Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 The Wolf Pack (11-11) will put its perfect 6-0 home record on the line when it welcomes (RV) Mobile to The Den for a match on Friday night.
After dropping a 3-1 decision to William Carey in Hattiesburg, Mississippi last night, the Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team boarded the bus and headed 180 miles north to the city of Columbus on Sunday to take part in a tri-match hosted the Mississippi University for Women.
The Wolf Pack (9-11) stepped outside of conference play on Sunday as the team squared off against the host Owls out of the USCAA and fellow NAIA institution Fisk University both for the first time in program history.
Despite being unfamiliar with its opponents, Loyola looked more than comfortable in its two matches as the Wolf Pack managed to sweep both programs inside the Pohl Gymnasium to improve the squad to 11-11 overall this season.
Match One: Loyola 3 - MUW 0
It was all Loyola to start the opening set as the Wolf Pack used five Maddie Huekels (JR/Dyer, Ind.)' assisted kills to jump out to the early 7-2 advantage. Up 10-4, Loyola pieced together a 7-3 spurt to go up 17-6 before taking the sets biggest lead (23-10) following a kill by Beatriz Agosto (SO/Miami, Fla.). The Owls scored one more point in the set to make it 23-11 but another kill by Agosto followed by an unassisted kill by Natavia Mitchell (JR/Austin, Texas) would seal the 25-11 victory for Loyola to start the match.
Powered by five service aces by Huekels, the Wolf Pack raced out to the huge 14-0 edge to start the second set. Loyola was able to maintain at least a 13-point cushion for the duration of the fame and two MUW errors handed Loyola the dominant 25-9 win to go up 2-0 in the match.
Set three was close to start out as the Wolf Pack found itself up just two, 8-6, in the early going. A string of three-straight Owls errors sparked a massive 10-2 run by Loyola to put the team up 18-8 in the waning moments. The home team would be unable to close that gap to any smaller than eight points and a kill by Malea Howie (SO/Greenwood, Ind.) off an assist by Sunni Blanchard (SO/Pierre Part, La.) sealed both the set (25-15) and the sweep for the Wolf Pack.
Howie's seven kills led all players in match one while Huekels' 14 assists and five service aces were the most on either side.
Loren Smith paced the MUW offense with five kills and Madison Lamon handed out a team-best eight assists to go along with eight digs in the loss.
Match Two: Loyola 3 – Fisk 0
The Wolf Pack started off the second match just as hot, scoring the sets first eight points to go up 8-0. With the score 17-5 in favor of Loyola, the Bulldogs orchestrated a 6-0 spurt to cut the Wolf Pack advantage down to six at 17-11. Loyola was quickly able to bounce back with a 3-0 run of its own to make it 20-11 before the team closed out the set by outscoring Fisk 5-4 overall to take the 25-15 win in the opener.
The second set proved to be the closest affair thus far as the score would tie twice down the stretch. With Loyola holding onto a slim 19-17 advantage, an attack error and a bad serve by Fisk would put the Wolf Pack up 21-17 late in the frame. With set point in its sights (23-19), Loyola squandered four-answered points to the Bulldogs to force Head Coach Jesse Zabal to take a timeout with her team leading 23-22. Coming out of the timeout, Fisk's Kylee Thompson notched an attack error to make the score 24-22 before a kill from Tylar Beckham (SO/New Orleans, La.) would give Loyola the hard-fought 25-22 victory in the second set.
Loyola looked to put the Bulldogs away in set three, building a lead as large as 11 points midway through the frame. Fisk was able to cut the deficit down to five (24-19) late in the contest but it would not be enough as another attack error by the Bulldog's Alexis Emanuel closed out the set 25-20 and the match, 3-0.
Lindsay Ulfig (SR/Saline, Mich.) led the Wolf Pack with seven kills in the win while Huekels handed out 12 helpers across the three sets. Allison Hartmann (JR/Slidell, La.) anchored the defensive effort with four total blocks against the Bulldogs and Howie and Agosto each ended the match with five kills.
Fisk's Kennedi Hulittle's 11 kills in match two were the most by any player and Kylee Thompson logged a match-high 17 assists in the loss.
Loyola returns to the Den on Friday, Oct. 13, to square off against (RV) Mobile at 6:00 p.m. in a major conference showdown.
