Coming off a four-match road trip, the Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team returned to The Den on Friday night to take on SSAC foe Bethel University. Despite being an underdog on paper, Loyola battled the Lady Wildcats to 2-2 tie to force a fifth set. The Wolf Pack would give Bethel all it could handle at home, before falling 20-18 in the final set to drop the match 3-2 (25-22,22-25,26-24,17-25,18-20) in thrilling fashion.
With the loss, Loyola falls to 15-15 on the year and 5-7 in conference play. Conversely, the Lady Wildcats improve to 18-7 overall and 9-2 in league action following Friday's victory.
With the score tied 7-7 in the first set, the Wolf Pack strung three-straight points together to take the early 10-7 lead. The visitors battled back to knot the set at 17-17 and force a Loyola timeout. The score tied again at 20-20 before the Wolf Pack closed to door with a kill by Sr. OH Eva Allen(Oakland, Calif./Head-Royce) to earn the 25-22 victory.
The second set was a back-and-forth fight with the teams battling to six early ties. With the score knotted at 16-16 the Lady Wildcats went on a 7-2 run to take the 23-18 advantage late in the set. An error brought Loyola within one at 23-22, but a Bethel kill followed by an ace gave the visitors the 25-22 win to tie the match at 1-1.
Set three proved to be the closest yet as neither team was able to build a lead larger than two throughout. The scoreboard read 24-24 before Allensent in two kills, both off assists by Fr. S Maddie Huekels (Dyer, Ind./Marian Catholic), to put the Lady Wildcats away and give Loyola the 26-24 victory and the 2-1 lead.
Bethel came in to set four refusing to go down easily, jumping out to a 19-11 lead thanks to a 6-0 run. The Lady Wildcats rode that momentum all the way to end of the set, earning the 25-17 victory to force a fifth set.
Set five will go down as one of the most exciting sets in recent Wolf Pack history. With Bethel leading 14-11, in need of just a single point, it looks as if Loyola was done. However, back-to-back kills by Fr. MB Jordan Davis(Litchfield Park, Ariz./Millennium) brought the score to 14-13 to force the Lady Bulldogs to call a timeout. An attack error knotted the score at 14-14, before a Bethel kill brought the visitors just one point away at 15-14. With Bethel leading 16-15, kills by Allen and Davis put the Wolf Pack on top 17-16 to force a Lady Wildcats' timeout. With The Den at a fever pitch, a kill by Fr. MB Allison Hartmann (Slidell, La./Pope John Paul II) put Loyola up 18-17 and just one point away from victory. The visitors proved unfazed, scoring the final three points to earn the hard-fought 20-18 victory in the set and the 3-2 win for the match.
Huekels had a career night on Friday, dishing a career-high 40 assists to go along with eight digs. Allen collected a double-double with a team-high 18 kills and 10 digs, while Sr. S Breanna Stevenson (Desoto, Texas/Desoto) scooped a team-best 16 digs. Hartmann chipped in 14 kills on the evening and Davis notched a game-high six blocks in the loss.
Loyola returns to action tomorrow, Oct. 24, when it welcomes Martin Methodist University to The Den for a match set to start at 11:00 a.m.
