REVIEW

The good: After getting frozen out of the NCAA Tournament last May, the Greyhounds bounced back with their third tournament appearance in the last four years. That included a 9-2 opening and a six-game winning streak with victories over Georgetown and Fairfield. "At the end of the day, going back to the tournament is always your goal, and I felt like we competed pretty admirably against a tough Cornell team," coach Charley Toomey said of the team’s 11-10 loss in triple overtime to the Big Red in the NCAA first round. "It was a heartbreaker of a loss up there." … Patrick Fanshaw recorded 11 goals and one assist, but another freshman who contributed was midfielder Josh Hawkins, who posted six goals and two assists and collected 31 groundballs as a short-stick defensive midfielder. "We got an awful lot out of Josh Hawkins," Toomey said. "Very athletic between the lines. We need him to continue to develop and take another step, but I think he can be a guy that can really put you on his back at times, and when you need a tough play, he’s going to be one of those guys to give you that play." … Junior defenseman Steve Dircks started slow, but by midseason, he looked completely healed from the fractured kneecap that sidelined him for the entire 2009 season. "We were able to put him on a match-up, especially late in the season when [senior Steve] Layne went down with an injury, and I think he began to regain his old form," Toomey said of Dircks. "He took the challenge and embraced it, and that’s what we’re going to need next year. We’re going to need a leader down low, certainly a stopper down low, and I think Steve Dircks has proven that he’s back and can lead the team."

The bad: As promising as Loyola’s opening was, the season ended with three consecutive losses, including an eight-goal setback to Denver for the Eastern College Athletic Conference championship and automatic qualifier and a three-goal loss to local rival Johns Hopkins. "We had a great run, certainly through the middle of the season, but we were disappointed at the tail end, to crack the top 10 again and to be so close to being a top-8 team," Toomey said. … Layne missed the contests against Denver and Johns Hopkins because of a sprained knee and was less than 100 percent in the playoff game against Cornell. Junior midfielder Chris Basler missed the first three games of the season due to an injured shoulder and re-aggravated the injury against Johns Hopkins. And junior midfielder Eric Lusby tore the anterior cruciate ligament and the medial collateral ligament in his right knee against Cornell. … Besides Lusby who registered 20 goals and five assists, no other midfielder reached double digits in goals. The Greyhounds got contributions from a multitude of players, but Toomey is hoping that players like junior Stephen Murray (9, 5), Basler (2, 8), Hawkins and freshman Davis Butts (4, 0) improve during the offseason. "We need to get some more production out of our midfield and hopefully, we saw signs out of that throughout the season," Toomey said.

PREVIEW

Personnel changes: Loyola bids farewell to two of its top three scorers in attackmen Collin Finnerty (24, 12) and Cooper MacDonnell (22, 6). Toomey has already proclaimed that junior Matt Langan (16, 18) will quarterback the unit with Fanshaw finishing on the inside. The remaining two or three spots could depend on the speed of the healing process for Lusby, whose natural position is attack; the return of sophomore Michael Sawyer, who sat out the 2010 season due to unspecified off-field issues; freshmen D.J. Comer and Will Fredericks; and incoming freshman Matt Sawyer, Michael Sawyer’s brother. "We have healthy competition at those spots," Toomey said. … Defense will also be a concern with the graduation losses of Layne (32 groundballs and 14 caused turnovers), close defenseman Kyle Cottrell (23 groundballs and 12 caused turnovers), short-stick defensive midfielders Taylor Ebsary (8, 12; 36 groundballs and 12 caused turnovers) and Michael Crimmins (19 groundballs and 10 caused turnovers). But Toomey pointed out that close defenseman Nick Disimile returns for the fifth year, and he feels optimistic that freshmen Dylan Grimm and Reid Acton could warrant extended playing time. "We feel like we’ve got some kids in the pipeline, and that’s what the fall is all about," Toomey said. "That’s why you open up opportunities for these young men and let them go out and compete for it."

Forecast for 2011: Partly cloudy. Graduation will take a toll on Loyola. Replacing Finnerty and MacDonnell on the attack is a priority, but the losses on defense are especially significant if junior goalkeeper Jake Hagelin struggles towards the end of the season as he did this spring. How the Greyhounds mix and match their personnel could determine their chances of knocking off Denver, which graduates three starting defensemen but returns seven of its top eight scorers.