Box Score Hartmann and Beckham each collected six kills on Friday. The Wolf Pack falls to 4-3 on the year following the loss.
Riding a three-match winning streak, the Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team made the short trip down to Drexel Drive on Friday night to square off against city rival Xavier University of Louisiana inside the XULA Convocation Center.
The Wolf Pack was originally scheduled to play for matches in Houston, Texas this weekend but host team Huston-Tillotson was forced to cancel the tournament due to Hurricane Harvey. Loyola and the Gold Nuggets were slated to play on Tuesday, Sept. 5, in the Convocation Center but due to hurricane related cancellations, the two programs decided to square off a few days early.
Looking to win its fourth-straight win to start the year, Loyola entered the Convocation Center on Friday night having lost five of its last six matchups against the Gold Nuggets. The Wolf Pack struggled to find its rhythm on Friday night, only connecting on 24 of 107 attack attempts for a hitting percentage of 0.047. Bogged down by its inefficiency at the net, Loyola was unable to combat to Gold Nuggets' attack and fell 3-0 (18-25,21-25,9-25) on Friday to drop to 4-3 on the season.
Loyola started off slow in the first set and found itself down 19-9 midway through the frame. The Wolf Pack were able to slowly chip away at the deficit and used two Xavier errors and a service ace by Allison Hartmann (JR/Slidell, La.) to get within five at 21-16. Up 23-18, the Gold Nuggets closed out the set with kills by Lauryn Taylor and Hasani Salaam to grab the set one victory, 25-18.
Both teams exchanged blows to kick off the second set to knot the frame at 10-10. Xavier scored four-straight to make it 14-10 before a kill by Beatriz Agosto (SO/Miami, Fla.) ended the run to bring the score to 14-11. The Gold Nuggets slowly began to form a cushion as the set progressed – building a lead as large as seven (23-16) in the waning moments. Following a service error, Xavier sealed the second set with a kill by Juliana Tomasoni to go up 2-0 in the match.
The third set was all Gold Nuggets as the home team managed to hold the Wolf Pack under 10 points for the duration. Up 16-8, Xavier rattled up nine-unanswered to take set three 25-9 and the match 3-0.
Hartmann and Tylar Beckham (SO/New Orleans, La.) each recorded six kills on Friday night while Sunni Blanchard (SO/Pierre Part, La.) handed out a team-high 13 assists in the loss.
The Gold Nuggets were led by Juliana Tomasoni's 15 kills and Tiffany Phillips' 21 assists on Friday evening.
The Wolf Pack will return to action again on Tuesday, Sept. 12, as it travels to Tougaloo, Mississippi to square off against Tougaloo College (1:00 p.m.) and Mississippi College (6:00 p.m.).
