As No. 12 Loyola warmed up Sunday for its first game in 11 months, it felt the sort of anticipation anyone would entering this season.

Also notable was what it didn’t have: About half of its roster, since only one bus arrived on time to take the Greyhounds to No. 17 Richmond that morning.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” coach Charley Toomey said of the prelude to his team’s 8-7 victory. “Even the Richmond kids were looking across like, ‘They’ve got to be kidding us. They brought 22 kids?’ It was crazy. … Welcome to 2021. After 2020, nothing will surprise me anymore.”

It was a last-second problem no one would have accounted for on their pregame checklist even in the pandemic era. Toomey even passed both of the team’s buses on his drive into campus. Except one of them had skidded on the ice and hit a pole on Interstate 83 in Baltimore and had to be replaced by the bus company Loyola uses.

That left Toomey with some hard decisions at 7:30 a.m., less than six hours before faceoff.

“I said, ‘I hate to do this fellas, but the first and second midfields, the first attack, the first close defense, the first rope unit, a third short stick, [faceoff man] Bailey [Savio] make sure you’re on there, two goalies,’ and we went down with a skeleton group just in case they made us start,” Toomey said. “It’s not the right message you want to send the team in game one, but when the cavalry got in there and everyone was together again, you sense that energy that we needed all over the field.”

It happened later than Loyola would have liked — the rest of the team jogged onto the field right as the national anthem played and didn’t get in any warmups. Nonetheless, the Greyhounds took an early lead before both defenses largely took over.

Loyola did an admirable job in one-on-one matchups and held down Richmond stars Richie Connell (one goal) and Ryan Lanchbury (two assists). The Spiders’ defense was just as stingy; through 56 minutes, Loyola’s starting attack of Kevin Lindley, Aidan Olmstead and Peter Swindell combined for one goal and one assist on 10 shots.

Yet Lindley helped rally the Greyhounds, pulling them within 7-6 with 3:18 to go before scoring a transition goal to tie the score with 66 seconds remaining. He completed the natural hat trick in overtime to secure the victory.

“The best thing in watching this game play out was there was no panic,” Toomey said. “In years past, there might have been some concern in those last moments that things could kind of spiral as you’re trying to make decisions and force some things. Our guys were really poised. That’s where Aidan and Peter and Kevin really took over the game. Obviously, Bailey Savio gives us some possessions when we need them. But having fifth-year leadership kept us composed.”

As the afternoon came to an end, Toomey got much of what he wanted out of the tricky opener. Loyola had a victory and a gut check. It had two buses to head back home on, no small thing. And the Greyhounds had game-speed experience before contending with Virginia in their home opener on Saturday.

“Even going into the game and knowing who we were, I felt, ‘Wow, Richmond, they’re really good, and this is going to be a tough challenge for us,’” Toomey said. “I watched the game on the back end of it and said, ‘You know what? Our rope unit is really good and our close defense is really good and we’ll grow up offensively, but I think their defense and goaltender are really good.’ We have good players, too. We’re ready to compete at this level. We just have to fix a few things.”

NUMBERS OF NOTE

3

North Carolina has scored three man-down goals in its first three games, already its largest single-season total since 2009.

13

High Point has averaged 13 goals in five games against ACC opponents since the start of the 2019 season, including consecutive 15-goal bursts against Virginia (2020) and North Carolina (2021). The Panthers, who dropped a 17-15 decision at North Carolina on Tuesday, return to Chapel Hill on Feb. 27 for their next game.

21

Division I games played through Tuesday. Despite three cancellations early in the week, 19 more games are scheduled to be played this weekend.

81

Denver attackman Ethan Walker has 81 career assists after collecting two in a 15-6 rout of Air Force. Walker enters Saturday’s Big East opener at Marquette needing one assist to match the school record held by Alex Demopoulos.

652

Days between victories for Towson, which snapped an eight-game skid with an 8-7 overtime defeat of Saint Joseph’s on Saturday. The Tigers (1-1) earned their first triumph since claiming the CAA tournament crown on May 4, 2019, when Andrew Milani delivered the game-winner with 2:36 left in the extra period.