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Loyola, Maryland renew regular-season acquaintances

Eddie Timanus, USA TODAY Sports
Loyola's Mike Sawyer enters Saturday's game against Maryland off a four-goal game in a win Wednesday vs. Towson.
  • Teams that met for 2012 national title play in regular season for first time since 1989
  • Loyola won NCAA title showdown last May 9-3
  • Loyola enters Saturday%27s game No. 1 in media poll%3B Maryland tops coaches poll

February lacrosse is analogous to December basketball.

There are plenty of good matchups, and they do have meaning. But just how much might not be known until schedules and rèsumès are evaluated later.

So while Saturday's heavyweight bout in Baltimore between Loyola and Maryland (1:30 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Net) matches the 2012 NCAA championship finalists, both teams will view it as more of an early measuring stick.

But it shouldn't lack for intensity, even without the must-win urgency.

"I think both teams will still be trying to find themselves," said Loyola coach Charley Toomey. "Clearly both teams are going to play hard. There's going to be a lot of thoughts in each guy's mind when they go out on the field. But it's the 2013 teams who are playing each other."

Such thoughts might be particularly fresh for Maryland's returning players, since the Greyhounds prevailed 9-3 in that title game for the program's first championship.

Terrapins coach John Tillman is taking a similar approach. "We're just excited to be taking on the No. 1 team in the country," he said. "It's something our guys look forward to when they come to Maryland."

Actually, Tillman's Terps are ranked No. 1 in the coaches poll after they opened their 2013 campaign with wins against Mount St. Mary's and Hartford, combining to score 39 goals. Loyola is ranked first in the Inside Lacrosse media poll and is also 2-0 after a 14-9 win Wednesday at Towson on a chilly night.

"It certainly looks like Maryland hasn't missed a beat," Toomey said. "They're playing very fast. You do think that this would be a cleaner game if we played in April or May, so it might not be pretty at times. But with us I see a team with our best lacrosse ahead of us."

That might be a scary thought for the Greyhounds' opponents. "They excel at every aspect of lacrosse," Tillman said. "They're going to play the way they play. We see a lot of the same players running around out there on film."

Loyola's top returnees include Mike Sawyer and Justin Ward on the attack unit, as well as junior goalie Jack Runkel.

"When you only score three goals in a game there are a lot of reasons for it, but the guy in the goal is certainly one of them," said Tillman of Runkel.

The Terrapins have showed early firepower themselves, with Kevin Cooper and Owen Blye leading the way with six goals apiece.

Despite their relative proximity, the programs have a somewhat limited history. They haven't met in the regular season since 1989, and a Maryland win in the 1998 NCAA quarterfinals was their most recent encounter prior to the 2012 title game.

The Greyhounds are replacing Georgetown on Maryland's schedule this year, and the shifting sands of the conference landscape means this budding rivalry might still not be a fixture.

"It's certainly something we'll look at," Tillman said. "With the conference transition we'll have to figure out if we need to schedule Notre Dame next season. But with both teams being where we are and with what happened last year, there'd certainly be interest."

Loyola will be in transit itself, becoming a full member of the Patriot League in all sports starting next season. That comes as welcome news to at least one member of that league.

"It's good for Bucknell lacrosse," said Bison coach Frank Fedorjaka. "Now Loyola will have to come play us every other year. We've had a hard time scheduling good teams, so for us it's great and it's great for the league."

Other games to watch

Speaking of the Patriot League, its defending champion will be featured in one of the other marquee contests of the weekend as Lehigh heads west to take on Denver on Saturday. ... Highlighting the Sunday slate is Notre Dame, a semifinalist last year and already owning a convincing win at Duke in its 2013 opener, hitting the road again to take on Penn State. ... Most Ivy League squads hit the field for the first time this weekend. Among the expected contenders, Cornell opens against long-time central New York rival Hobart on Sunday night in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, Princeton pays a Saturday visit to Hofstra and Harvard hosts Massachusetts on Saturday.

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