Loyola taking to the skies next season
With Ohio State, Denver, Air Force, Quinnipiac and Bellarmine migrating from the Great Western Lacrosse League, playing in the Eastern College Athletic Conference figures to be a boon for the Greyhounds in terms of inflating their air miles.
But unlike his East Coast counterparts, Loyola coach Charley Toomey said he has asked his administration to schedule a home game against Denver and an away game against Air Force (or vice versa) and a home game against Ohio State and an away game against Bellarmine (or vice versa).
"I just think these conference games are too doggone important to try to play two of them in one weekend," he said. "… You’re dealing with travel, you’re dealing with the altitude. For me, those games are too doggone important to take lightly."
There will be no conference tournament in 2010, but the league is expected to discuss implementing a four-team tourney in 2011 and beyond. The dilemma for the Greyhounds is that the final weekend of the regular season is usually reserved for their annual tilt with Johns Hopkins.
"That’s something we’d like to maintain," Toomey said. "I’ve long said that we would be very willing to move the tournament into the Patriot League weekend, which is the weekend prior to our Hopkins game. That’s on the table right now. And in this day of budgets, that’s another flight for all of us that are in the tournament and something that we’re really going to have to look at financially."
Toomey also announced that the school will retain its series with Georgetown and Notre Dame despite both of those programs moving into the Big East.
"It’s become a terrific rivalry in the last couple years," he said. "… We recruit against those schools, and it’s just become a great rivalry. They’re two schools that are academically in line with Loyola College, and it’s a great opportunity for us to play two similar schools academically and athletically."
