Alex Searing knew this could be a special season for Loyola women’s soccer after it went undefeated in its spring preseason games.
The team brought back most of its talent from last year’s squad, including junior forward Baylee DeSmit, the team’s top goal-scorer, as well as Searing, a graduate center back, and graduate goalkeeper Paige Sim. That cohesion led to an improved culture on and off the field that immediately paid dividends.
“We worked really hard over the spring,” Searing said. “We went 3-0 and it was like kind like ‘Oh my god, we’re going to have a really good fall.'”
Six months later, Searing saw her prediction come to fruition as the Greyhounds wrapped their season on Oct. 25 with a 2-1 victory against American, finishing 6-3 in the Patriot League (11-5 overall) and locking up a No. 3 seed in the Patriot League Championships. They will host No. 6 seed Colgate (4-12-2, 3-5-1) at home Oct. 29 in the Patriot League quarterfinals.
Loyola’s 11 wins are the most since the 2012 squad went 12-6-4 and won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and the most for head coach Joe Mallia since he took over the Loyola program for a second time in 2019.
Colgate, conversely sneaked into the playoffs thanks to American’s loss. The Raiders lost their regular season matchup with Loyola, 4-0, and have dropped five of their last seven regular-season games.
Loyola’s successful regular season came on the heels of a disappointing 2022 campaign, in which the team fell well short of its high ambitions after losing its last three conference games. The Greyhounds gave up a total of nine goals in losses to Lehigh, Boston University and American to finish 3-4-2 in the conference and 6-8-4 overall. The season ended with a loss to BU in the Patriot League Championships.
“Our spirit within our team is in a great place at the end of the season,” Mallia said. “We are playing the way we want to play games. And we’re not getting away from that right now.”
The Greyhounds were buoyed by another stellar season by DeSmit, a McDonogh School graduate and Patriot League Player of the Year candidate, who finished with 10 goals and eight assists. Her 28 points are the most on the team for a second straight season and are tops in the Patriot League.
Fellow forward Delaney DeMartino, a sophomore out of Walt Whitman High School, scored four goals and eight other players chipped in at least one goal for a balanced attack.
The team’s defensive line was anchored by Searing, a 22-year-old Allentown, N.J., native, who along with sophomores Payton Hurley and Zoe Willis and junior Jess Korman have helped keep the Greyhounds goals-against average to a league-leading .875.
After injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic delayed her collegiate career, Searing slid into a defensive role from her more natural center midfield position. The move stuck, Mallia said.
Now in her third full season as a defender, the 5-foot-9 Searing has also contributed on the offensive end, becoming a key target on set pieces. Both of her goals this season were headers. She’s also pitched in two assists.
“My whole life I’ve kind of been the person that was always willing to go get the ball,” Searing said. “I’ve always been the target for all the teams I’ve played for.”
Set pieces were a critical piece of Loyola’s success and at times their demise. The Greyhounds stumbled in two 1-0 defeats in Patriot League play to Bucknell Oct. 11 and Lehigh Oct. 21. Both opposing goals resulted from set pieces and Loyola failed to convert on similar opportunities.
Despite the defeats, Mallia pointed to dominant statistical advantage for his team across both games, including a combined 33-14 shot advantage and a combined 14-3 edge in shots on goal.
“We played really well and just came out on the losing end, but we dictated those games,” Mallia said. “We weren’t doing that a year ago.”
Losses like that hurt but could end up serving as important lessons in the win-or-go-home Patriot League Championships. No. 1 seed Army West Point and No. 2 seed Bucknell received first-round byes and await the winners of Loyola and Colgate and the 4-5 matchup between BU and Lehigh.
“Joe has always said this, but the soccer gods are kind of giving us these losses [so that] maybe when we get to playoffs, we won’t have it a loss like that,” Searing said.
Last year’s team snagged the sixth and final playoff seed but was sent home in the quarterfinals to Boston. Bucknell was eventually crowned champion in a dramatic victory against Army in penalty kicks.
To make a deeper run this season, his team must dominate possession and play with an edge in both penalty boxes, Mallia said.
Searing has one more year of eligibility, but she’s viewing this season as the ultimate opportunity to bring home Loyola’s first title in more than a decade.
“We’ve had such a successful season and I wouldn’t change it for anything but winning a Patriot League, it’s kind of what we’ve been working toward for these past five years,” Searing said. “And to do with this group of girls, I think would be super special.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Loyola Athletics