Jillian Wilson Wins Pivotal Draw, Leads Loyola Past Stony Brook

BALTIMORE — Jen Adams didn’t want to be caught without a plan.

With 17.4 seconds left in Sunday afternoons second-round NCAA tournament game between eighth-seeded Loyola and visiting Stony Brook, the Greyhounds clung to a one-goal lead. Jillian Wilson, their draw maestro, didn’t want to hear it. There would be no “what if” scenario if Wilson had it her way.

Loyola largely dominated the draw against the Seawolves, but Wilson had been called for two infractions inside the circle. Still, she remains profoundly confident that Stony Brook — which had scored three goals in the final 3:28 to narrow the deficit — would not touch the ball again.

“Jillian came over to me and said, ‘You do not need to worry about it. I will win us this draw,’” Adams recalled postgame. “Literally, came and grabbed me and said, ‘You don’t need to talk like that.’ That is Jillian Wilson in a nutshell. She’s extremely confident, but she backs it up.”

Wilson popped the ball in the air and won it herself, and Loyola survived the late scramble to beat Stony Brook 9-8. Wilson had two goals, two assists and four draw controls, and Loyola had a 14-6 draw advantage in the game.

The Greyhounds meet top-seeded Northwestern on Thursday in the NCAA quarterfinals. Start times for Thursday’s four quarterfinal matchups have yet to be announced.

“She is clutch,” Adams said of Wilson. “She is one of the best midfielders in the country, and she proved that again today.”

Deadlocked at 4 after the first half, the game went awry for Stony Brook (15-4) in the third quarter. Not only was Stony Brook unable to get its offense going. It was struggling to get — and maintain — possession altogether.  

The Seawolves managed just two shots on goal in the scoreless period, and Loyola took advantage. With the Stony Brook defense seeing a ton of action, Loyola pounded the Seawolves for four goals in the third quarter. Defender Katie Detwiler started it with a juice goal off a feed by Anna Ruby to make it 5-4 with 11:27 left in the third.

“Ruby locked eyes with me,” Detwiler said, “and I was like, ‘OK, I’m going.’”

Chase Boyle scored two of her four goals in the third-quarter spurt, and Sydni Black netted her 100th career score in there, too. It was Detwiler’s goal, though, that seemed to spark the Loyola bench. The graduate student, a five-year starter, also had three draw controls, one caused turnover and had the tiring task of covering Stony Brook’s Ellie Masera (one goal, three assist).

“Some might say it’s a lot, but I think I’m used to it by now. … I love the challenge,” Detwiler said of her responsibilities.

Leading 9-5 after Ruby found Sarah Engle with 8:06 remaining, Loyola effectively kept Stony Brook from establishing any offensive rhythm. That is until Kailyn Hart, who was held scoreless for the first three quarters, took things upon herself.

The senior scored four times in the fourth quarter and finished a feed from Masera with 17.4 seconds left that put Stony Brook down by just one goal. It was Hart’s 10th consecutive game with at least three goals.

It was the first time during the game that Stony Brook truly had momentum. The Loyola defense was tough to crack, and Seawolves head coach Joe Spallina said that hope coming in was that his team would be able to run more in transition. But without success on the draw, that creates risks of its own.

“Our identity, we wanted to push it; we want to play fast,” he said. “But at the same time, if you’re not winning draw controls … it’s something that spirals. We were almost in a situation where it took us out of our offensive flow because we couldn’t play too fast.”

Instead, Stony Brook leaned on a defense that made Loyola, one of the most fluid offenses in the country, work for every game. The Greyhounds turned the ball over 19 times, as many entry passes were swatted away by active Stony Brook sticks inside the eight-meter arc. Adams said she expected her Greyhounds to score more, and ultimately, their inability to do so enabled Stony Brook to make it close.

“We had these momentum building plays where we’re scoring a goal, but we’d let Stony Brook come back and within a couple seconds score a goal,” Adams said.

It’s now on to Northwestern, a team Loyola has not played since 1986.