Off to the program's best start since 1999, No. 7 Loyola welcomes Eastern College Athletic Conference foe Ohio State to Ridley Athletic Complex in Baltimore Saturday.
But which Buckeyes squad will show up: the one that lost five consecutive games or the one that upended 2011 NCAA Tournament semifinalist Denver and is 2-0 in the league?
Greyhounds coach Charley Toomey is fully expecting the latter.
"When we watched the film, they were in all of those games to win," he said Tuesday. "The one thing that really jumps off the page is their first quarter stats. They come out flying, and they were up on Virginia, 6-1 [before Ohio State lost, 11-9, March 17]. Their first-quarter stats are deadly. And we've spoken before about our challenge of coming out and playing fast in the first quarters. We know we've got our hands full. They're a very athletic team. They've got some new players on the field that are very strong and can break you down. So we need to continue to develop the way that we're playing on the offensive end, but we better have an idea of how we're going to defend Ohio State because they can really shoot the ball and they're very athletic. They're very similar to us, in my opinion. Off the ground, they're trying to push it and create some early offense."
The Buckeyes (4-5) have struggled on offense (averaging 8.6 goals) and faceoffs (winning 46.6 percent), but they do rank seventh in Division I on defense, surrendering just 7.4 goals per game. Toomey said Ohio State's defense is built on applying pressure and creating turnovers.
"They're willing to chase you around a little bit, and they probably allow their kids to check a little more than we do because they can," he said. "That's the way they play. They play a defensive style that can give you problems. So our challenge is going to be being able to handle that pressure that Ohio State puts on us. … We know we've got our hands full this weekend."