ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The #21 Navy women's lacrosse team (4-0, 1-0 Patriot League) host #13 Loyola (5-2, 2-0 PL) in a top 25 showdown on Wednesday evening at 5:00 p.m. at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and live stats will be available throughout the game.
 
Spectator Policy
Following the guidelines set by state and local government officials, spectators are allowed at home Navy women's lacrosse games. Fans will be required to wear a mask throughout the contest and asked to maintain social distancing.
 
Scouting the Midshipmen
The Midshipmen are off to a 4-0 start and are looking to improve to 5-0 for the first time since 2014 when the Mids opened the year 9-0.
 
Offensively, the Midshipmen are led by seniors Nicole Victory (Issaquah, Wash.), Ellie Lecker (Ponte Vedra, Fla.), and Reagan Roelofs (Apple Valley, Minn.). Victory paces the offense with a team-high 13 goals, five assists, and 18 points, while Lecker has 12 goals and an assist to her credit. Roelofs is balanced with six goals and four helpers for 10 total points.
 
Defensively, Navy is led by senior captain Caroline Kwon (Cooksville, Md.) and junior Christine Fiore (Darien, Conn.). The duo leads the squad with five caused turnovers apiece, while Lecker, Roelofs, and sophomore Erin Carson (New Albany, Ohio) have three each. Fiore leads the team with 10 ground balls. She is followed by Roelofs who has seven and Carson and fellow sophomore Athena Corroon (Greenwich, Conn.) who have six each. Roelofs leads the team with 25 draw controls, while Lecker has won 10 draws of her own.
 
Abbi Young (Alamo, Calif.) has seen a majority of minutes at goal for the Midshipmen. The junior has worked 161 minutes of action, recording a pair of wins and 12 saves. She is joined by senior Annie Maloney (Ellicott City, Md.) and Jo Torres (Prince Frederick, Md.) who have each logged time between the pipes. Maloney has worked just under 49 minutes at goal with a win and two saves, while Torres made her collegiate debut in the second half against Army, picking up a win and recording 10 stops.  
 
Scouting the Opponent
After starting the season 0-2, the Greyhounds have won five-consecutive games, including a 21-3 win in their last game at Bucknell on March 20.
 
Prior to the season, Loyola topped the Patriot League preseason poll for an eighth-consecutive season. Livy Rosenzweig was named Patriot League Preseason Offensive Player of the Year for a second time (2019, '20), while Katie Detwiler earned Preseason Defensive Player of the Year accolades.
 
Rosenzweig has 155 career assists in 54 collegiate appearances. She is fourth all-time in the Patriot League, 22 behind all-time leader Kelly Larkin from Navy.
 
All-Time Series
The game marks the 13th meeting between the two teams in women's lacrosse. Loyola holds a 9-3 advantage in the series, including three victories in Annapolis. Loyola is 54-0 against Patriot League opponents in regular season play since joining the conference. Navy is the only Patriot League team to post a victory against Loyola, defeating the Greyhounds three times.
 
The Midshipmen picked up a win over Loyola in the 2017 PL Championship (W, 15-5), snapping the Greyhounds' 41-game winning streak against conference opponents. The Mids followed the 2017 PL Championship win with a second win in 2018 (W, 17-10), while also defeating the Greyhounds in the second round of the NCAA Tournament (W, 19-15) the same year.
 
Either Navy or Loyola has claimed the Patriot League Tournament title the last 10 seasons the tournament was held with the Midshipmen claiming six and the Greyhounds earning four.
 
Loyola head coach Jen Adams was an All-American and Tewaaraton Award winner at the University of Maryland for Navy head coach Cindy Timchal.
 
Torres Claims Trio of Weekly Accolades
Navy women's lacrosse freshman Jo Torres (Prince Frederick, Md.) earned Patriot League Goalkeeper and Rookie of the Week accolades, as announced by the conference on Monday afternoon. In addition, she was named Naval Academy Athletic Association (NAAA) Athlete of the Week, presented by Northrop Grumman.
 
Torres earned her first collegiate victory in her first collegiate action, coming off of the bench in Navy's 13-12 victory over rival Army West Point on the road in the annual Army-Navy Star Game, which is part of the overall Army-Navy Star Series, presented by USAA.
 
The freshman recorded 10 saves in 30 minutes of action in her first appearance between the pipes. She stopped two of the three free-position shots she faced. Following Army's goal to go up 12-10 with 16:28, Torres recorded four saves on all four of the Black Knights' shot on goal attempts down the stretch giving Navy the opportunity to score the final three goals of the game for the victory. In addition, Torres picked up a ground ball.
 
National Rankings
Following a 4-0 start to the 2021 season, the Navy women's lacrosse team is ranked in all three national polls. The Midshipmen are ranked #21 according to the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA), while coming in at #17 per the Inside Lacrosse media poll and #17 per the US Lacrosse Magazine poll.
 
The Mids have been ranked nationally according to the IWLCA for 46 consecutive weeks, dating back to the final poll of the 2017 season.
 
Loyola, who is ranked #13 according to the IWLCA, is the first of two consecutive ranked opponents Navy will face. The Midshipmen welcome #18 Drexel on Wednesday, April 7. Earlier this season, Loyola defeated then #24 Drexel, 17-12, on Sunday, March 14.