On game days, Loyola University Maryland men’s lacrosse player Ryan McNulty ‘20 gets up early and is sure to eat a good breakfast. He wears dress attire all day, and he lines his dress shoes up perfectly straight underneath his locker. This has become a ritual since he began his career at Loyola last year. And before he goes onto the field, he makes sure to click his cleats on the ground, something he has done in every sport.

“The shoes are a big thing for me before each game,” the Exton, PA native said. “After that, I just sit and focus.”

While McNulty has played sports his whole life, lacrosse is newer.

“I actually started playing lacrosse in eighth grade, which is pretty late,” McNulty said. “Baseball was getting boring, and my dad’s friend was a great player so he taught me to play.”

It did not take long for him to catch on or to develop his skills, as he was recruited to play lacrosse at Loyola the summer before his sophomore year of high school.

“I played lacrosse throughout high school and did club lacrosse every summer,” McNulty said. He is currently number 55 on Loyola’s team and plays defensive midfield.

However, his skills are not the only thing that helps this communication and advertising major on the field.

Before each game, the team says a prayer by St. Ignatius together in the locker room. This is especially important to McNulty, who is a practicing Roman Catholic.

“My faith helps because when something is going wrong in the game or I’m struggling with something, I just look to God,” he said. “I can look above and say that’s all that really matters. I’m playing for one person, I’m not trying to please anything or anyone else.”

McNulty lives by the biblical verse Philippians 4:13, which states, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”

“When you read the gospel, you can almost always relate it to your situations,” he said. “So, it’s cool to be able to relate current life to something that has been written about a while ago.”

Currently, the men’s team has an overall 8-3 record this season, with only two regular-season games left. A big highlight this year was beating Johns Hopkins University in the Charles St. rivalry game.

“We recently lost to Virginia in overtime and a big downfall was losing a Patriot League game against Bucknell by one point,” McNulty said.

While there have been highs and lows in the season, McNulty has one thing he can depend on: “Being able to have your faith in your standing ground at all times is such a positive thing. You can always rely on it and have it to fall back on no matter what.”