Women's Lacrosse Travels to No. 9 Loyola Thursday in Search of Patriot League Tournament Bid

Thursday, April 25

Baltimore, Md.

6 p.m.

Bucknell University

Loyola

Photo by: Jenny Henderson

Women's Lacrosse Travels to No. 9 Loyola Thursday in Search of Patriot League Tournament Bid

4/24/2024 2:43:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Bucknell (5-9, 3-5 PL) at #9 Loyola (14-2, 8-0 PL)
When: Thursday, Apr. 25, 6 p.m.
Where: Ridley Athletic Complex, Baltimore, Md.
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: LoyolaGreyhounds.com
Follow on Twitter: @Bucknell_WLAX

Bucknell at a Glance

The Bison enter the final day of the 2024 regular season in a four-way tie for fifth place in the Patriot League standings. Bucknell, Lehigh, American, and Colgate are all 3-5 and will be battling it out this week for the final two spots in the six-team Patriot League Tournament.
Bucknell can still finish as high as fifth, but its path to the playoffs requires a win at No. 9 Loyola on Thursday plus some additional help. Among the four-way tie, the Bison have a win over Colgate but losses to Lehigh and American, so multi-team tiebreakers are not favorable.
The Bison are looking to make their first Patriot League Tournament since 2017. Bucknell has qualified for the postseason six times, reaching the final once in 2003.
Beating the Greyhounds will be no easy task, of course. Loyola comes in with a 14-2 record, including a 5-2 mark against other ranked teams, and is 83-0 in Patriot League regular-season games since joining the league in 2014.
Bucknell went 1-1 in its two home games last week. Katie Browne's goal with 4.9 seconds remaining in regulation gave the Bison a dramatic 14-13 win over Lafayette on Wednesday, and then they dropped a high-scoring 21-14 affair to Army West Point on Saturday.
In that Lafayette win, Bucknell trailed 11-7 early in the second half before battling back. The Bison took their first lead of the night in fourth quarter, and then after getting a defensive stop in a 13-13 game in the final minute, Regan Sansiviero fed a cutting Browne for the game-winner. Sansiviero and Browne, both sophomores, were also teammates at Huntington High School in New York.
Bucknell had a couple of early three-goal leads against third-place Army on Saturday, but the high-powered Black Knights offense rattled off eight second-quarter goals to surge in front. Taylor Kopan, one of 10 seniors honored before the game, led the Bison with four goals, while Allie Boyce added three.
Bucknell ranks fifth in the Patriot League in goals per game with 11.8. Over the last four games, the Bison are averaging 13.0 goals per game.
Boyce has seven goals in her last two games and has reached the 30-goal mark for the third time in as many seasons. Only a junior, Boyce has moved into a tie for seventh on Bucknell's all-time goals list with 116. Julia Braun also scored 116 goals from 2008-11. The school record is 144, set by Suzanne Raffaele from 2000-03.
Boyce led the nation in shot percentage (.649) last season, and she has been even better this year, hitting at a .667 clip (30 goals on 45 shots). That is the second-highest percentage in Division I lacrosse in 2024, trailing only Dartmouth's Katina Christensen (.696).
Kopan has had a hot stick for the Bison in recent weeks. Including her four-goal game against Army on Saturday, she has multiple goals in six of her last seven outings. She has at least one goal in all but one game this season, and her 24 goals are a new career high. Kopan tallied 22 goals in both 2022 and 2023, and she now has 73 in her career.
Boyce (30-7-37) and sophomore Megan Krestinski (21-16-37) are tied for the team points lead. Krestinski, who has had four-goal games this season against St. Bonaventure, Colgate, and Lafayette, is one goal shy of her career high.
Junior Taylor McClain (7-16-23) is tied with Krestinski for the team lead in assists. McClain's 61 career assists are fourth-most in Bucknell history. Christina Manis (2014-17) holds the team record with 93.
Senior Emily Baird (15-5-20) has had another strong season as a two-way middie. Baird leads all Bison field players with 17 ground balls, and she recently moved into 10th place on Bucknell's career caused turnover chart with 61.
Freshman Braeden Siverson has been Bucknell's primary draw specialist this season, and she leads the team with 54 draw controls.
Colleen Kazanjian has started 12 of the 14 games in goal and has a .370 save percentage and 14.90 goals-against average. The junior has five double-digit save games this season, including each of the last two games against Lafayette (11) and Army (14). The 14 stops against the Black Knights were a season high.
Kazanjian is the lone Marylander on the Bison roster. She hails from Olney and attended the Bullis School in Potomac.
Head coach Jackie Dando is in her fifth season as Bucknell's head coach. Liza Oakley is back for her second season working with the defenders and draw specialists, while Jordan Baerga is in her first year working with the attack unit.

Loyola at a Glance/Series History

The Greyhounds have been ranked in the top-10 nationally all season and are currently No. 9 in the IWLCA Poll. At 8-0 in Patriot League play, Loyola has already clinched the No. 1 seed and hosting rights for the Patriot League Tournament, and they can lock up the outright regular-season title with a win or a Navy (7-1) loss to American on Thursday.
Loyola started the season 9-0 before falling 16-13 at Syracuse on March 27. The Greyhounds also lost to No. 16 Penn 13-6 last Wednesday before bouncing back with a 21-6 rout of Holy Cross on Saturday.
Other than the two losses and a 14-13 win over Army, Loyola has won every other game by at least three goals and eight games by 10 or more goals.
Loyola has outscored its opponents 255-139 on the season. The Greyhounds rank eighth nationally in scoring offense (15.9) and scoring margin (+7.3), and they are third nationally in draw percentage (.677) and free-position percentage (.620).
Sydni Black (60-23-83), Georgia Latch (50-33-83), and Chase Boyle (68-12-80) make up one of the highest-scoring trios in the nation, and all three were named to the ILWomen Midseason All-America Team. Black and Latch are tied for sixth nation in points per game, while Boyle is 15th. Boyle is second in Division I in total goals and fourth in goals per game. Boyle also ranks fourth nationally in draw controls per game (10.4).
Goalie Lauren Spence ranks second in the Patriot League in goals-against average (9.16) and fourth in save percentage (.442).
Loyola has won all 19 previous matchups against Bucknell. The two teams first met in 1982 and met nine times between 1982-91 before resuming the series when the Greyhounds joined the Patriot League in 2014.
Loyola won last year's meeting 21-5 at Graham Field. The then-10th-ranked Greyhounds received five goals and three assists from Latch and four goals from Black. Tatumn Kohlbrenner had two goals and an assist, and Megan Krestinski, Allie Boyce, and Katie Browne scored once each for the Bison. The shot board was fairly close, with Loyola leading 27-23, but Spence and Makenzie Butler combined for 12 saves compared to only three for the Bison.