Quick Hits About The 'Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland opens its 79th season of men's lacrosse on Saturday, February 9, 2019 when it hosts the University of Virginia at Ridley Athletic Complex.
- Faceoff is set for 12 noon on Stadium, Facebook Live and the Patriot League Network.
- Dating back to March 23, 2016, Loyola is averaging 12.71 goals over its last 42 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 (166) and points (266). In the 2019 Patriot League title game, he broke the Loyola career assists mark.
- Kevin Lindley finished his freshman season ranked fourth in NCAA Division I and first in the Patriot League in shooting percentage, converting 52.1 percent of his shots in 2018.
- Jacob Stover opens his senior season with 395 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 51 games to start his collegiate career, and he has 29 multi-goal and 39 multi-assist games. He has scored a point in all 51 outings.
Looking Back
- Loyola advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the 25th time in program history, the 23rd at the Division I level in 2018, winning its first-round game to advance to the quarterfinals.
- The Greyhounds wrapped up the year with a 13-4 overall record, going 7-1 in Patriot League play. They won their fourth conference title in five seasons since joining the League in 2014.
- Pat Spencer set the school's single-season record for assists (59) and points (94) while earning USILA All-America First Team recognition and his third-straight Patriot League Player of the Year award.
- Jay Drapeau scored 41 goals during his senior season, earning USILA All-America Second Team honors. His 41 goals were the most all-time by a Loyola midfielder in a single season.
- Jacob Stover was named the Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year in 2018 after leading the conference with a .533 saves percentage. Stover's 8.54 goals-against average ranked 11th in Division I and second in the conference.
- Foster Huggins led Division I with a Loyola-record 52 caused turnovers, an average of 3.06 per game.
In The Polls
- Loyola enters the game ranked fourth in both the USILA Coaches Poll and the Maverick/Inside Lacrosse media version.
- Virginia is sixth in both.
Series History
- Loyola and Virginia will meet for the 24th time when the teams take the field on Saturday. Virginia holds a 15-8 lead in the all-time series after the Greyhounds took a 14-12 decision in 2018's second meet, an NCAA First Round game at Ridley Athletic Complex.
- The teams have played a home-and-home series every year since 2014 with the Cavaliers winning four of the five regular-season meetings.
- Since the series resumed in 2014, four of the five games (all of the Virginia wins) have come by one goal with three in overtime. Loyola scored a 11-4 victory.
- Over the six meetings since 2014, including last year's NCAA Tournament game, Loyola has averaged 12.8 goals, while Virginia has averaged 12.
Watch The Action
- Saturday's game will air live on television via Stadium/Charge. It will stream live on Facebook Live and the Patriot League Network. Brett Hollander will call the play-by-play, while Chris Gunkel '90 and Loyola Hall of Fame Coach Dave Cottle provide analysis.
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.
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 166 in 51 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 266), 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 (266) behind Gary Haley's career total (311, 1978-1981).
- Spencer has 100 goals through 51 career games, a total ranked 10th all-time at the school, three shy of tying his former teammate Zach Herreweyers (2013-16) for ninth.
- A 2017 and 2018 Tewaaraton Award finalist, he is first among active NCAA Division I players in assists (166) and points (266).
- Against Virginia in the NCAA First Round game, Spencer moved into the top-10 of NCAA Division I history in assists. He is currently 10th, three back of the U.S. Air Force Academy's Joe Vasta who had 170 from 1983-86. Spencer is also 29th in NCAA Division I history in career points (266).
Veteran In Goal
- Jacob Stover returns for his fourth season as a starter at Loyola, having played 2,428 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 8.08 goals-against average in 45 games.
- Stover has made saves on 54.7 percent of the shots on goal he has faced and has a 32-10 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.
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.
- Duffy has 26 goals and nine assists this 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 this 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 matches 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.
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.
Turnover Battle
- Loyola posted 75 fewer turnovers than its opponents last season in 17 games, recording the same or less miscues than its opponents in all but two games (Georgetown and Yale).
Better Than Average Day
- Pat Spencer has put up big numbers throughout his career, but his final stats line at Navy on March 17, 2018, trended into the record-setting category. Spencer finished with four goals and eight assists with his 12 points tying the Loyola record for most in a game. He matched the 12 put up by Gary Hanley on April 25, 1979, against Morgan State University, and the 12 are the most by a Greyhounds player since the school moved to NCAA Division I in 1982.
- His eight assists were third in school single-game history, behind the nine he had in 2017 against Holy Cross and nine Hanley posted in the aforementioned game against the Bears.
Locking Down
- Loyola held its 17 opponents to an average of 8.71 goals per game last season with only seven scoring more than eight.
- The Greyhounds were 12-1 this season when holding opponents to 10 or fewer goals.
- Overall last season, Loyola opponents have committed 282 turnovers, 164 of which coming via Loyola caused turnovers.
Defense Making A Stand
- Over the last 27 games (10 in 2017, 17 in 2018) – beginning with a March 18, 2017 win over the U.S. Naval Academy – Loyola's defense has allowed just 7.70 goals per game, limiting opponents to an average of 31.3 shots in the process. The Greyhounds also have an advantage of 313-434 in turnovers (11.5-16.1) as they have gone 20-7 during the stretch.
- Of its opponents 434 turnovers in the last 27 games, Loyola has caused 267.
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 88 wins, an average of 12.6 per season since 2012, and has a 134-64 career record in his first 13 years at Loyola. 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 119 occasions; Loyola has won 80.7 percent of those games (96-23).
