NCAA Rewind: Scorching Debut Leads to Loyola Letdown

Before USA Lacrosse Magazine looks ahead to what’s to come in 2025 — look out for our NCAA Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings later this summer — our team of staff and contributors decided it was worth taking a last look at the 2024 college lacrosse season.

To do that, we’re taking a journey through 30 of the top teams in men’s and women’s lacrosse to see what went right, what went wrong and how we should feel about the season.

LOYOLA

USA Lacrosse preseason/final ranking: also considered/unranked
2024 record: 7-8 (5-3 Patriot League)

What went right: The Greyhounds wasted no time picking up their trademark high-profile non-conference victory, ripping Georgetown 18-10 in a game that did not serve as a preview for either team’s fortunes. 

Adam Poitras (41 goals, 15 assists) turned in a stellar season as a graduate student and also led Loyola with 44 ground balls while picking up some playing time on faceoff wings. 

Loyola also upended eventual NCAA tournament teams Towson and Lehigh at home, demonstrating it could be competitive with quality opponents under the right conditions.

What went wrong: A second consecutive year of facing off at 40.1 percent again narrowed the path to success for Loyola, which stumbled to a 2-6 start. That placed the Greyhounds in automatic berth-or-bust territory by late March, and a five-game winning streak late in the season briefly elevated hopes of landing the Patriot League tournament hosting duties. Instead, Loyola dropped a two-goal decision to Army to close the regular season, then fell at Navy four days later to fall back under .500.

Season highlight: Tough to argue with that opener against Georgetown, when Loyola shrugged off its 40-percent faceoff work and got 13 goals from its starting attack of Evan James, Matthew Minicus and Poitras. It was a scorching debut that proved to be an aberration; the Greyhounds would combine for 16 goals over the next three Saturdays in losses to Maryland, Johns Hopkins and Rutgers.

Verdict: That’s three consecutive missed NCAA tournaments for Loyola, and were it not for a stellar closing stretch to the 2021 season, it would have been four. The Greyhounds probably won’t be sad to see the era of post-pandemic super-sized rosters come to an end after posting a 24-24 record over the last three springs.