Quick Hits About The 'Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland plays its first home game of the season on Saturday, February 20, when it hosts the University of Virginia in a 5 p.m. faceoff at Ridley Athletic Complex.
- The game will stream live on ESPN+ and internationally on Sidearm.
- Dating back to March 23, 2016, Loyola is averaging 12.54 goals over its last 78 games. It has scored less than 10 only 11 times in that span.
- Loyola was picked first in the Patriot League Preseason Poll by conference coaches. Ryan McNulty was named the Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, and he was joined on the Preseason All-Patriot League Team by Matt Higgins, Kevin Lindley, Aidan Olmstead, Peter Swindell and Cam Wyers.
- Lindley ranked third in NCAA Division I in both goals (60) and goals per game (3.53) in 2019.
- Bailey Savio set Loyola records in 246 faceoff wins, 471 attempts and 141 ground balls during his sophomore season. In the truncated 2020 season, he was winning faceoffs at an even higher pace. In six games, he had won 90 of 131 (.687) restarts and picked up 62 ground balls to lead the Patriot League in both.
Last Time Out
- Kevin Lindley had not found the goal on his first three shots Sunday afternoon at Richmond, but his last three attempts met the net, including a quick-release shot from more than eight yards out just over a minute into overtime, giving Loyola an 8-7 win on the road.
- The Greyhounds trailed 7-5 when Mitch Savoca scored unassisted for the Spiders with 4:02 left in regulation, but Lindley scored his first of the day at 3:18.
- After Loyola's defense blocked a shot, Greyhounds goalkeeper Sam Shafer came up with the ground ball and sent a pass to Matt Higgins on the left sideline.
- Higgins transitioned the ball to the offensive end himself, got to the top of the box and threw to Lindley cutting toward the goal. Lindley caught and scored his second of the afternoon with 66 seconds remaining in regulation.
- For the fourth-straight time, Bailey Savio won the faceoff, and after a Riley Cox shot went wide, the Greyhounds worked the ball right to left around the top. Evan James had it wide left, created space and threw to Lindley in the middle. Though covered, Lindley snapped off a sidearm shot using his defender as a screen to score the winner.
In The Polls
- Loyola is 11th in both the USILA coaches poll and the Inside Lacrosse rankings to start the season.
- Virginia comes into the game ranked third in both versions.
Series History
- Loyola and Virginia will meet for the 26th time when the teams take the field on Saturday. Virginia holds a 16-9 lead in the all-time series, although the Greyhounds have won two of the last three meetings.
- The teams have played a home-and-home series every year since 2014 with the Cavaliers winning five of the seven regular-season meetings.
- Since the series resumed in 2014, four of the seven games (all of the Virginia wins) have come by one goal with three in overtime.
- Last year, Virginia got out to an 11-4 lead midway through the fourth quarter, but Loyola scored four in a row to draw within three less than five minutes into the fourth, but the Greyhounds could draw no closer in a 12-9 Cavaliers win in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Fan Policy
- All Loyola home events continue to be closed to members of the general public, including student-athlete's families and current Loyola students.
Watch The Action
- The Loyola-Virginia game will stream live on ESPN+.
Win Them And Pick Them Up
- Bailey Savio was on his way to a record-breaking season in 2020 when he won 68.7 percent of faceoffs (90 of 131) in six games while picking up 62 ground balls. He had a career day for Loyola on February 22, 2020, 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 were both second-best in NCAA Division I games last year, and his 18 ground balls broke the 2017 conference record set by Brady Dove of the U.S. Naval Academy.
- Since the start of his sophomore season in 2018 – 24 games, Savio has picked up 208 ground balls, an average of 8.67 per game.
Preseason Prognostications
- Patriot League coaches and communications personnel picked Loyola as the team to beat in the conference this season, marking the eight-straight year the Greyhounds have earned the preseason recognition (every year since joining the Patriot League in 2013-14). The Greyhounds garnered 13 of a possible 16 first-place votes and were followed by Army West Point, Lehigh, Navy and Boston University in the top-five.
- Ryan McNulty was tabbed as the Preseason Player of the Year, and he was join on the Preseason All-Patriot League Team by five of his teammates: short-stick defensive midfielder Matt Higgins, attackers Kevin Lindley and Aidan Olmstead, midfielder Peter Swindell and defender Cam Wyers.
Inside Lacrosse & USILA Recognition
- Ryan McNulty was named a Preseason Third-Team All-American by both Inside Lacrosse and the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA), while Bailey Savio was tabbed All-America Honorable Mention by both. Cam Wyers was also named to the coaches' association's honorable mention list.
Limiting Shots
- Loyola took 108 more shots than its opponents last year, holding four teams to less than 30 shots per game. The Greyhounds have done so by winning averaging 16 faceoff wins to 7.5 per game, and they were plus-1.2 in turnover margin this year.
- In the 2021 season-opener, Loyola took 36 shots to Richmond's 32, winning 10 of 17 faceoffs.
Shutting Down Scorers
- Against Johns Hopkins and Rutgers, last year 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 night when he held Towson's Jon Mazza scoreless on only one shot.
- In the 2021 season-opener, LeBlanc marked Richmond's Richie Connell (19g, 3a in 2020), and Wyers guarded Ryan Lanchbury (14g, 16a), holding the pair to one goal (Connell) and two assists (Lanchbury). Connell's goal was on extra-man, as was one of Lanchbury's assists.
Aidan Is All Around
- Aidan Olmstead posted two 40-plus point seasons in 2018 and 2019, and he then led the Greyhounds in points with 22 during the shortened 2020 season. In 36 career games, Olmstead has scored 108 points with 55 goals and 53 assists.
- He had three-straight five-point games (Rutgers, Towson, Lafayette) in 2020.
- 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 sophomores on the fourth-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, 2020 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 sixth all-time at Loyola with 119 goals. He can move into a tie for fourth with one more goal, matching Gewas Schindler's 120 from 1996-99.
Between The Lines
- Ryan McNulty has been key to the Greyhounds' defense and transition game since joining the program in 2017, earning his All-America honors (USILA honorable mention) in 2020 and 2021 (Inside Lacrosse Second Team) as a long-stick midfielder. Since 2019, he has been the team's leader (among non-faceoff players) in 83 ground balls while leading Loyola with 38 caused turnovers.
- Over his career, he has amassed 53 caused turnovers and 150 ground balls while scoring eight goals to go with six assists.
- McNulty graduated from Loyola in 2020 and entering the 2021 season has two more years of eligibility remaining on the field. He saw only two games as freshman before receiving a medical hardship waiver.
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. In just six games, he has set career-highs with nine goals and 16 points.
- His previous career-high was 15 points in 2019 when he scored seven times while assisting on eight goals. He also posted a career-best 42 ground balls.
Toomey's Team
- Charley Toomey is in his 16th year as the head coach at Loyola and his 25th as a member of the Greyhounds' coaching staff. Overall, he is in his 29th year on the Evergreen campus, including his four seasons as a student-athlete from 1986-90.
- Against Lafayette on February 29, 2020, Toomey won his 150th career game.
- Toomey has directed the Greyhounds to 104 wins, an average of 12.6 per season (not including the shortened 2020 season) since 2012, and has a 151-71 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 .679 winning percentage is fourth 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 18 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 in 2019, 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 2.90 goals per game.
Record Ground Ball Numbers
- Bailey Savio set school records with 141 ground balls and 242 faceoff wins in 2019, marks that were 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 442 wins and 252 ground balls. Graham Savio holds the Loyola record for wins (710) and ground balls (340).
- Savio is second amongst active Division I players in ground balls, third in faceoffs won.
Quartet Of Captains
Teacher of Tewaaratons
- Loyola assistant coach Marc Van Arsdale has coached more Tewaaraton Award winners than anyone else. In addition to Pat Spencer in 2019, 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.
Get To Ten
- Since Charley Toomey became head coach at Loyola in 2006, the Greyhounds have scored 10 or more goals on 138 occasions; Loyola has won 81.2 percent of those games (112-26).
Up Next
- Loyola plays the University of Utah on Saturday, February 27, at home in an 11:30 a.m. start.
