The Loyola Greyhounds took home the 2024 Patriot League Championship in dominating fashion at the Saucon Valley Country Club Grace Course. According to the Loyola Greyhounds official site, they won by 13 shots during this tournament held on April 28. The Hounds started the tournament in second place after the first of a three-round tournament, but never looked back when taking the lead after the second day. Along with winning the team championship, graduate student Carlo Pizzano in fifth, took home the individual medalist honors with a score of two over par (73-71-74).
He expressed the nerves that come with competing.
“I didn’t sleep at all, maybe three hours of sleep that night.”
He had a feeling that par would be a good score but knew that it would be close coming down the stretch.
“I felt like I could have gone low, but I made a couple of mistakes that brought me back, I thought if I could play a clean round, I could separate myself.”
James Rico ‘26 was right behind him at three over par (72-73-74) in a tie for second after three impressive rounds. The two of them expressed the difficulties that the Grace Course held.
“The greens were fast and firm… it was not easy to make birdies… one bad shot and the hole really gets away from you,” Rico said.
Pizzano said, “You had to be in the fairway to feel like you could attack… it was a very fair test, which would allow the best team to come out on top.”
The Hounds had a successful season picking up a win this spring at the Ross Collegiate Classic at Mid Pines in Southern Pines, North Carolina. They had several other top five finishes between the fall and spring seasons.
Pizzano added that seeing different types of shots off the tee and around the tee would help them be ready for the different lies and shot shapes they will have to play in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
There was good play across the board. All six Greyhounds finished in the top 30 of the tournament. Pizzano and Rico being two of them, but also Gustavo Rangel ‘26 and Mike Crowley ‘24.
Rangel finished T13 at eight over par (73-80-71) followed by Crowley T17 at 11 over par (79-74-74) who finished in the top 20. Jackson Roman ‘25 finished in T24 at 14 over par with rounds of (81-74-75) and graduate student Turner Foster at T30 at 17 over par (78-76-79) respectively.
With the win at the Patriot League Championship, they qualified for the regional portion of the NCAA Championship with the automatic bid they received for the victory. The regional starts on May 13 and spans over three rounds. They will travel to the University Club where they will play teams from Auburn University, the University of Virginia and Texas Tech University among other top 25 ranked teams. The season continues in Louisiana with the team’s hopes to go to the National Championship in Carlsbad at Omni La Costa.
Pizzano says this is the best team he has been a part of during his time with the Hounds, and the statistics back it up. They averaged as a team at 2.73 over par per round over the course of the season.
“It has been the best scoring group we have had across the starting five… it’s going to take a gritty three days, but we are more than capable of doing that,” Pizzano says.
They are using the underdog mentality to their advantage with their high seed.
“What is there to lose? We are the thirteenth seed; we have no expectations. We have a lot of fight left in us,” Rico said.
