Quick Hits About The 'Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland opens its seventh season in the Patriot League on Saturday, February 29, when it heads to Easton, Pa., to play at Lafayette College in a 12 p.m. game.
- The game will stream live on the Patriot League Network.
- Dating back to March 23, 2016, Loyola is averaging 12.65 goals over its last 65 games. It has scored less than 10 only nine times in that span.
- Loyola was picked first in the Patriot League Preseason Poll by conference coaches. Kevin Lindley was tabbed the Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, while Ryan McNulty drew Preseason Defensive Player of the Year recognition. They were joined on the Preseason All-Patriot League Team by defender Cam Wyers.
- Lindley ranked third in NCAA Division I in both goals (60) and goals per game (3.53) last season.
- Bailey Savio set Loyola records in 246 faceoff wins, 471 attempts and 141 ground balls during his sophomore season.
- Loyola is the only team in the Patriot League to have two players returning in 2020 who were in the top-10 in points per game: Lindley and Aidan Olmstead.
Last Time Out
- Three different Loyola players scored in the game's first 10 minutes as the Greyhounds built a 3-0 lead and never trailed Wednesday night in a 15-6 non-conference, home-field victory over Towson.
- Kevin Lindley scored four times, and Aidan Olmstead had five points with a goal and four assists for Loyola. Joey Kamish added three goals for the second game in a row, while Peter Swindell had two goals and an assist and Evan James scored the first two goals of his collegiate career. Logan Devereaux and Ryan McNulty each had a pair of assists.
- Bailey Savio went 14 of 22 on faceoffs with nine ground balls, and Sam Shafer made nine saves while yielding only five goals.
- The Greyhounds finished with 15 caused turnovers, as McNulty had a game-high three, and 12 other players each had one, including four of Loyola's six offensive starters as the Greyhounds rode Towson to six failed clears out of 22.
- Towson scored two in a row during the third quarter to make it a one-goal game, but Loyola rolled with a 9-0 run to put the game away for good. Lindley, Kamish and James all scored twice during the stretch.
In The Polls
- Loyola is ranked 12th in the USILA Coaches Poll and 11th in the Inside Lacrosse media version.
- Lafayette is unranked, but it has played three ranked teams – Penn State, North Carolina and Georgetown – this year.
Series History
- Loyola and Lafayette will play for the eighth time in series history and seventh time as Patriot League opponents. The teams first met in the opening game of the 1939 season. In that contest, the Greyhounds beat the Leopards, 15-1, to open their second year of varsity lacrosse. Loyola has won all six of the meetings between the teams since it joined the Patriot League in 2014.
- Last year, Aidan Olmstead and Kevin Lindley each scored three goals as 11 Greyhounds tallied goals in an April 26 game in Easton, Pennsylvania.
- During the game, Lindley set the Loyola single-season goal scoring record, a mark he extended to 60 by the end of the year.
Watch The Action
- The Loyola-Lafayette game will stream live on the Patriot League Network.
Win Them And Pick Them Up
- Bailey Savio had a career day for Loyola on February 22 against Rutgers, picking up a Patriot League-record 18 ground balls while going 23 of 24 on faceoffs against the Scarlet Knights. He went 11 of 12 in the first half and 12 of 12 in the second at the 'X.'
- His 18 ground balls and 95.8 winning percentage are both second-best in NCAA Division I games this year, and his 18 ground balls broke the 2017 conference record set by Brady Dove of the U.S. Naval Academy.
- This season, Savio has won 70 percent of the faceoffs he's taken (63 of 90), while grabbing 43 ground balls. He is fifth nationally in ground balls per game (10.75) and sixth in winning percentage.
- Since the start of his sophomore season in 2018 – 21 games, Savio has picked up 184 ground balls, an average of 8.76 per game.
Weekly Honors
- Four Loyola players were named Patriot League Players of the Week after the Rutgers win as Aidan Olmstead (offensive), Kyle LeBlanc (defensive), Bailey Savio (faceoff) and Joey Kamish (rookie) were honored. Savio was also named to the USILA Team of the Week.
Shutting Down Scorers
- Against Johns Hopkins and Rutgers, Loyola defender Kyle LeBlanc has defended two of the game's formidable scorers and held them both without a point.
- First, he limited Johns Hopkins' Cole Williams (62 points, 33 assists combined in 2018 and 2019) to zero points on six shots. He then helped snap Rutgers' Adam Charlambides' 26-game goal-scoring and 34-game point-scoring streaks when the player who had 90 goals and 28 assists in the last two years was shutout.
- Cam Wyers took a turn at limiting a team's leader in goals and points on Wednesday night when he held Towson's Jon Mazza scoreless on only one shot.
Aidan Is All Around
- Aidan Olmstead has posted two 40-plus point seasons in as many years since coming to the Loyola campus. In 35 career games, four game into his junior season, Olmstead has scored 102 points with 52 goals and 50 assists.
- Through four games this year, he is the Greyhounds leader in points (16) and assists (8), and he is second with eight goals. He has had back-to-back five-point outings with two assists and three goals, all unassisted, against Rutgers and a goal with four assists versus Towson.
- After being hampered by an injury early in 2019, Olmstead posted 18 goals and 13 assists in the Greyhounds' last nine games, bringing his season totals to 23 and 21.
- In 2018, Olmstead finished his freshman season with 19 goals and 21 assists in 17 games.
- The Patriot League All-Academic Team member is now not the only member of his family within the Loyola athletic department. His twin sisters, Riley and Logan are freshman on the fifth-ranked Loyola women's lacrosse team.
To 100 And Beyond
- Kevin Lindley became the 11th player in program history to reach 100 goals in a career when he scored his first goal on February 15 against Johns Hopkins.
- Lindley got to the 100-goal plateau in just his 36th career game, the fastest in Loyola history after Gary Hanley reached the plateau in his 39th career game (1980). Hanley is the school's all-time leader in goals scored with 151 from 1977-81. Lindley is now tied with Chris Colbeck (1988-91) with 108 for ninth all-time at Loyola. He can move into a tie for eighth with four more goals, matching John Carroll's 112 from 1984-87.
First Three Are Big Ones
- Joey Kamish did not score a goal in his first two collegiate lacrosse games, but his breakout against Rutgers came at a key time. He scored twice in the first half to help Loyola build a 4-1 lead, and his third was the eventual game-winner, coming with 1:53 remaining in regulation. His first goal was scored while he was being defended by Rutgers' Brennan Kamish, his older brother.
- Kamish followed his performance against the Scarlet Knights with another hat trick on Wednesday versus Towson.
Preseason Prognostications
- Loyola was picked as the team to beat by Patriot League coaches and staff in the conference's preseason poll, marking the seventh time in as many years the Greyhounds have earned the preseason recognition.
- Two Loyola players – Kevin Lindley (offensive) and Ryan McNulty (defensive) – were named the Patriot League Preseason Players of the Year. The both earned spots on the Preseason All-Patriot League Team along with Cam Wyers.
- In addition to his conference honors, McNulty was tabbed a Preseason Second-Team All-American by Inside Lacrosse.
Toomey's Team
- Charley Toomey is in his 15th year as the head coach at Loyola and his 24th as a member of the Greyhounds' coaching staff. Overall, he is in his 28th year on the Evergreen campus, including his four seasons as a student-athlete from 1986-90.
- Toomey has directed the Greyhounds to 103 wins, an average of 12.6 per season (not including this season) since 2012, and has a 148-70 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).
- Toomey's .680 winning percentage is fifth amongst active NCAA Division I head coaches with 10 or more seasons coaching at the level.
- As a head coach, Toomey has coached 38 USILA All-Americans, 77 all-conference selections, 21 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.
Lindley Leading
- Kevin Lindley was one of the top goal scorers in the nation last season, scoring 60 goals in 17 games, and he was third in NCAA Division I with 3.53 goals per game. He tallied four or more in 10 of the Greyhounds' 17 contests, including eight against Colgate, six at Towson and versus Holy Cross and Georgetown and five versus Virginia and Navy.
- Against Lafayette in April 2019, Lindley broke the school single-season record for goals, breaking the mark set in 2012 by Eric Lusby of 54. Lindley's 56 (at the conclusion of that game) came in 14 games where Lusby's 54 were in 19.
- Lindley finished his freshman season in 2018 with 37 goals. He is now second on the NCAA Division I active career leader list with 2.84 goals per game.
Record Ground Ball Numbers
- Bailey Savio set school records with 141 ground balls and 242 faceoff wins last season, marks that are both second all-time in the Patriot League. His 471 faceoffs attempted were both school and Patriot League records while ranking fifth all-time in NCAA Division I history.
- Savio was the fifth player to post 100-plus in a year, joining Haas, while Bailey's older brother, Graham, who had 103 in 2017, and Dan Kallaugher (2007) and Ryan Radonis (2003) who had 101 ground-ball seasons.
- In his three seasons – Savio split time as the Greyhounds' faceoff specialist as a freshman in 2018 – he has 405 wins and 228 ground balls. Graham Savio holds the Loyola record for wins (710) and ground balls (340).
Between The Lines
- Ryan McNulty has been key to the Greyhounds' defense and transition game over the past two seasons, earning his first All-America honors (USILA honorable mention) last season as a long-stick midfielder when he was the top non-faceoff player on the team with 65 ground balls while leading Loyola with 25 caused turnovers.
- Over his career, he has amassed 45 caused turnovers and 144 ground balls while scoring eight goals to go with six assists.
- McNulty is an academic senior this year with two more years of eligibility remaining on the field. He saw only two games as freshman before receiving a medical hardship waiver; McNulty will return for the 2021 season with the Greyhounds as a fifth-year player.
Trio Of Captains
Little Bit Of Everything
- Peter Swindell has been a utility knife of sorts for the Greyhounds during his career, playing on offensive midfield, running on the wings of faceoffs and taking shifts as a defensive midfielder.
- The senior co-captain opened his 2020 season with three points against defending national champion Virginia, scoring a goal and posting two assists,. He had a goal versus Johns Hopkins and posted two and an assist versus both Rutgers and Towson
- He finished last year with a career-high 15 points, scoring seven times while assisting on eight goals. he also posted a career-best 42 ground balls.
Teacher of Tewaaratons
- Loyola assistant coach Marc Van Arsdale has coached more Tewaaraton Award winners than anyone else. In addition to Pat Spencer last year, three of Van Arsdale's players at the University of Virginia – Chris Rotelli (2003), Matt Ward (2006) and Steele Stanwick (2011) – have earned the award as the sport's top player.
Shafer Steps Between The Pipes
- Sam Shafer had played less than 24 minutes of NCAA Division I lacrosse through two seasons when he made his first career start on February 8 at Virginia. He finished with 15 saves on 27 shots on goal against the Cavaliers, making 10 of his stops during the second half while allowing only three goals.
- Shafer then tallied another 15 saves in a 10-7 win over then-No. 11 Johns Hopkins.
Get To Ten
- Since Charley Toomey became head coach at Loyola in 2006, the Greyhounds have scored 10 or more goals on 137 occasions; Loyola has won 81.0 percent of those games (111-26).
Up Next
- Loyola returns to Ridley Athletic Complex on Saturday, March 7, for its next-to-last non-conference game of the year against Duke University at 1 p.m.q
