Game Day Storylines
• Scene Setter: Winners of six consecutive regular-season Patriot League games, the Navy men's lacrosse team will look to extend that streak when it makes the short drive to Baltimore on Saturday to play ninth-ranked Loyola. Faceoff is set for 1:00 pm at Ridley Athletic Complex. The Mids, who enter the contest 4-2 overall and 2-0 in Patriot League action, are led by eighth-year head coach
Rick Sowell, while the 4-2 Greyhounds are under the direction of 14th-year head coach Charley Toomey. Saturday's game marks the 12th meeting in a series that Loyola leads, 7-4, and dates back to 1939.
• Follow the Action: The Navy-Loyola contest will be carried live on 1430 AM / 99.9 FM WNAV with Pete Medhurst and
Joe Miller handling the call. Coverage begins with the Navy Lacrosse Pregame Show at 12:45 pm. The game will also be streamed online (FREE) via Navy's web site or PatriotLeague.TV, while live stats will be available at NavySports.com.
• Taking it on the Road: After playing their first 5 games of the season at home, the Mids made their first road trip a week ago to Lafayette which produced a 12-7 win. Navy will make its second of just four road appearances during the regular season when they face Loyola on Saturday. The Mids are 6-2 over the last 2 seasons on the road. Navy lost its first two games of the 2018 season, both road games (Jacksonville & Maryland), and have since won six straight true road contests (not including neutral site games).
• Point Streak: Senior midfielder
Ryan Wade owns the nation's 11th-longest point-scoring streak with a goal or an assist in each of the last 30 contests. He has produced 80 points on 24 goals and 56 assists during the streak that dates back to the Feb. 25, 2017 contest against Boston University. Meanwhile, Loyola senior attackman Pat Spencer owns the nation's longest point-producing streak at 57 straight games (every game he has played in) where he has recorded 306 points on 118 goals and 188 assists.
• Goal Streak: Sophomore attackman
Christian Daniel has produced a goal in 18 of the 19 games he has played in at Navy, including each of the last 17 (39 goals). It's tied as the ninth-longest streak in the country.
• Need a Point, Call On These Four: Starting attackmen
Nick Cole,
Christian Daniel and
Jack Sweeney, along with starting midfielder
Ryan Wade have produced a point in each of the Mids' six games this season.
• The Race to 100: Senior
Greyson Torain became the 34th player and only the ninth midfielder in the program's 112-year history to reach the 100-point milestone when he punched in 6 points (5G, 1A) against Vermont in the opener. Torain is 23rd on the all-time list with 112 points. Meanwhile, classmate
Ryan Wade, who has topped 30 points in each of the previous two seasons, needs just 7 points (29-64=93) to add his name to that list. They would be just the fourth set of classmates in program history to reach 100 (Brendan Schneck and Mike Hannan in 1978, Michael Herger and Brian Keith in 1990, Ian Dingman and Billy Looney in 2007 and Sam Jones and Tucker Hull in 2014.
• Extra Extra: Attackmen
Christian Daniel (3) and
Nick Cole (2), along with
Michael Foster (1) have accounted for Navy's 6 extra-man goals this season, while attackman
Jack Sweeney has provided the assist on 4 of the 6.
• May I Help You?: Navy currently ranks 11th in the country in assists per game (8.17). Navy has never finished inside of the top 20 since the NCAA began tracking the stat in 2009. Navy's best average during that time period is 5.79 (81A, 14Gm) in 2017. Navy has dealt out 49 assists in 6 games this season.
• Shot Stopper: Third-year starting goalkeeper
Ryan Kern made 16 saves, just 2 off his career mark, in both of Navy's games last week (Princeton, Lafayette). He also became the 14th goalkeeper in program history to reach 300 career saves. He ranks 13th on the all-time saves list with 328.
Scouting the Greyhounds
• In his 14th season as head coach at Loyola, Charley Toomey has directed his Greyhounds to a 4-2 record that includes a 1-0 mark in Patriot League action.
• The Patriot League defending champion and preseason favorite, Loyola's lone Patriot League game of the season was a 19-15 shootout against Holy Cross.
• The Greyhounds own nonconference wins over Virginia, Johns Hopkins and Rutgers, while their two losses were against Towson (12-10) and Duke (12-7).
• Leading the way for the Greyhounds is All-American and three-time Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year Pat Spencer, who has recorded 40 points on 18 goals and 22 assists. He is ranked #2 nationally in points per game (6.67), #18 in goals per game (3.00) and #5 in assists per game (3.67). Spencer now holds the Patriot League career records in both assists (188) and points (306). In the 2018 Patriot League title game, he broke the Loyola career assists mark.
• Sophomore attackman Kevin Lindley is second on the team with 26 points on a team-high 25 goals and 1 assist. Lindley is #2 in the country in goals per game (4.17). Lindley finished his freshman season ranked fourth in NCAA Division I, converting 52.1 percent of his shots in 2018. He has converted 25 of 47 shots this year, good for 53.2 percent.
• Freshman middie Chase Scanlan leads all D-I freshmen with 18 goals this year.
• Jacob Stover stands between the pipes where he is giving up 11.17 goals per game and owns a 56.5 save percentage. He is #5 in the country, averaging 14.50 saves per game. Stover has 482 career saves, sixth on the NCAA's active leader board. As a team, Loyola's scoring defense (11.17) ranks 36th.
• Sophomore Bailey Savio has taken all 169 faceoffs for the Greyhounds this season. He has won 84 of the 169 (49.7) which is the nation's 45th-best percentage. He leads the team with 42 ground balls.
• Loyola is ninth nationally in extra-man offense, scoring 10 goals on 23 opportunities (43.5). Freshman middie Chase Scanlan owns a team-high 4 extra-man goals, while senior middie John Duffy has 3.
Program Ties
• Loyola head coach Charley Toomey served as the Naval Academy Prep School head coach during the 1993 season before joining the Navy coaching staff as an assistant for two years. He served under Bryan Matthews (1994) and Richie Meade (1995).
Navy vs. Loyola - The Series
• The two programs are meeting for the 12th time overall and the sixth time since Loyola joined the Patriot League in 2014.
• Loyola owns a 7-4 advantage, winning seven of the last eight meetings. Navy's 10-9 win over the Greyhounds in the 2016 meeting in Annapolis marked its first win over Loyola since 1943.
• Saturday's contest marks just the fourth game in the series played in Baltimore with Loyola winning all three - 9-8 in 2011, 17-7 in 2015, 18-7 in 2017.
• The two programs first met on May 6, 1939, with Navy scoring a 14-4 victory. The Mids also took wins over Loyola in 1942 (12-8) and 1943 (8-1). However, the two teams would not meet again until the NCAA Tournament in 1993. The Greyhounds dealt the Mids a 19-8 to end their season.
• The two programs rekindled the series in 2010 with Loyola scoring an 8-7 decision in overtime and a year later the Greyhounds earned a 9-8 come-from-behind win over the Mids in Baltimore.
Mid The Mids Set for Next Saturday
• Navy will hold its annual Meet the Mids event following its game against Lehigh next Saturday at 12:00 pm.
• Members of the Navy lacrosse team will be available for autographs on the Blue Concourse, with the first 300 kids in line for the postgame autograph session receiving a Navy lacrosse "Meet the Mids" t-shirt, compliments of Annapolis area Papa John's and Chick-fil-A.
Navy's Attack One of Nation's Youngest
• Navy's starting lineup over the last 3 games has featured a pair of freshmen and a sophomore. It is one of just five starting lineups nationwide that includes 2 freshmen, while it's one of only 2 that features 2 freshmen and a sophomore.
• Bucknell starts 2 freshmen (Matthew Barkauskas & Alston Tarry) and a sophomore (Tommy Sopko).
• Fairfield starts 2 freshmen (Patrick Drake & Brian Reda) and a junior (Dylan Beckwith)
• Monmouth starts 2 freshmen (Cade Stratton-redshirt & J.D. Nozemack) and a senior (Griffin Figel)
• North Carolina starts 2 freshmen (Nicky Solomon & Jacob Kelly) and a senior (Andy Matthews).
• Navy sophomore
Christian Daniel leads the team in scoring with 26 points on 19 goals and 7 assists and has scored a point in every game in which he has played over his career (19) and owns the nation's ninth-longest goal scoring streak with goals in each of the last 17 contests.
• Freshmen attackmen
Nick Cole and
Jack Sweeney have produced a point in all 6 contests this season. Cole has posted a goal in all 6 and assists in 5 of the 6, while Sweeney has assists in 5 of the 6.
