Box Score The Loyola volleyball team earned its first Southern States Athletic Conference championship since joining the league, defeating Blue Mountain in four sets Saturday
NEW ORLEANS – It's been since 2002 since the Loyola Wolf Pack volleyball team has won a conference championship, and on Saturday they ended the drought. The Wolf Pack hosted Blue Mountain College at Devlin Fieldhouse Saturday in a match that would decide the SSAC regular-season champions, and the Pack walked away with a four-set win (25-23, 25-19, 18-25, 25-11) over the Lady Toppers.
With one SSAC match to go, Loyola clinched the SSAC regular season title with a 12-1 league record, and the Wolf Pack moved their overall record to 18-8. It'll host William Carey at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Louisiana College at 2 p.m. on Saturday for Senior Day to close out the regular season.
With Simone Tyson serving, Loyola used an early 7-0 run to take an 8-2 lead in the first set. Preslie Boswell had a couple of kills during that run, but the Lady Toppers battled back to cut the score to 10-8. Emily Sheperis and Jordan Bernard recorded kills after that, and an attack by Tyson put the Pack up 15-12. Dallis Brown and Gabriela Martinez helped extend the lead to 19-12 with a service ace and a kill, respectively, and Martinez, alongside Boswell, had two block assists to help give Loyola the edge in the opening game.
Boswell and Bernard collected early kills in the second set, and two attacks by Tyson helped keep the set tied, 8-8. Simone Moreau and Gracie Bailey's service game helped the Pack win six of the next seven points, then a Brittany Cooper ace gave Loyola a 16-10 lead. Martinez and Alicia Simmons combined for a block and Boswell had consecutive kills to put the Wolf Pack in complete control of the set, 21-13.
Blue Mountain won its first set in the third, but the Wolf Pack quickly forgot about it with a hot start in the fourth game. They jumped up 6-0 with Moreau serving, using kills by Martinez, Boswell and Bernard to prompt an early BMC timeout. Bernard and Simmons helped extend the advantage to 10-4, and two kills by Tyson made it 15-9. After the Lady Toppers made it a 17-11 game, the Wolf Pack didn't allow the visitors to score another point, closing the match out on an 8-0 run. Cooper recorded two aces during that run, and Tyson, Simmons and Sheperis all had kills.
"Wow… this team is absolutely phenomenal. They have worked so incredibly hard and earned every one of our wins this year. They came into today's match confident and with a great understanding of what Coach Robbie and I had mapped out as our game plan. They executed it so well and they stayed the course. Simone Tyson and Emily came up big for us on the attack, Gabriela had some amazing blocks for us, and Kailyn & Gracie both moved the ball around so well to our hitters. Simone Moreau was great in defense and at the service line. I am so proud and so grateful to our Wolf Pack family that came out to support us! We have more work to do but we're happy to enjoy this great win the rest of the weekend."
Pack Facts
Loyola's SSAC Regular Season title is the first since joining the conference in 2010, and it's the first conference championship for the program since 2002.
Simone Tyson led the team with 13 kills while adding 15 digs, which is the 10th double-double for the sophomore.
Setters Gracie Bailey and Kailyn O'Neal also had double-doubles for the Wolf Pack. Bailey had 16 assists and 11 digs, while O'Neal put up 20 assists and 18 digs.
O'Neal's season-high 18 digs led the team on Saturday, but the Wolf Pack produced five players with double-digit digs, including Simone Moreau with 15 and Brittany Cooper with 14.
Preslie Boswell was second on the team with 10 kills and four blocks. It was her fourth match this season reaching double figures in kills.
Jordan Bernard and Emily Sheperis were not far behind Boswell with nine kills apiece. Sheperis recorded a .364 hitting percentage, which was the best number on the team Saturday.
You can keep up with the Pack by following Wolf Pack Athletics on Facebook at Facebook.com/LoyolaWolfPack, Twitter and Instagram @LoyolaWolfPack, and by checking out our website at LoyolaWolfPack.com.
