It’s not uncommon for student-athletes to share a housing situation with teammates, and that certainly is the case for much of the No. 12 Towson men’s lacrosse team. But a unique situation sees two of the top offensive players sharing a house with two of their defensive counterparts.
Two starting attackmen, Ryan Drenner and Joe Seider share an off-campus but nearby house with short stick defensive midfielder Jack Adams and longstick midfielder Tyler Mayes. And the competitive nature of the game comes home with the four Tigers as well.
“It stays pretty much between the offense and the defense,” said Seider of his housemates. “We’re all best friends on the team, but we play Xbox together and we’ll sometimes do offense versus defense and see who wins and gets bragging rights and stuff like that. It’s pretty funny how it takes it off the field.”
Among the house favorites for the four Maryland natives on the Xbox includes sports games, including NHL. “Old school” Halo3 is another popular choice in the house as they team up and take the action online against other teams.
“It happens a lot in Xbox or something where the other two are scared to play me and Joe,” chirped Drenner. 
“It’s always a fun time at our house and pretty competitive.”
The defensive and offensive split deepens as Mayes and Adams share one of the house’s two bedrooms, with Seider and Drenner bunking in the second room.
After practice or class, the group often catches up on what happened that day at practice from their perspectives.
“It’s fun hearing different sides of what was going on at practice and its fun little rivalries all the time,” Mayes noted of post-practice conversations.
And the “rivalries” certainly haven’t hurt the way the Tigers play come game time. All four have played in every game for the Tigers this season, helping Towson to its best 13-game start since the 1990 campaign – several years before the housemates were even born.
So far in 2016, the offensive side of the house has produced 74 points, with Drenner dropping in 42 on 24 goals and 18 assists while Seider has a team- and house-best 25 goals along with four assists. Their defensive roommates anchor a unit that has ranked nationally in the top 10 for goals allowed per game all season, with Mayes causing a team-high 17 turnovers and Adams close behind at 10.
“We’re all really good friends and it’s split right down the middle so we’re always chirping each other about stuff that happened at practice, especially if we do it to the other person,” said Adams, a 6-3, 200 pound defensive midfielder. “We make sure they know about it after practice, so it’s really fun.”
But as college athletes are wont to do, they come together for mealtime, with Adams serving as the house’s de facto chef. 
“(The cooking) is usually done by Jack, he’s kind of the mom of the house. He usually cooks and makes the whole thing for all of us, and we’ll make the sides and things,” said Seider of the meals. “If we’re not eating out, it’s pretty much every day he cooks.”
And while it’s all fun and games and competitiveness at home, the four know that academics come first and take the required measures to make sure the bookwork gets done too. Living in a popular house, with other teammates who live nearby stopping over, the four head elsewhere to do their studying.
“It’s a pretty tough atmosphere to study in,” Drenner said with a laugh.
“The best bet is often the library, but sometimes you have to walk by the distractions and say ‘not today boys, it’s a work day’ and lock yourself in the room,” said Adams of the studying situation. “But it gets done.”
Towson lacrosse isn’t the only thing that brought the housemates together as Adams and Seider were teammates up the road at Hereford High School, winning four Maryland state championships together.
“We knew we committed around the same time, so we would try and room together so, it was nothing new for us to live together for the remainder of our college experience,” said Adams.
Adams, Drenner and Seider had all lived together previously, with Mayes as the new sign on for the 2015-16 academic year at the University.
The four teammates will look to continue their continuity this weekend as No. 12/No. 13 Towson heads to Hempstead, New York for a pivotal Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) game against Hofstra. Faceoff for the game, which will be carried on Lax Sports Network and free audio on TowsonSportsNetwork.tv, is slated for 1 p.m. at Shuart Stadium.