In-state opponents Maryland and Loyola men’s lacrosse are gearing up to face each other on Feb. 8 in Baltimore.
After winning their home opener against Richmond, 12-7, on Feb. 1, the Terps are now looking for the consistency they’ve had in previous years.
Maryland had an 11-6 record in 2024, but the Terps made a deep postseason run and ended up losing to Notre Dame, 15-5, in the national championship game. Maryland hasn’t won fewer than 10 games since 2002.
The Terps can build off of last season’s success, but they’ll have to do it without players like 2024 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Ajax Zappitello, who picked up 34 ground balls and caused 27 turnovers a year ago.
“We did have a lot of discussions with the guys and we were very open-minded,” Terps head coach John Tillman said on Glenn Clark Radio Jan. 28. “We trust our guys. Our guys are very invested here. We looked at everything. We looked at how we warmed up before the game. We looked at how we practiced. We made strategic big-picture changes. We made personnel changes.”
Losing faceoff specialist Luke Wierman is another major concern for Maryland during the early days of the 2025 season. Wierman won 60.9 percent of his faceoffs during his four-year career.
Senior Shea Keethler, junior Mitchell Lloyd, sophomore Sean Creter and freshman Jonah Carrier are in the faceoff mix this year.
“They’re all very athletic. We have a lot of confidence in those guys, just the way they’re wired,” Tillman said. “Most of those four guys, they were not just faceoff guys in high school, so kind of cut very much out of the Luke Wierman cloth.”
Tillman is confident in the players on the 2025 squad such as Salisbury transfer Jack Dowd, a midfielder who finished with 45 goals and 35 assists in 2024.
“There’s definitely a lot that goes into it. You’re plopping a guy down into a new environment, a new locker room. … He’s been fantastic since he got here — high-character guy, humble guy, very coachable, a high IQ guy,” Tillman said. “Great vision, excellent passer, good feel for the game.”
On the flip side, Loyola is trying to rebound after losing its season opener, 13-6, to Georgetown. The Greyhounds want this season to be different than the last couple of years.
In 2024, Loyola finished with a 7-8 record and lost to Navy, 12-10, in the quarterfinals of the Patriot League tournament. The Greyhounds also haven’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2021.
Loyola’s 2025 roster looks different than last season with 19 freshmen after losing players such as attackman Evan James, who scored 39 goals and dished out 12 assists in 2024.
“You had so many guys that had fifth-year opportunities that chose to stay on. Last year was our largest graduating class since I’ve been here of 23,” Loyola head coach Charley Toomey said on GCR Jan. 28. “You’re losing roughly half of your locker room, which put us in a position of going to the portal and trying to bring in a transfer and also the largest incoming freshman class that I’ve ever had.”
Despite his team’s offseason losses, Toomey believes that players like junior attackman Matthew Minicus will be a valuable asset for the Greyhounds on the field and off the field to the freshman in the locker room. He finished with 28 goals and 15 assists in 2024.
“He’s a bullet,” Toomey said. “He’s one of the ones that you know, but our opponents know that, so they’re going to game-plan for him and force other people to do things.”
Toomey also believes that in order for Loyola to contend for the Patriot League, freshmen such as midfielder Kyle McCarthy are going to have to step up.
“He’s kind of what we don’t have, which is that big, strong middie,” Toomey said. “We’ve got a lot of smaller, super-skilled players. I think Kyle’s going to have to be a really impactful freshman for us early and a guy that I think is going to do a lot of initiating for us.”
For more from Tillman, listen to the full interview here:
For more from Toomey, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics and Craig Chase