The Matchup
- Loyola women's soccer returns to Ridley Athletic Complex for a Sunday night contest against former MAAC rivals Iona. This will be the first meeting between the two sides since 2012.
- This is the fourth of eight games against non-conference opponents prior to Loyola's Patriot League opener against Colgate on Saturday, Sept. 18.
Last Time Out
- Sarah Mirr converted a penalty kick with 9:18 remaining in regulation, but it was not enough for Loyola in a 2-1 setback at Princeton on Friday.
- Gabi Juarez had a first-half PK for the Tigers (1-0-0), while Kamryn Loustau scored what turned out to be the game-winner in the 59th minute.
- Paige Sim finished with a season-high seven stops in goal for the Greyhounds.
- Baylee DeSmit had a team-high three shots, including a long-range effort which rattled off the crossbar in the 17th minute.
- Julia Gray, Jess Korman and Olivia Quaranta were all credited with team saves.
- Princeton, which played its first competitive game since Nov. 9, 2019, finished the evening with a 27-8 edge in shots and a 5-2 lead in corner kicks.
- Mirr (1 G, 1 A) has now factored in both Loyola goals to start the season.
Series History
- Loyola leads 20-2-2 in a series which dates back to the program's first season in 1992.
- Iona went 1-0-2 against the Greyhounds in the first three meetings.
- A 3-2 Loyola victory in 1994, though, began a 19-game winning streak for the Greyhounds.
- Iona stopped the slide with a 1-0 double-overtime triumph in 2011. Loyola won the most-recent meeting by a 4-0 decision on Sept. 28, 2012.
- This is Loyola's second matchup against a MAAC school this season, with the Greyhounds topping Marist by a 1-0 final in their season opener on August 19.
Scouting Iona
- The Gaels (2-1-0) have won their last two games over VMI (4-3) and St. Bonaventure (2-1) after falling 5-0 to Boston College in their opening contest.
- Fr. F Kedarjah Lewis scored twice in the 60th minute to help Iona rally past VMI on Thursday afternoon, while Sr. F Faith Preziosi scored both goals in last weekend's win over the Bonnies.
- Iona went 1-4-1 during the abbreviated 2021 spring campaign, with the program outscored by a 17-4 margin on the year. Gr. M Nicole Whitley accounted for three of the team's four goals.
- The lone victory in the spring was a 3-2 overtime triumph over Saint Peter's to conclude the regular season.
- The Gaels were projected to finish 10th out of 11 schools in the 2021 MAAC Preseason poll.
Quick Notes from Opening Weekend
- Head coach Joe Mallia is now 98-56-15 across 10 seasons at Loyola (1998-2004, 2019-pres.) and 148-90-26 in 15 seasons overall, leaving him two victories away from reaching a pair of milestone figures.
- Six Greyhounds (Baylee DeSmit, Elizabeth Gallagher, Grace DenBleyker, Alli Jacobson, Jess Korman and Olivia Quaranta) made their collegiate debuts in last Thursday's 1-0 win over Marist. DeSmit and Gallagher both cracked the starting lineup, while DenBleyker had the primary assist on Kelly Hutton's game-winning goal in the 58th minute.
- Sarah Mirr had the secondary assist on Hutton's first collegiate strike. That helper was the second of her collegiate career and first since Sept. 6, 2018.
- Paige Sim was an honorable mention selection for the Patriot League's weekly awards after totaling six saves, including a pair of diving attempts in the final 10 minutes, to secure Loyola's shutout victory over Marist.
Sim, Tempert Land on Preseason All-Patriot League Team
- Loyola was one of three Patriot League schools to have multiple selections to the conference's 11-member Preseason All-League team announced earlier this month, with juniors Paige Sim and Ada Clare Tempert both earning recognition.
- Sim played every minute in goal during the spring 2021 season while earning third team all-conference accolades, finishing with a 3-2-1 record, a 0.48 GAA, a .824 save percentage and three shutouts.
- Also a second team All-Patriot League honoree as a freshman in 2019, Sim has a career record of 10-6-6 with a 0.65 GAA and .847 save percentage. She has recorded shutouts in nine of her 21 career starts in goal.
- Tempert scored two of Loyola's four goals last spring, providing the game-winner in a 1-0 victory over Bucknell on March 13 and opening the scoring in an eventual 2-1 win vs. Colgate to begin the season on March 8. A first team All-Patriot League performer, she was tied for the team lead in shots (10), making an immediate impact after missing the 2019 season due to injury.
Loyola Ranked No. 5 in Patriot League Preseason Poll
- The Greyhounds, who are one of two teams to advance to the Patriot League semifinals in each of the last two seasons, were projected to finish fifth in the conference's preseason poll released on August 10.
- Loyola has earned a result in 10 of 13 regular season games against Patriot League opponents over the last two years, going 5-3-5 during that stretch.
- Nine of 11 starters from the spring will be back for the Greyhounds this season, including six former All-Patriot League players in Sim, Tempert, Sarah Bayer (2018 - 2nd Team, 2019 - 1st Team, Spring 2021 - 3rd Team), Kaleigh Gallagher (2019 - 3rd Team), Julia Gray (2019 - 2nd Team) and Nicole Rivas (Spring 2021 - 3rd Team).
Last Season
- A season unlike any other culminated in a return trip to the Patriot League Final Four for Loyola, as the Greyhounds went 3-1-1 in regular season play to clinch the No. 2 seed in the conference's South division standings.
- Loyola's season ultimately ended with a tight 1-0 defeat to eventual conference champions Navy in the semifinals.
- The Greyhounds outscored their opponents by an overall margin of 4-3 during the shortened spring campaign.
- Claire Beath, a first team All-Patriot League selection in her final collegiate season on the backline, was the lone field player to play in all 564 minutes.
- Loyola's team GAA of 0.479 ranked third in the Patriot League and 11th overall among Division I schools.
Back-to-Back-to-Back PL Accolades for Bayer
- Sarah Bayer became the program's first three-time All-Patriot League honoree after earning third team accolades last spring, and she is Loyola's active scoring leader with 22 points (9 G, 4 A) in 45 collegiate appearances.
- Bayer is the lone Loyola player to start every game in each of the last three-plus seasons. Of her nine collegiate goals, five have been game-winners for the Greyhounds.
Club Connections
Quick Notes
- Julia Gray, who served as Loyola's co-SAAC president for the 2020-21 academic year, was announced in June as the Patriot League's representative on the NCAA Division I SAAC. She begins her two-year term this fall.
- Gray, Nicole Rivas and Gillian Borton were chosen as team captains for the 2021 season. Borton is a first-year team captain, while Gray and Rivas served as co-captains for the 2020-21 academic year.
- A second team All-Patriot League honoree in 2019, Gray was also a Preseason All-Patriot League selection in the spring before missing a majority of the season due to injury. She started all 19 games at center back in 2019, anchoring a defense which surrendered just seven goals over the season's final 12 contests.
- Loyola has two of the last three Maryland Gatorade Girls Soccer Player of the Year honorees on its roster, with Ada Clare Tempert recognized in 2019 and incoming freshman Baylee DeSmit chosen in 2020.
Smart Hounds
- Loyola finished the 2021 spring semester with an impressive 3.604 team GPA. A total of 17 Greyhounds recorded a semester GPA above 3.60, with Gillian Borton, Kaleigh Gallagher, Julia Gray, Chloe Kuminkoski, Sarah Mirr and Jenna Nall all posting perfect 4.0 GPA's.
- Sarah Bayer (biology/speech pathology interdisciplinary major, 3.95 GPA) and Paige Sim (biology major, 3.94 GPA) were both Academic All-Patriot League selections, with Bayer later becoming the program's first CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree since 2012.
Looking Ahead
