Box Score Loyola improves to 4-2 on the year and 11-1 all-time against the Knights.
Coming off a huge victory over NCAA DI Alcorn State University on Monday, the Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team made the short trip across the Crescent City on Wednesday evening to square off against Southern University – New Orleans inside The Castle.
Wednesday's matchup between the Wolf Pack and the Knights was a makeup for a match that was originally scheduled for Tuesday night but would ultimately have to be postponed to Wednesday to the residual effects of Hurricane Harvey on the New Orleans area.
These two teams met once already this season, with Loyola besting its cross-town rival 3-1 at the Dillard Volleyball Classic to start the season. Wednesday's rematch was nearly a mirror image of last Friday's meeting as the Wolf Pack once again was able to down the Knights 3-1 on the road.
With the win - its third straight overall and seventh in a row against SUNO – Loyola improved to 4-2 on the year while the Knights dropped to 1-4 following Wednesday's defeat.
The first set was extremely competitive as neither side was able to build a lead larger than three points. Down 19-17, SUNO would score the next seven-unanswered points to grab the 24-19 advantage late. A service error by the Knight's Sonja Backovic would bring the score to 24-20 before a kill by Tiffany Hector off an assist by Tijana Milica ended the set to give the home team the 25-20 victory to start the match.
Set two was another close affair but this time Loyola was the team to put the big run together. Up 13-12, The Wolf Pack exploded for nine-straight points thanks to two kills by Allison Hartmann (JR/Slidell, La.) and a litany of SUNO errors to take the commanding 22-12 advantage. The Knights were unable to respond to the onslaught as Loyola closed out its second-set victory with a kill by Tylar Beckham (SO/New Orleans, La.) (assist from Maddie Huekels (JR/Dyer, Ind.)) to knot the match at 1-1.
It was all Wolf Pack to start the third set as Loyola found itself up ten, 19-9, midway through the contest. SUNO managed to score five-unanswered points to cut the deficit to 19-14 before Huekels would find Malea Howie (SO/Greenwood, Ind.) for a kill to end the run with Loyola leading 20-14. With Wolf Pack leading 24-19, Sunni Blanchard (SO/Pierre Part, La.) recorded one of her team-high 22 assists - this time to Hartmann – to give the Wolf Pack the 2-1 advantage entering set four.
Loyola raced out to a 5-1 lead to start the fourth set but the Knights refused to be put away easily. Up 24-22, the home team was just a single point away from taking the set and tying the match at 2-2. After a SUNO attack error brought the set to 24-23, Loyola strung together kills by Maryka Zee (JR/Lilburn, Ga.), Hartmann and Blanchard to orchestrate an impressive 6-0 spurt to close out the set 26-24 and the match 3-1.
Beckham paced the Loyola attack with 13 kills on 17 attempts (0.706) while Blanchard dished out a team-high 22 assists in the win. Cameron Clement (SO/Greenwell Springs, La.)'s career-high 12 digs led Loyola on Wednesday and Huekels chipped in four kills, 17 assists and eight digs off the bench.
SUNO's Tiffany Hector led all players with 16 kills while Marija Stojiljovic recorded a game-high 26 helpers in the loss.
Due to the destruction of Hurricane Harvey, the Wolf Pack will no longer be going to Houston this weekend as scheduled. Please be sure to check www.loyolawolfpack.com over the next few days for further updates.
