There’s little doubt Stover has been present — and a presence — for the eighth-seeded Greyhounds (12-4), who will meet top-seeded Penn State (15-1) in Sunday’s NCAA tournament quarterfinals in East Hartford, Conn.
Stover ranks second in the country in save percentage at 59.4, and it is moments like his one-on-one stuff of Syracuse’s Jamie Trimboli early in the fourth quarter of Loyola’s 15-13 first-round victory Saturday that will live on in highlights after he departs the program after this season.
The telling part of Stover’s performance is far more routine. He has made at least 10 saves in every game this season, and will almost certainly have to hit that number again if the Greyhounds are to get past a potent Penn State offense keyed by Tewaaraton finalist Grant Ament and national goals leader Mac O’Keefe.
Stover’s streak actually began last year, when his 19-save showing in the NCAA quarterfinals was about the only thing to slow Yale on its charge to a national title. Loyola lost 8-5, but it would have been far more lopsided without Stover making at least four saves in every quarter.
And so through a lamentable result came the seeds of Loyola’s defensive plan for the following season: Light the Stove, and go from there.
“We talked about how we need the guy that finished ’18 to come in and be that guy all of ’19, knowing what we were graduating defensively,” coach Charley Toomey said. “He and Paul [Volante] were really the lone returners with some young short sticks and Ryan [McNulty] stepping into the starting [long pole] role. We were going to make mistakes defensively, and he was going to have to bail us out.”
So he did, from the start of the season. Toomey is aggressive in his nonconference schedule, and the Greyhounds played five NCAA tournament teams (Duke, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Towson and Virginia) among its six contests outside of the Patriot League. Stover stopped 18 shots in the opener against Virginia, matched that two weeks later against Rutgers and made 16 saves against Georgetown last month.
It hasn’t been a perfect season, but the steady Stover has yet to deliver a dud.
“He’s just remarkably consistent for a goalie,” Loyola defensive coordinator Matt Dwan said. “There’s not too many highs and lows for him. That’s not to say he can’t have an off game, but his level of producing the same type of confidence [is impressive]. As a young defense, that’s what they build off of to know if they make a mistake here and there, which is going to happen, that he can make that stop.”