Midfield

ESPN analyst Mark Dixon participated in a Q&A on Monday. The former Johns Hopkins midfielder, who can be followed on Twitter via @Dixonlacrosse, also addressed a few questions about No. 4 Maryland, No. 8 Loyola, No. 15 Johns Hopkins and Towson. Do you think Maryland has to win the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament to earn the top seed in the NCAA tournament? It's interesting. The NCAA tournament has proven in the past that it's your whole body of work, not just how hot you are at the end of the season or how cold you might be. The way that teams have been beating each other, this weekend was the first week where there wasn't major upheaval in the top 10. Does that mean that things are stabilizing?

Loyola's satisfaction over playing with a full starting lineup lasted just one game. After pounding then-No. 8 Ohio State, 9-4, on March 30 with its full complement of starters, the team took care of Fairfield, 13-7, last Saturday without freshman attackman Zach Herreweyers. Herreweyers had started in the No. 10 Greyhounds' last four contests, but was not dressed for Saturday's victory. Coach Charley Toomey wouldn't say what was ailing Herreweyers. “We're all fighting something,” he said.

Georgetown junior attackman Jeff Fountain (St. Paul's), who is second on the team with 16 goals, left the Hoyas' 8-6 loss to Villanova on Wednesday with an injury, and his status isn't immediately known. Also, Hoyas senior attackman-midfielder Brian Casey is not expected back anytime soon after a leg injury in a 16-8 victory over Providence on March 16. A Georgetown Prep grad, Casey was the team's leading scorer at the time of his injury. The possible good news: Senior Chris Nourse , a starting defenseman, is day-to-day with a leg injury suffered in a 17-12 win over Marquette on March 29. Nourse did not dress against the Wildcats, but his injury is not as severe as was first feared.

The fact that the starting attack leads No. 12 Johns Hopkins in scoring this season is not particularly shocking. What is surprising is that members of the first midfield are not immediately next on that list. Freshman Ryan Brown, who runs on the second line, is tied with senior John Ranagan for fourth in points with 17. Senior Lee Coppersmith, Brown's linemate, ranks sixth with 14 points, and senior John Greeley, who has been a starter since his freshman campaign, is seventh with 13. “Would we like to be more productive from the midfield?

McDonogh soccer standout George Campbell, a first-team All-Metro selection and the 2012-13 Gatorade Maryland Player of the Year, has made a commitment to Maryland. The junior midfielder, who finished with six goals and nine assists for the Eagles last season, chose Maryland over scholarship offers from North Carolina, Wake Forest, Louisville and Duke.  glenn.graham@baltsun.com

Taylor Cook and Nate Babcock may not be St. Mary's most dangerous midfielders, but they are the team's most athletic. And the Seahawks have enjoyed a three-game winning streak despite the pair's absence. Coach Chris Hasbrouck said Babcock, a sophomore, has been dealing with concussion-like symptoms. The Baltimore and Severn native recorded six goals and two assists in six games, but the concussion-like symptoms raised a red flag. “In today's day and age, you have to be careful with a concussion,” Hasbrouck said.

Thanks in part to one of the most productive midfields in Division I, the Maryland men's lacrosse team is off to a 6-1 start that included a four-week stay atop The Baltimore Sun's rankings. Perhaps even more impressive is that the experienced trio of John Haus, Mike Chanenchuk and Jake Bernhardt - two seniors and a junior - have been on the field together only since January. Haus and Bernhardt played together in 2011 while Chanenchuk sat out the season after transferring from Princeton.

St. Mary's three-game winning streak has relied on standout play from a pair on opposing ends of the field. Junior Ben Love has scored a career-best five goals in each of the team's last two contests. The Owings Mills native and McDonogh graduate leads the offense in goals with 16, and 11 of those have occurred during the Seahawks' three-game run when Love made the switch from midfield to attack. “We were having some issues with turnovers, and we had some injuries in the middle of the field,” coach Chris Hasbrouck said Wednesday morning.

When senior midfielder Ryan Clarke was lost for the remainder of the season because of a ruptured spleen during a 7-5 win against Widener on Feb. 23, the thought was that Salisbury's already-beleaguered offense was in more trouble. But the absence of Clarke - who was on the Tewaaraton Award watch list last month - has spurred the development of his teammates and spread the wealth around the Sea Gulls (9-2), who have moved up to No. 7 in the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll.