Box Score Wolf Pack improves to 3-2 on the year and will travel to The Castle tomorrow to take on SUNO at 6:00 p.m.
The Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team had a very usual home opener on Monday night as the head coach Jesse Zabal and the Wolf Pack traveled across the street to host NCAA DI Alcorn State inside the Devlin Fieldhouse. Loyola was forced to make the location change due to the final preparations being finished on the newly renovated University Sports Complex.
Entering Monday's "home" match, Loyola was 2-2 overall and 1-1 all-time against the DI Lady Braves with the program's lone victory coming on the road in 2015. The venue change proved to a nonfactor for the Wolf Pack as the squad was able to defeat Alcorn State 3-1 on Tulane's turf to improve to 3-2 thus far in 2017.
Both teams came out of the gate rusty as the opening set was riddled with errors by both sides. Once both units settled in, Alcorn State found itself up by four, 24-20, late in the opening frame. An error by the Lady Braves' Octavia Dixon trimmed the advantage to 24-21 before a kill by Rivera Modesto would seal the 25-21 opening-set victory for the visitors.
Following the opening set defeat, it was all Loyola in set two. With the score knotted at 1-1, a kill by Allison Hartmann (JR/Slidell, La.) off an assist by Maddie Huekels (JR/Dyer, Ind.) gave Loyola the 2-1 advantage and the home team never looked. Up 20-17, Loyola strung together four-unanswered points to take the 24-17 advantage late. With the score 24-18 in favor of the Wolf Pack, Lindsay Ulfig (SR/Saline, Mich.) found Hartmann for a kill to knot the match at 1-1 heading into the third.
The third set was very tight to start until Loyola managed to change the tide with the score at 6-5. Following a kill by Ulfig, Hartmann came through with three-straight service aces to spark a 9-1 run to put the Wolf Pack up 15-6. Up 22-14, Loyola paired some Alcorn State errors with kills by Malea Howie (SO/Greenwood, Ind.) and Huekels to close out set three on a 3-0 spurt to hand the Wolf Pack the 25-14 win entering the fourth set.
Set four proved to be a very close affair as both teams would battle to a 20-20 tie late. A kill by the Lady Braves' Singryd Valadares gave Alcorn State its first lead of the match at 21-20 before Howie answered with a kill of her own to knot the set at 21 all. Valadares responded with yet another kill to put her squad back up by one but Howie would not let her team lose – as the sophomore accounted for the next three points to push Loyola over the top and give the Wolf Pack the match-clinching 25-22 win.
For the Wolf Pack, Hartmann and Howie each tallied nine kills with Hartmann adding a career high five service aces. Huekels led the squad with 16 assists in the win and Kaitlynn Watson (SO/South Lake Tahoe, Ca.) chipped in a team-high 12 digs in the upset victory.
Alcorn State's Jasmine Chambers led all players with 24 assists and Daharri Thompkins and Rivera each tallied seven kills in Monday's loss.
Loyola returns to action tomorrow, August 28, on the road for a rematch against Southern University – New Orleans. First serve from the Castle is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.
