The best laid plans of Loyola College and Towson University have gone awry, and the lacrosse season hasn't started yet.
Loyola lost defenseman and captain Eddie Graham for the season to a torn knee ligament when he took a misstep while running on the Greyhounds' turf during practice last week.
Towson may have lost transfer Blake Best to an unspecified knee condition. Blake, 22, played three years at Lehigh but missed his senior year with a torn knee ligament. After graduating with a business degree, Best transferred to Towson and played with the Tigers in the fall season.
"He takes us where we haven't been," Towson coach Tony Seaman said of Best's potential on attack. "He played this fall and was terrific."
Towson opens its season Feb. 23 at home against Loyola. Seaman said he hasn't given up hope that Best will play sometime this season. Best, from Severna Park, scored 49 goals with 29 assists in 43 games at Lehigh.
Loyola coach Charley Toomey can't say the same for Graham, a 6-foot, 188-pound senior who will have surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament sometime in the spring. Toomey said he's trying to help Graham reach a decision about returning as a fifth-year player.
"He does want to come back and play," Toomey said yesterday after meeting with Graham, who started the past 25 games at Loyola. "This year, I told him he can help his peers on the sideline or he can help the coaches break down film. We're trying to figure out the right path."
The loss of Graham was compounded when sophomore Steve Dircks suffered a dislocated elbow in the same practice. Toomey said Dircks would be out "a few weeks."
Johns Hopkins -- Sophomore attackman Chris Boland has been declared academically ineligible and will not play for the No. 1 Blue Jays this season. "Chris did not meet university or program standards, and he will be back with us in the fall full-time," coach Dave Pietramala said. "And that is his intention. ... Obviously, it's unfortunate, but Chris did not fail any classes. He just did not meet our standards as a program or the university's." A three-time Sun All-Metro selection and three-time All-American at Boys' Latin, Boland left the Lakers in 2006 as the program's all-time leading scorer with 298 career points.ken.murray@baltsun.com
Sun reporter Edward Lee contributed to this article.