March 11, 2006

San Diego, Calif. - Leading scorer Patrick Kennedy scored two goals and added two assists, but Duke's Matt Zash scored three times to lift the third-ranked Blue Devils over Loyola at the First Four in San Diego, Calif. on Saturday night. The Greyhounds, who entered the game on a two-game win streak, fall to 2-2 with the 9-7 loss.

Kennedy had the `Hounds up early, scoring his eighht goal of the season and the first goal of the night, taking a pass from junior Jordan Rabidou and connecting at 10:19 of the first quarter to have Loyola up 1-0.

After a Duke goal to even the score at 1-1, Loyola answered with its first man-up goal of the night when Andrew Spack took a pass from Kennedy and fired a shot past Duke goalie Dan Loftus to regain the lead.

It was Zash however, who scored two goals in the last 1:22 of the first quarter to give Duke a 3-2 lead after 15 minutes of play. The Blue Devils built on that momentum with three unanswered goals to start the second quarter and led 6-2 before Spack converted on his second extra-man goal of the night.

Trailing 6-3 at the half, Loyola would battle back with man-up efficiency and solid defense.

Three minutes into the third stanza, freshman Tyler Gale connected on Loyola's third man-up goal of the night, scoring off a Greg Leonard assist to pull the `Hounds within two. Less than two minutes later, junior Dan Bauers scored to cut the lead to 6-5.

Loyola would not get any closer with Duke scoring the next two goals, but did finish the night converting 4-of-5 extra-man opportunities while holding Duke to two successful conversions on four attempts.

The Greyhounds also won 11-of-20 face-offs with Jordan Rabidou winning 8-of-13 while picking up seven groundballs. Loyola picked up 36 groundballs as a team, five better than the Blue Devils. Kennedy, Bauers and Gale all scored two goals in the loss. Senior Michael Fretwell made 10 saves for the Greyhounds.

Loyola, now 2-2 on the year, returns to ECAC action next Saturday when it travels to St. John's. That game is slated for a 1 p.m. start.