindley goal to start scoring in the second half was his 90th point of the year, breaking the record of 89 set in 1981 by Gary Hanley and matched in 2016 by Spencer. He finished the year with 35 goals, 59 assists and 94 points.
- Spencer became Loyola's all-time leader in assists (now 174 in 54 career games) during the 2018 Patriot League Championship Game, breaking the mark of 160 set by Hanley in 1981.
- In the Patriot League Semifinals, Spencer set the Patriot League record for career points (now with 287), passing Bucknell University's Chris Cara (2002-05). Earlier in the 2018 season, he set the Patriot League's all-time assist record.
Closing In On Loyola Marks
- In addition to his career assist record, Spencer is second all-time at Loyola in points (287) behind Gary Haley's career total (311, 1978-1981).
- Spencer has 113 goals through 54 career games, a total ranked seventh all-time at the school. With two more, he will pass Kevin Beach (1990-93) and tie Tim O'Shea (1995, 97-99) for fifth all-time.
- A 2017 and 2018 Tewaaraton Award finalist, he is first among active NCAA Division I players in assists (174) , goals (113) and points (287).
- Against Virginia in the NCAA First Round game, Spencer moved into the top-10 of NCAA Division I history in assists. He is currently tied for seventh all-time with 174 with Princeton University's Kevin Lowe (1991-94) for seventh, nine back of Duke University's Matt Danowski (2004-08) in sixth with 183. Spencer is also tied for 17th in NCAA Division I history in career points (287) with two of Syracuse University's Powell brothers, Casey (1995-98) and Ryan (1997-2000). With nine more points, he will tie Cornell University's Mike French (1974-76) for 16th with 296.
Veteran In Goal
- Jacob Stover returns for his fourth season as a starter at Loyola, having played 2,608 minutes between the pipes for the Greyhounds. The 2018 Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year 2019 Inside Lacrosse Face-Off Yearbook Preseason All-American has a career 8.17 goals-against average in 48 games.
- Stover has made saves on 55.5 percent of the shots on goal he has faced and has a 35-10 career record for the Greyhounds.
- He closed the 2018 season with one of the best performances of his career. Stover made a career-best 19 saves against Yale University in the NCAA Quarterfinals while yielding only eight goals to the Bulldogs.
- He has picked up where he left off, making 18 saves in 2019 season-opener against Virginia, 12 versus Johns Hopkins and 18 at Rutgers University to give him 67 in his last four games.
Trying Something New
- Kevin Lindley finished his freshman season in 2018 with 37 goals, all but five of which were unassisted. Three of those unassisted goals came after Lindley picked up ground balls on rebounds of saved shots and scored immediately.
- In the 2019 season-opener against Virginia, Lindley scored five goals, three unassisted off dodges. With two unassisted goals at Rutgers, he has five already this year.
Freshman Fire Up
- A pair of freshmen have started 2019's first two games, midfielder Chase Scanlan and defender Cam Wyers, and two others – short-stick defensive midfielder Payton Rezanka and long-stick midfielder Scott Middleton – have each seen considerable action.
- Wyers was named the Patriot League Defender of the Week after his debut when he had six ground balls and a caused turnover against Virginia.
- Scanlan has scored six goals to go with a pair of assists in two games. He had four goals and two assists in the victory at Johns Hopkins and three more goals at Rutgers.
- Middleton picked up three ground balls and had a caused turnover at Rutgers.
Duffy Increases Production
- John Duffy set a career-high with five points in the 2018 Patriot League Championship Game, matching his career-highs in goals (three) and assists (two) along the way. Prior to the April 29 game against Lehigh, he had three games with three goals, and two four-point outings.
- Overall, Duffy had 11 multi-point games in 2018, and he has two through the first three games of this season.
- Duffy had 26 goals and nine assists last season, career-highs in both categories in 17 games. In 2017, he had 13 goals and four assists in 16 outings.
Not Freshmen Anymore
- Loyola attackers Kevin Lindley and Aidan Olmstead formed the only first-year teammates in NCAA Division I to have logged 35 or more points last season. Lindley finished the year with 41 points this year, including a Loyola freshman-record 37 goals; Olmstead was right behind with 19 goals, 21 assists and 40 points.
- Lindley's 37 goals last season were tied for third among Division I freshmen, and his 2.18 goals per game are also third among freshman and 46th overall. Olmstead was seventh among freshman with 21 assists.
- Lindley set a Patriot League and Loyola freshman scoring record March 4, 2018, at Holy Cross by tallying eight goals in a 13-5 win over the Crusaders. His eight goals were one off the school record of nine set in 1986 by John Carroll against Washington & Lee University. It also matched the No. 2 mark in Patriot League history, held by six other players. The eight goals were the most by a Loyola player since Gavin Prout scored eight against Hobart College in 2001.
- Olmstead was twice named the Patriot League Rookie of the Week last season. He picked up his first recognition after a four-goal game at Navy, a contest he followed with a six-point outing (two goals, four assists) versus Bucknell. Olmstead then matched his career highs in points and goals with four goals and two assists versus Boston University in the regular-season meeting of the teams.
Shot Selection
- Loyola finished the 2018 season with a .351 shooting percentage this season marking just the third time the Greyhounds have shot 30 percent or better in the last 10 seasons (.312 in 2014; .301 in 2017). Loyola's shot percentage led the Patriot League and was sixth in NCAA Division I. Of the players on Loyola's starting attacker and first and second midfields, all nine shot .271 or better, and six of that group were at .325 or higher.
- In the first three games of 2019, the Greyhounds have shot .393 overall.
Putting The Ball On The Ground
- In 17 games last season, Loyola ranked second nationally in caused turnovers per game, averaging 9.65 per game. Foster Huggins topped all individuals with 3.06 per contest, an average buoyed by his seven against Johns Hopkins on February 17 and six at Colgate on March 31. Huggins had three or more caused turnovers in 11 of the Greyhounds' 17 games. His 52 caused turnovers last year were a Patriot League single-season record.
- In 2017, the Greyhounds finished fifth in NCAA Division I with 9.31 per game.
Defense Making A Stand
- Over the last 30 games (10 in 2017, 17 in 2018, 3 in 2019) – beginning with a March 18, 2017 win over the U.S. Naval Academy – Loyola's defense has allowed just 7.87 goals per game, limiting opponents to an average of 32.4 shots in the process. The Greyhounds also have an advantage of 368-475 in turnovers (12.3-15.8) as they have gone 23-7 during the stretch.
- Of its opponents 475 turnovers in the last 30 games, Loyola has caused 290.
Toomey's Team
- Charley Toomey is in his 14th year as the head coach at Loyola and his 23rd as a member of the Greyhounds' coaching staff. Overall, he is in his 27th year on the Evergreen campus, including his four seasons as a student-athlete from 1986-90.
- Toomey has directed the Greyhounds to 91 wins, an average of 12.6 per season (not including this season) since 2012, and has a 137-64 career record. Early in the 2016 season, Toomey became the second coach in program history to reach and cross the 100-win plateau; he stands second on the program's all-time wins chart behind his college coach, Dave Cottle (181-70, 1983-2001).
- As a head coach, Toomey has coached 38 USILA All-Americans, 71 all-conference selections, 18 conference positional or players or rookies of the year, four Tewaaraton Award finalists and 13 USILA Scholar All-Americans.
- In January 2019, Toomey was named to the coaching staff of the U.S. Men's National Team as an assistant coach. He will serve with Team USA in preparation for, and competition in, the 2022 World Championships in British Columbia. He was also enshrined in the USLacrosse Chesapeake Chapter Hall of Fame in January 2019 for his accomplishments as a player and a coach.
Get To Ten
- Since Charley Toomey became head coach at Loyola in 2006, the Greyhounds have scored 10 or more goals on 122 occasions; Loyola has won 81.1 percent of those games (99-23).
