Quick Hits About The 'Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland begins its 81st season of men's lacrosse on Saturday, February 11, 2023, when it hosts the University of Maryland at Ridley Athletic Complex.
• The 1 o'clock game will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
• Saturday's game marks the opening of the 14th season the Greyhounds will play at Ridley Athletic Complex. Loyola's home field, which opened in 2010, has been a formidable advantage for the Greyhounds. They are 68-28 (.708) all-time at the stadium.
• The Greyhounds return seven of their top-10 point scorers from a year ago, led by four players who scored 15 or more goals: Adam Poitras (29), Evan James (26) Joey Kamish (19) and Seth Higgins (15). Davis Lindsey is back as the top feeder on the team after posting 20 assists while starting just three games a year ago.
• Charley Toomey is in his 18th year as head coach of the Greyhounds. Including assistant coaches Matt Dwan and Marc Van Arsdale and volunteer assistant coach Steve Vaikness, the four have 63 years of experience in their current roles at Loyola.

Looking Back

• The Greyhounds finished the 2022 campaign with an 8-8 overall record after going 6-2 in Patriot League play.
• Loyola advanced to the Patriot League Semifinals for the eighth time in nine years since joining the conference.
• After an 0-4 start to the season, Loyola won five of its next six games, including a 12-10 victory over then-No. 9 Duke University.
• Aidan Olmstead led the Greyhounds in points and assists for the third straight year, posting 25 goals, 31 assists and 56 points. He finished his career at Loyola third all-time in points (224), fourth in assists (113) and 10th in goals (111).
• Kevin Lindley was the team's top goal-scorer for the fourth year in a row, posting 38 in his final season with the Greyhounds. He completed his time on the Evergreen campus as the school and Patriot League's all-time leader in goals scored with 196, and he is fourth at Loyola in points (218).
• Bailey Savio won 54 percent of faceoffs last year for the Greyhounds (198 of 367) and had 123 ground balls. He set school game, season and career (472) ground ball records and won a Loyola and Patriot League record 808 faceoffs.

In The Polls

• Loyola enters Saturday's game receiving votes in both the USILA coaches poll and the Inside Lacrosse media rankings.
• Maryland is ranked first in the coaches poll, second in the media version.

Series History

• Saturday will be the 25th all-time meeting between the programs, a series that dates back to April 6, 1940. The Terrapins hold a 1-3 all-time lead in the series and have won the last three meetings.
• This year's game is the second of a home-and-home series that started last year on February 12, 2022, in College Park where the Terrapins came away with a 20-8 victory on their home field.
• This game will mark the fifth meeting between the programs since the 2012 season. Prior to meeting in that year's NCAA Championship Game, the schools had not met on the lacrosse field since 1998. Including the previous four this century, the 1998 game in the NCAA Semifinals and a contest in 1989, Loyola and Maryland have played six times in the last 33 years. The other 18 games came between 1940 and 1959.
• Loyola won its first NCAA Division I Championship on May 28, 2012, when it defeated Maryland, 9-3, at Gillette Stadium, in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Preseason Prognostication

• A pair of Greyhounds earned several preseason honors from various groups. Payton Rezanka was named a First-Team Preseason All-American by Inside Lacrosse and USA Lacrosse Magazine, and he earned Preseason All-America Second Team recognition by the USILA.
• Cam Wyers was named Preseason All-America Honorable Mention by all three.
• Rezanka and Wyers represented Loyola on the Preseason All-Patriot League team as the Greyhounds were picked to finish second in the conference.

Higher Learning

• Five members of the Greyhounds are enrolled in graduate school programs this year while taking advantage of their final year of eligibility. Liam Bateman is pursuing his M.B.A. in accounting, while Matt Hughes, Scott Middleton, Freeman Whitaker and Cam Wyers are completing classes for their M.B.A. in business administration.

Four Named Greyhounds Captains

• Four Loyola players were named captains for the 2023 season. Graduate students Cam Wyers and Matt Hughes represent the Greyhounds defense as captains, while senior Evan James and Adam Poitras are offensive captains.

Rezanka Racks Up Caused Turnovers

• Payton Rezanka averaged nearly two caused turnovers per game last year for the Greyhounds and earned a slew of postseason accolades. He was named a third-team All-American by the USILA, a second-team All-American by Inside Lacrosse and an All-Patriot League First Team honoree after posting 27 caused turnovers in 16 games.
• He had three in each of the first two games against Maryland and Johns Hopkins, and he caused three again at Lafayette and versus Duke. Rezanka then caused a career-high five turnovers against Army West Point on March 26. He posted another game with three in the regular-season finale against Lehigh.
• Rezanka's 27 caused turnovers were tops amongst short-stick defensive midfielders nationally. His 54 career caused turnovers rank ninth all-time at Loyola.
• His play has continued a tradition of outstanding short-stick defensive midfield play by the Greyhounds over the last decade-plus. Starting with Josh Hawkins in 2012, four different Greyhounds short sticks have earned USILA All-America honors. Hawkins (2012 and 2013 honorable mention) and Pat Laconi (2014 second team) were honored as midfielders before short sticks were separated into their own category. Matt Higgins then earned honorable mention in 2021 before Rezanka was named to the third team last year. Higgins (2021) and Rezanka (2022) were named to the All-Patriot League First Team at the position after Brian Begley was a second-team honoree as a junior in 2017 and first-team short stick in 2018.

Defensive Stalwarts

• Cam Wyers and Matt Hughes have been mainstays on close defense for the Greyhounds with both starting every game over the last two seasons. The pair were also both named to the All-Patriot League Second Team a year ago, and Wyers picked up USILA All-America recognition for the second year in a row (third team in 2021, honorable mention in 2022).
• Wyers has been one of the top cover defenders throughout his four years at Loyola and has started 54 of 55 games since coming to the school before the 2019 season. He is eighth all-time at Loyola with 57 caused turnovers, and he also has 126 ground balls.
• Wyers was selected in the first round, and 13th overall, of the 2022 National Lacrosse League (NLL) draft by the Buffalo Bandits.
• Hughes came to Loyola in 2019 after playing as a freshman at Mercer in 2018. He missed the 2019 campaign due to an injury, and he played in four games during the shortened 2020 season before starting each of the last two seasons. In his 36 games with the Greyhounds, Hughes has 70 ground balls and 42 caused turnovers to check in tied for 15th in school history in the latter.

First Degree Midfield

• Loyola returns all three starters on its first midfield unit with each posting more than 25 points last season.
• Adam Poitras and Evan James were second and third, respectively, on the team in goals scored with 29 and 26, respectively. Poitras added nine assists for 38 points, while James had 11 for 37. Seth Higgins put up 15 goals and 11 assists in his first year as a full-time starter.

Steady Production

• Evan James has been one of the Greyhounds' best point producers over the last two seasons, scoring at least one in 29 of the 31 games he's played in during 2021 and 2022. In 2022, he earned All-Patriot League Second Team honors for the second season in a row, scoring 26 goals and assisting on 11 while starting on the Greyhounds' first midfield.
• In 2021, he played primarily on attack and had 32 goals and 12 assists.
• James had three four-goal games in 2022 – at Navy and at Colgate – and two with three (Army West Point x2). He scored two or more goals in eight of Loyola's 16 games last year, and he has nine career hat tricks and 20 games with two or more goals.

Breaking Out In The Midfield

• Adam Poitras had his freshman season, during which he was a starter on the Greyhounds' first midfield, cut short by the COVID pandemic after he'd scored five goals and dished out seven assists through six games.
• He played in all 16 games as a sophomore in 2021, but his production was hampered as he came back from offseason surgery. As he became healthier throughout the year, his point production increased and he had eight goals and eight assists in the last seven games of the season. That included three three-point games against Navy, Army West Point and Denver.
• In 2022, Poitras started the year with two goals and an assist at Maryland, and he went for a career-high four goals on February 26 against Rutgers, a number he tied on April 23 at Colgate. He finished second on the team with 29 goals, and he was third with 38 points.
• After his junior season of 2022, Poitras played for the Whitby Warriors of the Ontario Junior Lacrosse League and led the Warriors to both the Mann (OJLL 'A') and Minto Cup (National) titles. He was named Most Valuable Player of both tournaments, and in the Minto Cup, he tied for tournament-high honors with 14 goals and added 15 assists.
• Poitras also earned a silver medal while playing for the Canadian team at the 2022 U-21 Men's World Championships, along with Loyola teammate Josh Fairey.

Higgins In On Midfield Scoring, Too

• While frequently drawing the pole in the Greyhounds' first midfield in 2022, Seth Higgins has shown his ability to beat his matchup and be a consistent scorer for the Greyhounds.
• On March 19, 2022, against Bucknell, he set career-highs with three goals, three assists and six points, and he matched that goal output a week later versus Army West Point while adding an assist, too.
• In 16 games, Higgins has scored 15 goals to go with 11 assists for 26 points.

Stepped Up Output

• Davis Lindsey missed all of his freshman season with an injury and after more than a year without playing in a game, his start to the 2022 season was slow. He did not log a point in the first four games of the year and had just two assists through six.
• Over the last nine games he's played in 2022, though, he had eight multi-point games with eight goals and 18 assists. He posted to-date career-highs of two goals, three assists and five points at Georgetown on April 19, tying for the game-high point total. He then had four assists for a new best against Lehigh, and he followed that with another two-goal, three-assist outing against Bucknell in the Patriot League Quarterfinal.
• Lindsey started the last two games of the year, and he was second on the team with 20 assists and tied for fifth with 28 points.

Outside Of The Family

• For the last nine seasons, a member of the Savio family has been the primary faceoff specialist for the Greyhounds as Graham manned the 'X' from 2014-17, and younger brother, Bailey, was in the position from 2018-22. Bailey Savio graduated as the Patriot League's all-time leader in faceoff wins (808) and ground balls (472); at the start of the 2023 season, Graham is second all-time in the conference in wins (709) and fourth in ground balls (340).
• This year, however, a new mix of faceoff specialists will take the reigns for the Greyhounds, led by senior Eric Pacheco. Pacheco has won 44 of 97 faceoffs in his career for the Greyhounds, while fellow senior Chris Cottone is 18 of 34. Saywer Allen joined the group as a midyear transfer from Curry College where he won 66.8 percent of restarts over the last two seasons.

Toomey's Team

• Charley Toomey is in his 17th year as the head coach at Loyola and his 26th as a member of the Greyhounds' coaching staff. Overall, he is in his 30th year on the Evergreen campus, including his four seasons as a student-athlete from 1986-90.
• Toomey has directed the Greyhounds to 168 wins, an average of 12.3 per season (not including the shortened 2020 season) since 2012, and has a 168-85 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).
• As a head coach, Toomey has coached 50 USILA All-Americans, 101 all-conference selections, 21 conference positional or players or rookies of the year, a Tewaaraton Award winner and five finalists and 22 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 2023 World Championships in British Columbia. 

Get To Ten

• Since Charley Toomey became head coach at Loyola in 2006, the Greyhounds have scored 10 or more goals on 161 occasions; Loyola has won 80.1 percent of those games (129-32).

Up Next

• Loyola will host a men's and women's lacrosse doubleheader next weekend when the Greyhounds face Johns Hopkins University in the Battle of Charles Street. The men will kick off the day with a 12 p.m. game, followed by a 3 p.m. contest between the schools' women's teams.