Saving face
Greenwich’s Savio scores faceoff challenge with Denver’s Ierlan
At the faceoff ‘X’ for Denver are a few familiar names to lacrosse fans, including T.D. Ierlan, whose two record-breaking years at Yale probably make him familiar to some nonlacrosse fans around here, too.
That’s the challenge awaiting Bailey Savio on Sunday night in the first round of the NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament, and fortunately for Loyola he’s not so bad himself. The Greenwich product is 163 for 294 this season, a .554 winning percentage.
“He’s got the mentality of a faceoff guy,” said Steve Vaikness, Loyola’s longtime faceoff coach. “He’s like a goalie. We watch after every faceoff. He comes back to the bench and looks at it, win or lose, and moves on to the next one. It’s ‘win the next one.’ That’s how we approach every practice.”
Vaikness said Savio has particularly embodied that attitude since the Greyhounds’ win over then-No. 6 Georgetown on April 29, when he battled James Reilly to an effective standoff two weeks after Reilly had taken 16 of 24 against Denver.
That’s coincidentally when Savio thinks the Greyhounds, ranked 12th going into this game against the seventh-seeded Pioneers, hit another level, giving themselves a chance at an at-large bid to the tournament, a chance they needed.
“Every practice after Georgetown, we’ve gotten better than the one before” Savio said. “We’re all having fun and playing highenergy.”
Loyola (9-5) meets Denver (12-4) on Sunday night at 7:30 (ESPNU) at Denver’s Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. The quarterfinals are next weekend, and the Final Four is at East Hartford’s Rentschler Field, May 29 and May 31.
The Pioneers have Ierlan, who went 26 for 26 against Harvard in 2019, holds records for faceoffs won and ground balls, was the top pick in the (defunct) Major League Lacrosse draft last year but played a graduate year at Denver.
They also have Alec Stathakis, a sophomore workhorse in the eight games before Ierlan became eligible after his transfer from Yale. And they’ve got junior Brett Boos, who has taken only 12 draws since then, but has won eight of them.
“They’ve got three guys who are really good,” Vaikness said. “Obviously the top two everybody knows, and the third guy I think was an all-conference faceoff guy in the Big East.”
Loyola’s faceoff crew has watched lots of video, looking for ways to counter what Denver will do. They’ve worked with the wings, Ryan McNulty and Scott Middleton, Seth Higgins, Payton Rezanka and Matthew Benus, to coordinate.
“We’ve kind of just got to go and let everything hang out. We’ve scouted them,” Savio said. “Our sophomore Eric Pacheco is from Denver, and he’s familiar with one of their guys, his style. We have someone mimicking what he does, another what TD does. We’ve been trying new things.”
Vaikness said they’ve worked on giving themselves options.
“I’m a baseball fan,” he said. “I say, you’ve got to set up your fastball with the curve a little bit. A couple of curves and you can go back to the fastball.
“Everybody has a really good faceoff guy,” he added, “especially if they’re still playing.”
The Greyhounds are fortunate to be playing: After Savio took the school record for ground balls away from brother Graham in the Patriot League semifinals against Army, the Greyhounds had to pull out of the final last weekend after a positive COVID-19 test (which appears to have been a false positive).
Savio said the coaches had told the players they had a good feeling about an at-large bid, which came through.
Savio finished the last final exam of his undergraduate career on Thursday. The NCAA gave all of this year’s athletes an extra season of eligibility because of the pandemic; Savio said he isn’t trying to look too far ahead, but he’ll have to make the decision soon about whether to return for a fifth season or head into the real world.
Loyola’s graduation is next weekend. The Greyhounds would be all right with being in South Bend, Ind., to face Duke or High Point instead.
And were they to get through the quarterfinals, they’d head to Connecticut, bringing seven state residents home, including Savio, starting goalie Sam Shafer of Rowayton, star attackman Kevin Lindley of Darien and standout middie Peter Swindell of New Canaan.