The Matchup
- Loyola men's soccer continues their Patriot League regular season and postseason championship defense as they will host Old Dominion for their home opener.
- This will be the 4th matchup between the two programs, with their most recent matchup coming last season where the Monarchs won 1-0.
Lockdown Defense
- Loyola's defense was a major part of them reaching the NCAA tournament, as they tallied 11 shutouts on the year, the program's most in a season since 2008, and the Greyhounds allowed one goal or fewer in 15 of 20 contests during the 2021 season.
- Loyola posted six-straight shutouts against Patriot League opponents from Oct. 12 through Nov. 9, keeping conference teams off the scoreboard for 639:58 consecutive minutes prior to American's first-half goal in the Patriot League Championship game.
- The Greyhounds will have a tall task in replacing Four-time Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year
Chase Vosvick, as he tallied a career-high ten shutouts in 2021 (tied for fifth in Division I), along with 30 total shutouts in his career with the Greyhounds.
Returners and Newcomers
- The Greyhounds will return 21 players from the 2021 team. Key returners include Jordiy Luchies who was the only player to start all 20 games, leading goalscorer
Kelan Swales,
Daniel Tshiani,
Matthew Lala,
Albert Kang, and
Jake Mayer.
- The Greyhounds have also brought in a deep and talented freshman class that includes 9 players in total.
- They also brought in two transfers in goalkeeper
Konstantinos Parisis who transfered to Loyola from Wilmington University. They also brought in transfer defender
Thomas Gray, who comes to Loyola from William Carey University, and lastly transfer defender
Milan Miric, who comes from Dayton.
Scouting Old Dominion
- The Monarchs come into the matchup with a 1-1 record on the season. They notched a 1-0 win over George Mason, before falling to fellow Patriot League member American 0-1.
- The Monarchs were picked to finish 8th out of 9 teams in the Sun Belt Conference for the 2022 season.
- Michael Eberle scored the lone goal thus far for the Monarchs in their game against George Mason.
- They have out-shot their opponents on the season by a combined 24-15 total, while also winning the corner kick margin by a combined 10-5.
- Goalkeeper Michael Statham has played every minute in goal so far for the Monarchs, posting 10 saves on the season, with a .909 save percentage.
- Old Dominion is coming off of a 3-9-2 (1-5-2) season in 2021.
Quick Notes
- The Greyhounds were 8-0-1 last season when scoring multiple goals. They were also 7-0 when leading at halftime and 7-0-1 when they outshot opponents.
- The Greyhounds were 3-1-2 during the 2021 season when coming off of a loss.
- So far this season, the Greyhounds have outshot both of their opponents by a total of 22-11 this year.
- Loyola posted shutouts in six of its seven Patriot League victories last season, and the Greyhounds allowed one goal or fewer in 8 of 9 conference games overall.
- Loyola allowed just four goals in its nine regular season Patriot League games, six fewer than the next stingiest conference school (Bucknell - 10).
- Of the 21 returners, 13 of them started in at least one game during the 2021 season, with 5 of them tallying at least 14 starts.
Swales and Luchies Earn preseason Patriot League Awards
- Loyola's
Kelan Swales (Offensive Player of the Year) and
Jordy Luchies (Defensive Player of the Year) recieved Preseason Patriot League Awards. Along with Swales and Luchies,
Albert Kang also was named to the Preaseason All-Patriot League team.
- The Greyhounds lead the Patriot League with three nominees on the All-Patriot League team, as they also recieved all possible first place votes (18) to repeat as Patriot League Champions during the 2022 season.
-
Steve Nichols, whose staff includes assistants
Jamie Darvill,
Jesse Haislip and
Matt Little, was voted by his peers as the conference's Coach of the Year for a fourth time after he was previously recognized three-straight seasons from 2016-18.
- Loyola is 38-13-6 overall against conference opponents during the past six years under Nichols, a 1992 Loyola graduate who rejoined the program as head coach in 2014.
More on Swales and Luchies
- The Leeds, England native, Swales is a two-time First Team All-Patriot League nominee. - - Swales has also been named to the United Soccer Coaches Second Team All-Atlantic Region, as well as the Academic All-Patriot League Team.
- Swales has tallied 8 goals and 8 assists in two seasons for the Greyhounds, including 3 game winning goals during the 2021 season.
- Swales comes into the 2022 season with the most points from any returners.
- The Emmen, Netherlands native, Luchies comes into his sophomore season after being named to the 2021 First Team All-Patriot League team.
- Luchies was an anchor on the back line for the Greyhounds and was a crucial part of the Greyhounds defense.
- Luchies also tallied 1 assist during the 2021 season, and was the lone Greyhound to start in all 20 games.
Last Time Out
- The Greyhouds traveled to face Delaware for their second game of the season.
- After a back and forth start to the game, the Greyhounds finally got on the board in the 40th minute thanks to a goal from
Loc San, off of an assist from
Danilo Seglio and
Johan Granados.
- They added two more quick goals in the second half as
Kelan Swales scored a goal off of an assist from
Daniel Tshiani and
Eddy Rodriguez.
-
Albert Kang added another goal for the Greyhounds off of a rebound on a free kick shot from Swales.
