No. 16 Loyola Previewed by Inside Lacrosse

courtesy of Inside Lacrosse

Check out the Loyola Greyhounds at the 2010 Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic on March 6 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. To order tickets, visit faceoffclassic.com.

All through the 2009 season, Loyola was right there. They were within a goal of Notre Dame and Syracuse during the regular season and lost to Johns Hopkins in double overtime in the season finale. A win over one or two of those teams could have put the Greyhounds on the other side of the NCAA tournament bubble or even a conference win over UMass would have sealed the ECAC automatic qualifier for coach Charley Toomey's squad but 2010 is a new year for Loyola.

They enter the season atop the preseason ECAC rankings, taking on a slew of new teams as part of their conference schedule. The roster looks a bit different as the ‘Hounds must find a way to replace the quarterback abilities of Shane Koppens and the playmaking power that P.T. Ricci brought between the lines.

X Marks Who's Spot

Cooper MacDonnell returns after putting up 30 goals and 8 assists last season.

With the graduation of 2009 All-American attackman Koppens, the Greyhounds were left without a true feeder. While it may have a bit of a different look, the attack will once again be a strength for Loyola and much of the offense will run out of the sticks of the guys down low.

Seniors Cooper MacDonnell and Collin Finnerty are the undisputed leaders. Finnerty spent the fall semester studying abroad in Australia but used an extended break starting in November, when he got back in the country, to focus on his conditioning and started the spring in great shape. He's been nursing a bit of a nagging hip injury but it didn't seem to slow him down at all in practice.

MacDonnell played mostly on the left side around goal line extended, working opposite of Finnerty and utilizing his powerful dodging abilities to create plays. Junior Matt Langan is the third starter and has taken over the role at X. He's a smaller player but he's fast, at times making it hard for his own defense to match up with his speed. Patrick Fanshaw, a freshman, will most likely be the first off the bench as he impressed coaches through the fall and in these early season practices. Fanshaw is more of a lefty finisher, something Loyola didn't have previously.

"Cooper and I have been playing together for a while and Matt's been playing for a couple years too so I think we're really comfortable with each other," Finnerty said. "Fanshaw has been playing great too. We're pretty deep there and we have a lot of experience. It feels good so far."

Midfield Shift

With a few preseason scrimmages coming up, Loyola will be looking to mix up players in the midfield in hopes of finding the best combinations and a more concrete sense of who will play on what lines throughout the season. "We have to figure out who we are in a sense that we're trying to put some midfields together and find what's going to give us the most consistency on the offensive end," said Toomey. Eric Lusby, a converted attackman, had a solid fall and will be relied on for his high velocity shot from up top. Stephen Murray, a junior who ran on the second line last season, has stepped up and is playing the best lacrosse he ever has. "It used to be that we didn't notice him in a bad way, but didn't notice him in a good way and now we're walking off the field going, ‘wow, he really picked up his game,'" Toomey said. Murray will be a first or second line middie as will Chris Basler, who should also see time with the extra man unit. Big things are expected of sophomore Pat Byrnes, who stepped up his game this season and Chris Hurst, who's battling an injury but should be back soon. The coaching staff has also asked a lot of captain Taylor Ebsary, who has been a short stick d-middie in the past but will be looked to as more of a two-way guy this year for his presence on the field and ability to be in the right place at the right time to set up his teammates.

Kevin Squared

"I don't think you're going to get a P.T. Ricci type of player between the lines," Toomey said. "I think what we're looking for is some kind of consistency defensively in terms of being able to not necessarily shut down a player but to play a good solid help defense." Toomey credits assistant coach Matt Dwan as the architect of Ricci and will look to him to take the same approach with sophomore Kevin Moriarty and senior Kevin Hinton, who will share time at the LSM position. Both played on the wings on face-offs during some full field action in practice and Hinton will even take face-offs against John Schiavone from time to time. Moriarty is better off the ground and a good decision maker but neither one of them has distinguished himself above the other quite yet. "We're waiting for one to separate," Toomey said. "We'd like one of those two to separate and we're certainly going to challenge them to separate through the next couple of weeks." Toomey doesn't mean that one will play and the other won't. Neither is in shape enough to run pole for a full 60 minutes but whether they split 60/40 or 80/20, Toomey would like to have a definitive starter.

Practice Pains

Every team goes through it - the injury bug at the very beginning of the season and Loyola has definitely been hit. There were 30 players on the end line for sprints at the end of practice, about 10-12 less than normal. The only major injury is to sophomore midfielder Brian Smalley who blew out his knee and is out for the season. Top short stick defensive midfielder Michael Crimmins is dealing with a minor injury and should be good to go for the season.

Practice Laugh of the Day

In a drill affectionately called Warrior groundballs, three players start on a line and a ground ball is thrown out. The first one to come up with it makes the outlet pass back to the line and the ball is rolled out once again for the remaining two players.

Goalie Alex Peaty was the first of the three to come up with the ball in once instance of the drill, something that apparently doesn't happen that often judging from the outburst of laughter and Peaty's own reaction, "I'll remember that for the rest of my life!"