Setting the Stage
• After capturing a 13-10 victory over Bucknell in last Saturday's Patriot League opener, 17th-ranked Navy (3-0, 1-0 PL, 1-0 in the PL South) will look to knock off league favorite 15th-ranked Loyola (4-3, 2-1 PL, 2-1 in the PL South) on Saturday afternoon (2:00 pm) at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The game is presented by Navy Mutual.
• Saturday's contest will be televised live by CBS Sports Network with Joel Godett and Evan Washburn calling the action.
• Additionally, Pete Medhurst and Joe Miller will provide the call on  1430 AM / 99.9 FM WNAV and 1500 AM WFED with coverage beginning at 1:45 pm with the Navy Lacrosse Pregame Show.
• Following the guidelines set by state and local government officials, spectators are allowed at home Navy lacrosse games. Fans will be required to wear a mask throughout the contest and asked to maintain social distancing.

Game Day Storylines
• Countdown to 100: After a four-point performance in Navy's league opener last week against Bucknell, senior attackman Christian Daniel needs just one point to become the 36th player in program history to reach 100 career points. Daniel's former teammates Greyson Torain and Ryan Wade became the 34th and 35th players, respectively, to add their names to the list and just the fifth set of classmates to achieve the feat when both players reached the milestone in 2019. Daniel, who has been held without a point in just two of the 34 games he has played in over his career, has amassed 99 points on 64 goals and 34 assists.
• Home Sweet Home: Navy enters Saturday's contest having won seven consecutive games at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The streak began with its 13-12 victory over 16th-ranked Boston University in its 2019 regular-season finale. Navy won all three home games in 2020 - Manhattan (9-4), Furman (19-3), Colgate (16-14) - in what was Joe Amplo's first season as head coach. The Mids are 3-0 this spring, defeating Mount St. Mary's (8-5), Jacksonville (13-6) and Bucknell (13-10) at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Navy is 144-85 (62.9) all-time at NMCM Stadium and 78-40 (66.1) since 2004 when the Mids made NMCM Stadium is home full-time. Navy owns a 43-16 (72.9) Patriot League record at NMCM Stadium, including a 37-12 (75.6) mark during the regular season.
• Welcome Back!: After a 28-day layoff between games, Navy earned a hard-fought 13-10 victory over Bucknell last Sunday in the Mids' Patriot League opener. Just hours after defeating Jacksonville on Feb. 28, the Naval Academy endured a 21-day Restriction of Movement (ROM), more commonly known as quarantine to the civilian world, due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases within the Brigade of Midshipmen. During those 21 days, midshipmen were allowed two hours of outdoor physical activity with one roommate, while classes were held virtually and meals were consumed within their respective dorm rooms. ROM was lifted on Monday, March 22, when athletes were allowed to return to practice and resume competition. The 28-day gap between games is the longest in school history with the closest being a 23-day wait between the Mids' 1986 regular-season finale against top-ranked Johns Hopkins on April 26 and its NCAA Quarterfinals contest against Virginia on May 19.
• Patriot League Honors Rees: A first-time recipient of the Patriot League's Goalkeeper of the Week award, Spencer Rees turned in a career-best 17 saves against Bucknell, six of which came within two yards of the goal. Rees' outlet pass in the third quarter also resulted in a Christian Daniel goal, marking the first assist of Rees' career. The first-year starter is currently ranked #3 in the nation in goals-against average (7.12) and save percentage (63.8). His start against Mount St. Mary's in the opener was his first since his middle school years.

Scouting Loyola
• In his 16th season as head coach at Loyola, Charley Toomey has directed his Greyhounds to a 4-3 record that includes a 2-1 mark in Patriot League action.
• The Patriot League preseason favorite for an unprecedented eighth-consecutive year, Loyola opened its Patriot League slate with a 10-6 loss at Lehigh. The Greyhounds bounced back with back-to-back victories at home over Lafayette (16-6) and Bucknell (24-10).
• The Greyhounds own nonconference wins over Richmond (8-7 OT) and Utah (10-8), while dropping decisions to Virginia (15-12) and Towson (7-6 OT).
• Leading the way for the Greyhounds is senior attackman Aidan Olmstead, who has recorded 32 points on 14 goals and 18 assists. He is ranked 27th nationally in points per game (4.57), 15th in goals per game (3.14) and 16th in assists per game (2.57).
• Senior attackman Kevin Lindley is second on the team with 23 points on a team-high 22 goals and 1 assist, while second-year midfielder has produced 20 points on 14 goals and 6 assists
• As a team, Loyola stands 24th in scoring offense (13.14) and 13th in scoring defense (9.00).
• Senior Sam Shafer stands between the pipes where he is yielding 8.70 goals per game and owns a 50.0 save percentage.
• Junior defenseman Cam Wyers leads the team with 15 caused turnovers and is ranked ninth nationally (2.14). Senior defenseman Matt Hughes has forced 10 turnovers. Preseason Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year Ryan McNulty owns 6 caused turnovers, 24 ground balls, scored 2 goals and made 6 assists.
• Senior Bailey Savio has taken 124 of the 176 faceoffs for the Greyhounds this season. He has won 68 of the 124 (54.8) which is the nation's 33rd-best percentage. He leads the team with 36 ground balls and is 28th nationally in ground balls per game (6.00).
• Loyola is 30th nationally in extra-man offense, scoring 9 goals on 27 opportunities (33.3). Graduate middie Peter Swindell owns a team-high 4 extra-man goals, while Olmstead has 3. The Greyhounds' man-dan unit, meanwhile, is ranked 20th, stopping 72.7 percent of its opponent's opportunities (16 of 22).

Navy vs. Loyola - The Series
• Loyola and Navy are meeting for the 13th time overall and the seventh since Loyola joined the Patriot League in 2014.
• Loyola owns an 8-4 advantage, winning 8 of the last 9 meetings. Navy's 10-9 win over the Greyhounds in the 2016 meeting in Annapolis marked its first win over Loyola since 1943 and only win since the Greyhounds joined the league.
• Saturday's contest marks ninth game in the series played in Annapolis with the series tied at 4 apiece - Navy in 1939, 1942, 1943, 2016 and Loyola in 1993, 2010, 2014, 2018.
• 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 series was rekindled 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.

Program Ties
• Long-time friends Joe Amplo and Charley Toomey both serve as assistant coaches for the US National Team, but will meet as opposing head coaches for the first time on Saturday afternoon.
• The two coaches along with fellow assistant coach Seth Tierney collaborated with US National Team head coach John Danowski to raise money and help support their local community's frontline workers during the early stages of the pandemic. Amplo and Toomey partnered with Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, Danowski worked with the Duke University Medical Center in Durham and Tierney connected with Northwell Health on Long Island. The coaches joined forces with local restaurants to provide meals to healthcare workers, while Amplo and Toomey made Easter baskets for the employees to give to their families.
• 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).

Poll Analysis
• Despite missing three-consecutive weeks of competition, Navy remained in the national rankings of both the USILA Coaches Poll, as well as the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll.
• The Mids, ranked 17th in the coaches poll and 14th in the media poll, entered the national rankings on Feb. 22. It was the first time earning a national ranking since March 4, 2019 (#20 USILA, #19 IL Media). Navy, however, dropped out a week later after splitting decisions against Princeton (L, 19-11) and Lafayette (W, 12-7).
• Navy is one of four teams from the Patriot League that appears in both polls, joining Army (#7 USILA / #7 IL Media), Lehigh (11/10) and Loyola (15/18).
• Its current #17 ranking is its highest in the USILA Coaches Poll since April 23, 2018. Navy climbed to #13 after defeating ninth-ranked Syracuse in the Dome 13-12. The Mids scored two goals in the final minute, including the game-winner by faceoff specialist Joe Varello with two-tenths of a second remaining, to earn the program's first win in the series since 1982.
• It's the highest the Mids have been ranked in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll since April 23, 2018, when they were #11.