Box Score The Wolf Pack won their eighth Southern States Athletic Conference match of the season Tuesday, defeating Blue Mountain College on the road in straight sets
BLUE MOUNTAIN, Miss. – The Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team won its fifth match in a row Tuesday at Blue Mountain College, defeating the Lady Toppers in straight sets (25-13, 25-21, 25-19). With the win, the Wolf Pack improved their Southern States Athletic Conference record to 8-1, which is currently first place in the standings.
After three straight road matches, Loyola will return home for two matches this weekend against William Carey (8-2 in SSAC) and Blue Mountain College (3-6). First, the Wolf Pack is set to take on William Carey Friday at 6 p.m., then they'll host Blue Mountain Saturday at 2 p.m. for their final home match of the season.
The Wolf Pack started the first set on fire, jumping out to an insurmountable 11-0 lead. Casey Aucoin, Jordan Bernard and Jules Mokry combined to have five kills, as Bernard had three, and BMC had six errors to help Loyola's efforts. Brittany Cooper, Emily Sheperis and Bernard each recorded kills later in the set to move the score to 14-5, then two more kills by Cooper made it a 21-14 set lead. Aucoin finished off the first set with her second kill to quickly give Loyola a 1-0 match lead.
The second set was much closer than the first set, as the two teams traded the lead four times with eight ties. Blue Mountain held the lead for most of the set, too, but O'Neal tied the set at 21-21 with her fourth kill of the game. Then four errors by BMC gave Loyola a 2-0 match lead with a 25-21 second-set win, with Mokry leading the Wolf Pack with five kills in the set.
Like the second set, the third game stayed close until the Wolf Pack pulled away at the end to sweep the match. Mokry started the set with a couple of attacks to win points, then Bernard tied the game 6-6 with two kills and an ace. O'Neal, Cooper and Sheperis extended Loyola's lead to 10-7, and two more kills from Mokry gave the Pack a four-point lead, 17-13. When BMC cut the score to 19-18, Bernard served up her second ace and had another kill to help Loyola end the match in three sets.
"Everything just went well today. We passed, set, attacked, blocked and served well. Even in the moments where we were behind, there was a steadiness about our group that left everyone feeling confident that we'd take care of business. Jules had another solid match and any match that we can keep all of our attackers in the positive and with as few errors as we saw, we'll be successful. Emily did a great job of blocking, and it's been some time since we've seen blocking numbers like this from our group. It's a great change of pace. Kailyn and Gracie continue to move the ball well to our hitters and both are strong at the service line for us. I am immensely proud of how this team is handling our schedule and travel. We're excited to keep this going."
Pack Facts
Jules Mokry recorded her third straight game with 10 or more kills, totaling 10 in the three sets Tuesday. She now has six games with at least 10 kills this season.
Kailyn O'Neal had 18 assists against the Lady Toppers, and that marks seven straight games with at least 15 assists.
For the 28th straight game she's appeared in, Helene Masone has recorded double-figure digs with 10 against BMC.
Emily Sheperis led the Wolf Pack with seven block assists, while Kailyn O'Neal (five), Casey Aucoin (three) and Jules Mokry (three) and Jordan Bernard (two) helped the Wolf Pack collect 20 block assists and two solo blocks.
Brittany Cooper nearly tied her season-high in digs with 18 Tuesday. Her season-high is 19 and her career-high, which was set last season as a freshman, is 29.
After recording a season-high .420 hit percentage Saturday, Loyola had its second-best outing Tuesday against BMC with .341 team attacking percentage.
Of Loyola's 10 wins this season, seven have been straight-set wins.
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