Quick Hits About The 'Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland men's lacrosse returns to Ridley Athletic Complex on Saturday, March 9, for a 3:30 p.m. game against Duke University. The game is the second part of a double-header that will also feature a Loyola-Towson women's game at 12 noon. The games will stream live on ESPN+.
• Luke Staudt has averaged 13.3 saves per game with a .533 saves percentage through the season's first five games.
• Matthew MInicus, Evan James and Adam Poitras have led the Greyhounds in scoring this year with 34 goals between. James has 14, while Poitras has 11 and Minicus 10.
• The Greyhounds are in their 15th 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 73-29 (.716) all-time at the stadium.
• Charley Toomey is in his 19th year as head coach of the Greyhounds. Including assistant coaches Matt Dwan and Marc Van Arsdale and Steve Vaikness, the four have 67 years of experience in their current roles at Loyola. Ryan McNulty returns for his second season as director of operations.

Looking Back

• Colgate scored the game's last five goals last Saturday, turning an 11-9 deficit into a 14-11 victory over Loyola at Andy Kerr Stadium in Hamilton, New York.
• Henry Haberman capped a 3-1 Loyola run with an extra-man goal 1:42 into the fourth quarter, and the Greyhounds were in front by a pair.
• Colgate went on extra-man itself less just over two minutes later, and Liam Connor scored with 10:38 to play in regulation. The Raiders then tied the game at 5:37 with a Ryan Favaro goal, and Colgate added three more over the course of the remainder of the game.
• Davis Lindsey tied or exceeded his career-high in points for the second game in a row, posting a new best with six. He scored a second-quarter goal and also had a career-high five assists in the game.
• Adam Poitras added three goals and an assist, and Evan Jams also had a hat trick. Matt Minicus scored twice for the Greyhounds, while Seth Higgins and Haberman both added tallies.
• The Greyhounds led 47-38 in shots and had a season-low 11 turnovers to the Raiders' 19.

Watch The Game

• Saturday's game will stream live on ESPN+. 

Series History

• Saturday will be the 38th meeting all-time between the Blue Devils and the Greyhounds; Duke holds a 24-13 advantage in a series that dates back to 1946. With this game, the teams will have played in each of the last 25 seasons (since 2000), including four times during that stretch – 2008, 2013, 2016 and 2021 – when they have also met in NCAA Championships action.
• The last two meetings have seen each team have dominant first-half performances en route to wins.
• In 2022, the Greyhounds scored a 12-10 victory at Ridley Athletic Complex. Loyola took a 4-0 lead with 3:03 left in the first quarter, and after Duke scored two over a 15-second stretch later in the first, Loyola reeled off six in a row to lead 10-2 at halftime.
• Last year, however, Duke led 8-2 after one quarter at 14-2 at halftime before going on to a 17-9 win over the Greyhounds in Durham, North Carolina.

Conference Call

• Since joining the Patriot League for the 2014 season, Loyola has led the conference in wins (65) and winning percentage (.783, 65-18).

On The Attack

• Loyola's starting attack of Evan James, Matthew Minicus and Adam Poitras led the Loyola offense in the opener against Georgetown, combining for 13 goals and five assists on 29 shots.
• James scored a career-high nine points with five goals and a personal-best four assists. He earned Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week honors after the game.
• Poitras, who will move between the attack and midfield throughout the year, had four goals and an assist, while Minicus scored four times.
• Overall, the three have scored 34 of the Greyhounds 56 goals this season and contributed 13 of 32 assists. 

Lots Of Scoring Returns

• Loyola entered the 2024 season with 96.8 percent of its scoring from a year ago intact on the roster. Only six of the Greyhounds 185 goals from 2023 do not come back, and all of those tallies came from defensive players.
• Six players scored 12 or more goals, and nine had 10 or more points during the year.

Sparking The Attack

• Evan James and Adam Poitras made the shift to starting on attack for the Greyhounds after the regular-season game at Boston University on April 15, 2023, 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.
• Including the start of this season, they have scored 54 goals (James 29, Poitras 26) and dished out 19 assists (11, 7) in the 17 total starts on attack. Of the 17 starts, they have combined for eight four-goal games.

No Slacking Sophomore

• Matthew Minicus was not just been among the leaders in scoring for Loyola last year, he was one of the top first-year players in the nation for goals scored per game. Minicus led Patriot League first-year players in goals (33) and points (49), and he finished the year tied for the team-lead in points and second in goals.
• He had the first four-point game of his career on March 1, 2023, 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).
• This season, he opened the year with a four-goal effort – all coming in the second half – during a win over Georgetown. Through six games, is third on the team with 12 points on 10 goals and two assists.

Back As The Backstop

• Luke Staudt started the 2023 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 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 last year, he led the Patriot League and was No. 6 in the nation in saves percentage (.554). This year, he opened with 11 saves in a win over Georgetown and was named Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Week, and he followed that performance with a 16-save outing at Maryland, a 17-save game at Johns Hopkins and a season-high 18 versus Towson. He is 14th in NCAA Division I in saves per game heading into the Duke game.

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. Poitras finished second on the team in 2022 with 29 goals, and he was third with 38 points.
• After that 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.
• Poitras moved to start on attack late in the 2023 season, and he finished the year leading the team in points (49) and goals (34); he has played 61 games during his career and has 90 goals and 48 assists for 138 points. He put up a career-high seven points against Colgate last season, 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.
• In the 2024 opener against Georgetown, he was again an attack starter, scoring four goals and assisting on one. He has three multi-goal games this year and a pair of hat tricks.
• The athletic gene pool runs strong in his family. His younger brother, Matthew, was a second-round draft pick of the Boston Bruins in 2022 and had five goals and 10 assists this year for the NHL team through 33 appearances before a shoulder injury ended his season.

Steady Production

• Evan James has been one of the Greyhounds' best point producers since the start of the 2021 season, scoring at least once in 49 of the 57 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.
• Last year, he had five hat tricks and seven games with two or more goals; he now has 16 career hat tricks and 28 games with two or more goals. 
• He started the last six games on attack in 2023 and had 18 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 60 career games played, James is the Greyhounds' active leader in goals (106) and points scored (144). On February 24 against Rutgers, he became the 13th player in school history to score 100 goals in a career. He is currently 12th in career goals and would move into the top-10 with six more.

Lindsey Heating Up

• Davis Lindsey has posted back-to-back five-point games for the Greyhounds, scoring four goals and assisting on another on February 27 against Towson before reversing that output with one and four at Colgate on March 2.
• The two five-point games tie his career-high set that he's reached three previous times. He had five points in 2022 at Georgetown (2 goals, 3 assists), versus Bucknell in the Patriot League Quarterfinals (2, 3) and last year against Lafayette (3, 2). 
• Lindsey's game last year against Lafayette was sandwiched between Towson(1, 3) and Duke (3, 1) in which he had four points each.

Don't Slow Your Mustang Down

• Mustang Sally enters the 2024 season as a Preseason All-Patriot League player at short-stick defensive midfield after posting excellent numbers both on the defensive and offensive sides of the ball.
• He caused 20 turnovers, leading all short sticks in NCAA Division I, and had six goals and four assists for 10 points.
• In two-plus seasons as a short-stick for the Greyhounds, Sally has posted 38 caused turnovers and 50 ground balls to go with seven goals and six assists. He had a goal and an assist in the first half of the season opener against Georgetown.

Bean Off The Ground

• Alex Bean was second among Loyola's non-faceoff players last year with 40 ground balls in his first year as a starting close defender, but he had been credited with just one in the Greyhounds' first four games this season.
• Bean got his average back up on February 27 against Towson, picking up a career-high six against the Tigers. 

Game-Winning Goal By A Pole

• Remi Reynolds knocked down a shot from outside of 15 yards on Tuesday night against Towson, putting a dramatic end to an 11-10 overtime win for the Greyhounds. It was Reynolds' second career goal, the first coming in 2022 when he was a freshman at Rutgers. It was the last game-winning goal by a Loyola long pole since April 6, 2013, when Scott Ratliff recorded the eventual winner in a 13-7 win over Fairfield. Ratliff had four goals in that game, a collegiate record for a pole.

Toomey's Team

• Charley Toomey is in his 19th year as the head coach at Loyola and his 27th as a member of the Greyhounds' coaching staff. Overall, he is in his 31st year on the Evergreen campus, including his four seasons as a student-athlete from 1986-90.
• Toomey has a 179-97 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 52 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 28 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 was an assistant for the gold-medal winning team at 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 173 occasions; Loyola has won 80.3 percent of those games (139-34).

Up Next

• Loyola continues its homestand on Saturday, March 16, with a 1 p.m. game against Boston University.