UMBC hadn't opened a season with three consecutive losses since 2005, but that's the plight the team finds itself in after dropping games to Richmond, No. 19 Ohio State and No. 6 Towson.

Coach Don Zimmerman acknowledged that players and coaches alike are concerned about the Retrievers' slow start.

“I don't think anybody likes to start off 0-3,” he said Thursday morning. “We've lost to three very good opponents, and we're young. We've got to get better. Obviously, the first half against Towson [in which UMBC trailed 12-0] wasn't what we were looking for. I thought we came out in the second half and played a lot better, but it was a little too little, too late. We're not hitting any panic buttons. We're trying to get ready for the next one on Saturday against Marist. They're the defending conference champion [in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference], and they're a good team, and we're going to try to get better and try to see if we can get our first win.”

Zimmerman also conceded that he worries about the players becoming frustrated.

“I think anytime kids play hard and practice hard and don't have a win, frustration could set in,” he said. “But this team's got a good attitude. We've had three really good practices this week, and we understand that we're young. But the attitude has remained positive. It's one step at a time and getting ready for Marist.”

The Red Foxes are 1-2 thus far, and UMBC has not lost to them in three meetings. The Retrievers will try to avoid going 0-4 for the first time since 1985, but Zimmerman also put the game in perspective to the America East race, which begins March 19 at Binghamton (0-3).

“With the way Division I lacrosse has gotten with all of the conferences, it really is about your conference,” he said. “We want to play our best lacrosse as we get into conference play. I think we've challenged our guys with a very demanding schedule, and that was done to help us get ourselves battle-ready for conference play. We're playing a very good Marist team, a defending conference champion. When I scheduled them, I said, ‘This will be a great opportunity for our guys and our program to play against a good team.' You want to win every time out, but it's also preparing our guys for the most important part of the season, and that's the conference.”

Tigers' Lowe takes center stage: The graduation of JoJo Ostrander left a hole on Towson's defense, but that absence has been capably filled by senior Mike Lowe.

The 6-foot-1, 185-pound Lowe has emerged as the No. 6 Tigers' top shutdown defenseman, as Ostrander was. In matchups with Mount St. Mary's redshirt junior Bubba Johnson, Georgetown freshman Chris Donovan, Loyola Maryland freshman Pat Spencer and UMBC freshman Pat Brennan, Lowe gave up a combined three goals on 14 shots, collected four ground balls and caused three turnovers.

Coach Shawn Nadelen had said since the preseason that Lowe was poised to replace Ostrander as the team's best defender.

“He's earned that from us as a staff,” Nadelen said Wednesday. “We've seen his development, and you see what JoJo brought to the table and what Mike possesses. Being able to fill that void isn't something we were necessarily looking to do with one person, but Mike is his own player and does a great job within our defensive schemes. We're fortunate to have a guy like him be able to step in after graduating as good of a player that JoJo was.”

In five games, Lowe is tied for second on Towson in caused turnovers (five) and is tied for sixth in ground balls (seven). Lowe is usually assigned to an opponent's most prolific ball carrier, which could mean a meeting with sophomore attackman Shack Stanwick (Boys' Latin) when the Tigers (5-0) visit No. 14 Johns Hopkins (2-2) on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Homewood Field.

Nadelen credited Lowe's improved play to a rigorous offseason conditioning program. “He actually dropped 10 pounds of weight,” Nadelen said, “and it's kind of shown from the fall through winter and now spring just how much more athletic and aggressive he can be.”

Greyhounds protecting the ball: No. 8 Loyola Maryland's 4-1 start that includes wins against No. 14 Johns Hopkins and No. 17 Virginia can be traced to a multitude of factors, and one is the team's ability to retain the ball.

The Greyhounds have committed the second-fewest turnovers in Division I (10.6 per game). Only Penn State (9.7) has been better. Coach Charley Toomey said he was unaware of the ranking, but attributed it to a team-wide mindset instilled by him and assistant coaches Matt Dwan and Ryan Moran.

“We think that every turnover is an awful one,” he said Thursday afternoon. “I think Coach Moran has done a terrific job of having an offense that understands that they've got to really keep the ball hot and move it. They're preaching stick work every day, and I think it goes hand in hand with clean saves, clearing percentage and offensive efficiency. He's done a good job. And [attackman Pat] Spencer's a good quarterback for us. He's not making bad decisions; he's making good decisions for us.”

Loyola has finished each of the past four years ranked in the top five in the country in turnovers per game. Over that same span, only Towson, Maryland and Hofstra appeared in the top five multiple times, and each of those schools was there twice.

“The guys understand that if we put the ball on the ground, you've got to get a defensive stop,” Toomey said. “It's very difficult to defend unsettled. Everybody wants to defend six-on-six. I think the coaches do a really good job of preaching, ‘Let's not give an opportunity to our opponent because we made a lazy pass or a bad decision where we tried to skip to somebody and it got knocked down.'?”

Protecting the ball will be key when No. 9 Duke visits Ridley Athletic Complex on Saturday at 11 a.m. Opponents have averaged 15.6 turnovers against the Blue Devils (4-3).

Navy game rescheduled: A stomach virus outbreak at Lafayette has forced the university to suspend all campus activities this weekend, meaning that the Leopards will not be able to play Saturday against Navy at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The game has been rescheduled for Tuesday, March 22, at 7 p.m.

The school announced Wednesday afternoon that the outbreak has been identified as a norovirus. All classes and co-curricular and extracurricular activities have been canceled.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a norovirus is contagious and the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis. Each year, it causes 19 million to 21 million illnesses and can lead to 56,000 to 71,000 hospitalizations and 570 to 800 deaths.

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