Quick Hits About The 'Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland men's lacrosse will play for the Patriot League Championship and a bid to the NCAA Tournament when it takes on Army West Point on Sunday, May 7, at Boston University's Nickerson Field.
• The 12 p.m. game will air live on CBS Sports Network.
• Since making the switch to starting on attack, Evan James and Adam Poitras have combined for 30 goals and nine assists. James made the move for the April 18 game at Georgetown and has 17 of the goals, while Poitras moved April 22 for the Colgate game and has 13 goals and five assists for 18 points, three shy of James' 21.
• The Greyhounds are in their 14th season of competition at Ridley Athletic Complex. Loyola's home field, which opened in 2010, has been a formidable advantage for the Greyhounds. They are 72-28 (.720) all-time at the stadium.
• 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

• Evan James scored the game's first goal for Loyola, but Boston University reeled off eight-straight goals to take a 8-1 lead with 7 minutes, 50 seconds left in the second quarter of a Patriot League Semifinal. Adam Poitras tallied his first of four goals 26 seconds later, kicking off a 9-1 Greyhounds' run that would help Loyola rally and claim a 12-11 victory over the top-seeded Terriers.
• Luke Staudt made a career-high 20 saves for the Greyhounds, his last coming with less than 10 seconds to go to preserve the win.
• Louis Perfetto scored at 13:14 in the third quarter, tying the game for the Terriers at 10-10, and Vince D'Alto put them in front, 11-10, with 8:35 to go in regulation.
• Staudt made five saves over the next five-plus minutes to keep the Loyola deficit at one, the last leading to a clean clear onto the offensive end. James found Poitras in delayed transition as the Terriers were subbing, and Poitras scored with 3:21 left, tying the game at 11-11.
• Less than a minute later, Poitras put Loyola back in front, cutting to the goal and catching from Higgins behind for a goal at 2:38.
• Patriot League Championships History
• The Greyhounds are 13-3 in Patriot League Championships play, winning the tournaments in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018. They are 4-0 in championship games.

Series History

• Loyola will meet Army West Point for the 17th time in series history on Sunday with all but one of the meetings coming since 2014 when Loyola joined the Patriot League.
• Sunday will mark the seventh time that the teams have met in the Patriot League Championships (out of nine years the championships have been held since Loyola entered the conference). The teams have split the previous six meetings in the conference tournament with Army winning in the 2015 Quarterfinals and 2019 and 2022 Semifinals. Loyola took wins in the 2016 and 2017 Championship Games and the 2021 Semifinals.
• The Greyhounds lead the all-time series, 9-7, but the Black Knights have won the last three meetings, including a 10-5 victory on March 25, 2023, at West Point, New York.

Three Greyhounds Earn Patriot League Postseason Honors

• A trio of Greyhounds were named to the All-Patriot League teams on Monday as Payton Rezanka and Adam Poitras garnered recognition on the first team, and Matt Hughes was placed on the second.
• Poitras is second on the team in goals (31) and points (45), and he is fourth in assists (14). Rezanka continues his play as one of the top short-stick defensive midfielders in the nation and has 19 caused turnovers, while Matt Hughes is tied for the team lead with 22 caused turnovers.
• Poitras and Hughes received further recognition on Thursday when they earned spots on the 12-player Academic All-Patriot League Team.

Sparking The Attack

• Evan James and Adam Poitras have made the shift to starting on attack for the Greyhounds since the regular-season game at Boston University on April 15 with James moving to one spot down low for the April 18 game against Georgetown with Poitras making the move April 22 versus Colgate.
• James started the trend with two goals against the Hoyas. Poitras and he both put up four-goal games four days later against the Raiders with Poitras' quartet coming with three assists. Poitras had another four-goal game to close the regular-season at Lehigh. James then set a Patriot League Championships single-game record with six goals in the quarterfinal at Navy. Both had four-goal outings at Boston University in the Patriot League Semifinals; James posted three assists in that game, and Poitras had one.
• Together, they've scored 30 goals (James 17, Poitras 13) and dished out nine assists (4, 5) in the nine total starts on attack. In those five games – and not including the goal Poitras scored against Georgetown as a midfield starter – they have scored 50.8 percent of the Greyhounds' 59 goals. Of the nine starts, they have combined for six four-goal games.

James' Championships

• Evan James has scored 10 goals thus far in the Patriot League Championships and is closing in on tying or breaking the Championships record of 12 set in 2019 by Lehigh's Andrew Pettit. With 13, he is five points from tying Colgate's Peter Baum's tournament record of 18.

Four Who Put The Ball On The Ground

• Loyola is one of three teams nationally who have four or more players with 15 or more caused turnovers this season. The Greyhounds are joined by Boston University and Jacksonville, two teams that regularly 10-man ride.
• Close defenders Matt Hughes (22) and Cam Wyers (23) lead Loyola in caused turnovers, with short-stick middies Payton Rezanka (19) and Mustang Sally (18) close behind.
• Rezanka and Sally are the No. 1 duo nationally with 37 combined for players who play exclusively with a short-stick.

Statistically Among Freshmen

• Matthew Minicus has not just been among the leaders in scoring for Loyola, he is one of the top first-year players in the nation for goals scored per game. With 2.36 goals, Minicus is fourth among freshmen in goals per game behind Bryant's Jack Lonsinger (2.67) and Johnny Hackett (2.60) and Binghamton's Gage Adams (2.60).
• Minicus leads Patriot League first-year players in goals (33) and points (47), and he enters the Army West Point game pacing the Greyhounds in both categories.
• He had the first four-point game of his career on March 1 at Towson when he scored twice and assisted on two more goals, and he followed that with a four-goal against Lafayette. Minicus was named the Patriot League Offensive Player and Rookie of the Week, and he also earned a spot on the USILA Team of the Week, after scoring seven goals at Bucknell. He picked up his second Patriot League Rookie of the Week honor on April 24 after combining for six goals and three assists versus Georgetown (2 and 1) and Colgate (4, 2).

Short-Sticks Continue To Cause Opponents Problems

• 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.
• Rezanka's 27 caused turnovers were tops amongst short-stick defensive midfielders nationally. His 72 career caused turnovers rank ninth all-time at Loyola and are second amongst Greyhounds short-sticks (Pat Laconi, 75, 2011-14).
• This year, Rezanka opened the season with two caused turnovers and an assist against Maryland before posting two caused turnovers, three ground balls and another assist in the Johns Hopkins game. He tied his career-high with five caused turnovers at Army West Point. He has 19 caused turnovers this season and was again named to the All-Patriot League First Team, the third-straight year a Greyhounds shortie earned that recognition.
• 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.
• Mustang Sally has joined Rezanka in the Greyhounds' top short-stick rotation and has 18 caused turnovers this year. 
• The two have contributed in transition offense, as well, with Sally scoring six goals to go with five assists and Rezanka posting five assists while scoring four times. Four of Sally's goals have come off Rezanka assists; he had his first two-point game at Loyola against Army West Point with a goal and an assist. Max McGillicuddy, another Greyhounds short-stick, has a goal and three assists this season, and Will Sherwood scored against Navy in the Patriot League Quarterfinals.

Back As The Backstop

• Luke Staudt started the season as hot as a goalkeeper could be, posting double-digit save performances, including one with 19 stops in the season-opening win against then-No. 1 Maryland. 
• After five games (Maryland-Lafayette), he had 70 saves against 44 goals allowed for a .614 save percentage. Over the next seven games he played (Duke-Colgate), his save percentage dipped to .417.
• Staudt did not play in the regular-season finale at Lehigh, but he came back in stellar form Tuesday night in the Patriot League Quarterfinals at Navy, making 18 saves on 25 shots on goal (.720) to finish one off his then-career-high. He came back in the semifinal with 20 saves on 31 shots on goal (.645) against Army West Point. 
• Overall this year, he leads the Patriot League and is No. 6 in the nation in saves percentage (.556).

Defensive Stalwarts

• Cam Wyers and Matt Hughes have been mainstays on close defense for the Greyhounds and were both named to the All-Patriot League Second Team a year ago; Wyers also 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 68 of 70 games since coming to the school before the 2019 season. He is fifth all-time at Loyola with 79 caused turnovers, and he also has 153 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 47 games with the Greyhounds, Hughes has 112 ground balls and 63 caused turnovers to check in 10th in school history in the latter.
• Hughes was named the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week on February 13 after holding Maryland Preseason All-American Owen Murphy scoreless on five shots in the season-opener. He then had seven ground balls and two caused turnovers against Johns Hopkins, while three and three versus the Blue Jays. Against Rutgers, he held Scarlet Knights All-American Ross Scott to just one goal. He earned the conference's Defensive Player of the Week recognition again on March 6 after seven ground balls and five caused turnovers in wins over Towson and Lafayette. He leads Loyola with 22 caused turnovers this year and was named to the All-Patriot League Second Team.

Scoring Where He's Needed

• 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.
• In 2022, Poitras 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.
• He had his first hat trick of the 2023 season at Towson when he scored the overtime game-winner, as well. Poitras scored a career-best five points versus Holy Cross with three goals and two assists. 
• Recently, Poitras has moved to start on attack, and he is second on the team with 31 goals and 45 points; he has played 54 games during his career and has 76 goals and 41 assists for 116 points. He put up a career-high seven points against Colgate, tying his career-high marks in goals (4) and assists (3), and he matched the four-goal mark less than a week later at Lehigh and did so again at Boston University in the semifinals.

Steady Production

• Evan James has been one of the Greyhounds' best point producers since the start of the 2021 season, scoring at least one in 44 of the 52 games he's played. 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. He scored two or more goals in eight of Loyola's 16 games last year.
• This year, he has five hat tricks and seven games with two or more goals; he has 3 career hat tricks and 26 games with two or more goals. 
• He has started the last five games on attack and has 17 goals, including four on five shots against Colgate and a Patriot League Championships record six at Navy. He then had a four-goal, three-assist game at Boston University in the semifinal.
• Over 53 career games played, James is the Greyhounds' active leader in goals (91) and points scored (123).

Toomey's Team

• Charley Toomey is in his 18th 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 a 177-92 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, 104 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 San Diego. 

Get To Ten

• Since Charley Toomey became head coach at Loyola in 2006, the Greyhounds have scored 10 or more goals on 171 occasions; Loyola has won 80.8 percent of those games (138-33).