Revenge A Factor for Red-Hot Loyola Women
by Brian Delaney | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
Grace Gavin and Emily Gibson feel the Loyola women's lacrosse
team has overcome its bouts with inconsistency. The Greyhounds can
prove that with a home sweep of a pair of key Big East Conference
games this weekend.
Loyola hosts Cincinnati on Saturday before an anticipated showdown
with No. 14 Notre Dame on Monday at the Ridley Athletic Complex.
Loyola is 0-4 all-time against the Irish, one of the teams that
helped keep Loyola from making the conference tournament -- and
thus the NCAA tournament -- last year.
The same could be said of Rutgers, which Loyola dispatched 18-6 on
March 16 for a statement conference win.
"There's definitely a fire," Gibson said. "There was a fire with
Rutgers too. Louisville, Rutgers and Notre Dame. We kept ourselves
out of the tournament, but those were the games that really made
the difference."
Loyola's start to the 2010 season looked awful similar to its 2009
finish, when a one-goal loss to Louisville -- immediately after a
great win over Georgetown -- kept the Greyhounds out of the
postseason.
This year, Loyola opened with a one-goal loss at Penn State, then
rallied to beat No. 4 Virginia and UMBC. Then came losses at Denver
and at home against Towson for a 2-3 record.
Not exactly what the Greyhounds envisioned.
"We took both losses really hard," said Gavin, a junior who leads
the team in scoring with 31 goals and 40 points. "We were shocked
to lose. It was probably the most disappointing part of the whole
thing -- we knew those were games we could have won. We asked
ourselves what happened? How did we come out so awful like that?
That was a time when we sat down as a team and decided to put this
behind us. We are a team now. We really, really unified at that
point."
Loyola has ripped off five straight wins since, including the
blowout of Rutgers and a 12-8 decision over then-No. 12 James
Madison. The Greyhounds' defense has limited each opponent to
single-digit goals, and the team's offense is averaging 14.8 goals
per game.
"I think that a lot of people recognized that we struggle with
consistency, and we do," Gavin said. "But we finally, I think, hit
our stride, and we're not playing inconsistent anymore. We're
playing as hard as we can."
The defensive boost has helped. Goalie Kerry Stoothoff leads the
Big East in goals against average, allowing just 8.75 goals per
game. Her play this season led to this gem in the team's pre-game
media notes:
"In Russia, law enforcement officials use a KS-23 to regulate
riots. At Loyola, the Greyhounds use the KS-30 (Stoothoff) as their
anti-offensive weapon of choice."
After Monday's Notre Dame game, Loyola (7-3) finishes the regular
season with four of its final five games on the road, including
trips to Louisville, No. 8 Syracuse and No. 15 Georgetown. The Big
East tournament is scheduled to be held at Rutgers on May 6.
This year, Loyola plans on attending. Consistency will get the
Greyhounds there.
"This year, we have the talent and we have the tools, and the
coaches have given us all the resources we need," Gibson said. "The
past couple games, we've put it all together. We've found that
spark."
Big East Notes
For No. 8 Syracuse, Tee LaDouceur and Christina Dove are averaging over five points per game, apiece. LaDouceur has 22 goals and 23 assists, and Dove 32 goals and 12 assists. The Orange play at Boston University on Saturday before turning to Big East play on April 9 and 11 at Connecticut and Notre Dame, respectively... Georgetown's 3-5 record is a little misleading. The Hoyas have lost to four of the nation's top five teams, including unbeatens Northwestern and Maryland. A double overtime loss to Princeton on March 28 stung, though.
