NCAA Women's Lacrosse Preview: Standouts Galore at No. 8 Loyola

USA Lacrosse Magazine is beginning its countdown to the 2025 women's lacrosse season by releasing one team preview per day beginning on Monday, Jan. 13.

We continue the countdown with No. 8 Loyola, which returns one of the game's best players in midfielder Chase Boyle.

Loyola has standout players at every level, led by Tewaaraton Award finalist Chase Boyle, returning top scorer Georgia Latch, stellar defender Lily Osborne and goalie Lauren Spence. Add in some talented newcomers, and there’s reason for another bright outlook in Baltimore.

Only two teams beat the 10-time defending Patriot champions last year, but Penn trumped them twice, including in the second round of the NCAA tournament to end their third straight season with at least 18 wins.

“Our president at one point had said a quote that I've always loved – ‘significance over success,’” head coach Jen Adams said. “I think we had a very significant season for Loyola.”

The Greyhounds do have some key players to replace from their offenses and defenses that both ranked in the top 10 last year, but they have the components again to be Patriot favorites and a threat to anyone in the NCAA tournament.

“Losing Jillian [Wilson] and losing [Katie] Detwiler, everyone was like, ‘This is going to be a tough year for Loyola,’” Adams said of the 2023 graduates. “And we found a way to rebuild.”

The fall fueled optimism that Loyola can do that sort of thing again.

“I know we have the ability and the potential to be good,” Adams said.

TOP RETURNERS

Chase Boyle, M, Sr. (85G, 208DC)
Georgia Latch, A, Sr. (62G, 40A)
Lily Osborne, D, Sr. (27GB, 25CT)

Boyle and Latch are top scorers and huge on a draw team that ranked third nationally. This year, Osborne will rotate on the circle as well.

“Lily getting the call up is something that I know she's excited about, and she's been training and working with the draw team,” Adams said.

It’s more responsibility for the reigning Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year who is an outstanding markup defender and valuable in transition. She is becoming a consistent leader on defense.

“She really found ways to stand out and showcase herself,” Adams said. “She is just so tenacious and so tough and just such a physical specimen of a defender.”

KEY ADDITIONS

Ava Kane, A, Jr. (10G, 3A at Rutgers)
Mim Suares-Jury, M, Fr. (18G, 27DC at the U20 World Championship)
Morgan Quade, A, Fr. (58G, 73A)

Kane, a transfer who started 19 games in two years for Rutgers, and Quade, a four-time conference champion who had more than 400 career points, will help to soften the blow of the graduated attack. Suares-Jury is another dynamic Australian from the Williamstown club program that produced Latch. The former Victorian U17 100-meter silver medalist will give a boost to the draw and the attack.

“She's lightning fast,” Adams said. “She is developing into a really solid player, and I think just the more she's around it and getting the reps and playing people, just the stronger she's going to get.”

NOTABLE DEPARTURES

Graduations: Sydni Black, A; Catie Corolla, M; Blake Cunneen, M; Regan Kielmeyer, A; Logan Olmstead, D; Riley Olmstead, D; Anna Ruby, A; Alanna Wray, M
Transfers: Sarah Engle, M (Tampa); Sofia D’Angelo, A (Mercer)

X-FACTOR

Lauren Spence, G, Sr.

The 2023 Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year saw her save percentage drop and her goals against average go up in 2024. But in the fall, Spence was consistently making the saves she had to, plus “some lights-out kind of saves that the team can rally around,” Adams said. That has the Greyhounds even more excited about their defense.

“If Lauren Spence is playing her best lacrosse and making those saves, it frees up our defense a little bit to not need to be as strong and as lockdown,” Adams said. “When you have a keeper that can make those stops, I think it’s a total game changer.”

THE NARRATIVE

Loyola won’t have to wait long to see where it stands. The Greyhounds open with defending national champion Boston College, part of a strong non-conference schedule that has three of last year’s semifinalists. Defending their Patriot League crown won’t be easy in what Adams thinks could be a three-bid year.

The offensive challenge is replacing four of the leading scorers around Boyle and Latch. The Greyhounds have been impressed by newcomers who will blend with young returners like Emma Talago, Elisa Faklaris and Avery Ruhnke taking on more significant roles.

“They just feel like very seasoned veterans now even after just a short amount of experience thus far,” Adams said.

The Greyhounds have a solid defensive core with Osborne, Ellie Rinehart and Spence returning, plus they get back Cydney Lisk, who started as a freshman before an injury cost her last year.

Stars at each level plus strong candidates to fill the lineup give Loyola the ability to remain the top team of the Patriot League and a national noisemaker.

“It just set up a nice blueprint for coming into each year and saying give it its own breath of life and give it its own identity and let it be its own thing,” Adams said. “I’m excited for this year to not hang on our laurels of last year either.”