New Intercollegiate Athletic Complex Moving Closer to Reality

The Harold Ridley Intercollegiate Athletic Complex is one step closer to reality, following the traditional Topping Off Ceremony held at the site on Tuesday, April 28th.

Photo Gallery - click here to view the Loyola Greyhounds new home for soccer and lacrosse.

The final piece of steel was set in place by the Iron Workers Local #16.  

The project was conceived in the early 1990s and will be finished over the next several months and should be open and the home of Loyola's men's and women's soccer and lacrosse programs in January, 2010.

The facility features a 6,000 seat stadium field, a 2,000 seat practice field and a future site of a grass practice field.  The stadium field will have a full service press box and several suites for hospitality on game day.  Both the stadium and practice fields will have state of the art lighting and the next generation of artificial grass.

"The opening of the IAC, sets the bar for facilities in the area.  This, along with the designation change to University, shows the commitment that Loyola is making to be the leading comprehensive, Catholic university in the United States." commented Loyola Director of Athletics Joseph Boylan.

This opening of the IAC will also mean improvements for Loyola's Reitz Arena.  The movement of the soccer and lacrosse programs to the new facility will free up additional space for Basketball, Volleyball, Cross Country and Track.  The entire athletic program will benefit from the new complex.

In addition, the university will be able to expand its academic space by building on the current Diane Geppi-Aikens Field on the main campus.  This is just the start of many new and exciting changes for the college as it makes the move from college to university.

The excitement level is growing and the future is extremely promising for Loyola Athletics.

Loyola Greyhound Golfers Heading to Post-Season

The Loyola Men's Golf team did it again. They advanced to the NCAA regional by virtue of the MAAC automatic bid. The team recovered from a slow start on Friday to outclass the field at the Celebration Golf Course in Florida. 
The Greyhounds, carried on by the momentum of a victory at the Titans Class in Detroit a week early and after trailing by 5 strokes on day one, pulled ahead and took a day 2 lead and held on for the victory over a firey Iona Gaels team.
Loyola now waits until May 4th to find out the regional they will play in. The likely location is Galloway/Seacrest in New Jersey.
The team is lead by brothers Mike and Jay Mulieri. The chanes of advancing to the Finals is a long shot, but their is the potential for perhaps an individual to make it to the next level.

The team also picked up some other awards in addition to the team championship: 

Head Coach Tom Beidleman was named Coach of the Year - the first time since 2003 that he was honored with this award.

Jay Mulieri was name Rookie of the Year.

At the Loyola Athletic Awards Banquet on Monday night, Mike Mulieri was award the Mohler Award, awarded to the top senior student-athlete.

Kudos to Coach Beidleman and his team. They are true champions.