Loyola coach Charley Toomey had a simple answer to why his players couldn?t keep up with second-ranked Duke at Diane Geppi-Aikens Field on Saturday in their worst loss in more than a decade
They didn?t practice to their potential.
“Our practices have to be a bit better to compete with a team like this on Saturdays,” he said minutes after his team?s 21-8 loss. “We talked about it a lot in our locker room that we have to pick up the level of practice and you can?t just pick it up on gameday. It has to be there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then tone down Friday for Saturday.”
And the Greyhounds won?t have to look hard to find motivation ? or areas to improve.
The loss to Duke (4-0), which likely will move into the top-ranked spot in the country after Johns Hopkins lost to Hofstra this weekend, was the worst for Loyola since an 18-5 defeat at Johns Hopkins in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in 1995. The Greyhounds (2-2) turned the ball over a staggering 25 times, lost 15-of-32 faceoffs, were outshot 48-29, and had just 16-of-24 successful clears.
“We created their transition by having turnovers and their transition led to goals,” junior defender P.T. Ricci said. “If we want to make the playoffs we have to get to where Duke is, but it?s only one game and we can turn things around.”
Loyola, which is 1-0 in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, has a full week of practice before traveling to Queens, N.Y., to play conference rival St. John?s (0-4, 0-1) on Saturday afternoon at 1.
The Greyhounds have beaten the Red Storm each of the past three years, including a 12-6 win last season at Evergreen. Loyola also should have a chance to get its defense back on track, as the Red Storm averages a meager 6.25 goals on 29.5 shots per game.
Senior attacker Shane Koppens continues to lead the team with 13 points on five goals and eight assists, with sophomore attacker Cooper MacDonnell pacing the Greyhounds with eight goals.
“To win a national championship you are going to have to play at that caliber, and this was like a playoff game,” Toomey said. “We talked about our most important stretch in the next two weeks. We have to take this, learn from it and seize the opportunity to prepare the right way.”
