No. 7 seed Loyola Maryland's game with Duke at noon Saturday at Ridley Athletic Complex in Baltimore is one of two regular-season rematches in the first round of the NCAA tournament. (Albany at No. 8 seed Syracuse is the other.)
The Greyhounds got humbled by the Blue Devils, 15-6, on March 12 at Ridley, which might explain why coach Charley Toomey is too diplomatic to say that the program wanted another shot at Duke.
"I don't think we were looking at the field and saying, 'This is the team that we want' – in any sense with any team out there," he said Wednesday. "We wanted an opportunity. I'd be crazy to tell you that we wanted to play a team that beat us 15-6. I'm just not going to say that. But we have an opportunity and we feel like we're a little bit better than the first time around when we were going through that three-game stretch."
For his part, freshman attackman Pat Spencer fully embraced the challenge of meeting the Blue Devils again.
"We definitely want to prove that loss doesn't show who we are as a team," the Davidsonville resident and Boys' Latin graduate said. "We've grown, and when we watch the tape, we're a totally different team now. So we're going in with a lot of confidence."
Since that setback to Duke (11-7), the Greyhounds (12-3) are 8-1 and riding an eight-game winning streak. Toomey said he has been impressed with the players' work ethic involving practice, film study and conditioning.
"If we take care of the things we've taken care of the last six weeks, we'll be a different team, we'll be a tough out," he said.