NEW ORLEANS – Following the Pack's sweep over Bushnell last week, Loyola looked to string together a winning streak. The Wolf Pack faced Cornell College, a team that completed a sweep over Colorado College, Loyola's next opponent. In the match, the Pack fought hard but were unable to claim victory, falling to Cornell College, 0-3.
The Pack will be back in action in two weeks, taking on Colorado College on Tuesday, February 28th at 7:30 p.m. As always, the match will be live streamed at https://twitch.tv/loynoesports.Â
The first map of the day was Busan, the control map. In the first round, Gerardo Colon played as Reinhardt, Zachary Sutherland was Lucio, Zachary Puetz was Mei, Dashiell Hazzard was Sojourn, and Roger Bouche played Kiriko. Cornell captured the point to begin the match but were only able to get it to 61% before the Pack took control. Then, Loyola took the score to 82% before losing control of the point. With little time to get a good push together, the Pack were unable to take back control of the objective, and round one was taken by Cornell College. In the second round, the Pack opted for greater mobility with Wrecking Ball and Brigitte. Cornell captured the objective first, but their control was short-lived as the Pack took it away from them at 17%. The Pack made it 31-17, but Cornell College got things together and claimed it once again. Cornell made it 92-31, then Loyola snatched control with a clutch ultimate by Zachary Puetz and three solid kills from Dashiell Hazzard. The Wolf Pack doubled their score before Cornell controlled the point for the final 8%. With that, Cornell won the second round, taking a victory in the first map.
For the second map, the Pack traveled to King's Row, the hybrid map. Loyola started on the attacker's side and quickly gained control of the objective, but technical difficulties forced a restart. On the second attempt, the Pack gained control of the objective with 1:22 left. Gaining control of the payload, the Pack continued their push and broke through the checkpoint with 2:02 remaining. The Pack got just meters away from the end but were unable to get to the end as the clock expired, reaching 66.92m. With a 2-0 lead, the Pack needed to stop Cornell College to take the second map victory. However, Cornell's offense was difficult to stop, and they found a way to reach the end, taking a two-set lead.
In the third set, the Pack went to Route 66, the escort map. Beginning on defense, the Pack needed to bring Cornell's offense to a halt. This was quite difficult, however, as Loyola struggled to find their footing on the defensive end. Fortunately, the Pack managed to bring Cornell into overtime before they led the payload to its destination, 0-3. Switching to attack, the Pack needed to match Cornell's efforts. Cornell's momentum was tough to stop as they kept to Pack from reaching the payload's first checkpoint, taking the third set and a match victory. With this match, Loyola moves to a 1-1 overall record entering their next match vs Colorado College.
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