NEW ORLEANS – The Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team finished its home tournament, the Wolf Pack Welcome, on Saturday, splitting a pair of matches against Webber International and Texas Wesleyan in The Den.
The Pack is set to play one more pre-conference tournament before Southern States Athletic Conference play begins in two weeks. They'll travel across town to Xavier's Big Easy Blastoff to play Marian (Ind.), Campbellsville (Ky.), MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) and No. 7 Columbia (Mo.) starting Thursday night.
(RV) Loyola 3, Webber International 1 (19-25, 25-16, 25-14, 25-16)
After losing the first set of the match, the Wolf Pack came back with a vengeance. They trailed early in the second set, 5-3, but a combination of Clarissa Dupree and Natalie Burkholder on the attack put Loyola ahead, 11-8. Preslie Boswell recorded consecutive kills after that, 13-8, and a third one by the senior made it a 14-10 lead. The Warriors tried to draw the score closer several times after that but kills by Dupree and Amaya Bazemore, as well as an ace by Katy Hollingsworth, fought them off, 18-14. One more attempt was made by Webber, 18-16, but Loyola won the final seven points to even the match, 1-1.
Loyola started the third set well, too. Blocks by Bazemore, Dupree and Boswell helped give the Pack an early 6-2 lead, then kills by Dupree and Boswell pushed the advantage to 9-5. Gabriella Masiello served an ace and tricked the Webber defense on a quick attack to give Loyola a 12-5 lead. The Wolf Pack never looked back from there on their way to a 2-1 lead in the match. Samantha Guillotte recorded two kills during that final stretch, and Emma Fahy, Burkholder, Bazemore and Boswell also got in on the action.
Webber won the first two points of the fourth set but kills by Bazemore, Fahy and Guillotte, and an ace by Ellie Connor, flipped the score in Loyola's favor, 5-2. The Pack extended the fourth-set lead out to 14-9 with an ace by Kala Emanuelli. While the Warriors attempted to fight back, 20-15, the Wolf Pack did not let up on the attack. With the help of another two Hollingsworth aces, Loyola scored five of the final six points to take the set, 25-16, and earn the first win of the season.
(RV) Texas Wesleyan 3, (RV) Loyola 0 (25-23, 25-15, 25-18)
Bazemore was the first to get Loyola on the board to start the second match of the day, then four straight attacking errors by Texas Wesleyan put the Pack up 5-3. A combined block from Dupree and Burkholder highlighted the next few points, 8-6, and after TWU cut it to one, kills by Boswell and Guillotte and an ace by Emanuelli brought the Loyola lead to 11-7. After back-to-back attacks by Bazemore and Dupree, 15-11, the Rams were able to tie the game at 17-all. There would be seven ties until the score read 23-23, as Texas Wesleyan won the final two points to earn the opening-set win.
After losing the second set, Loyola fell into a 5-0 hole to start the third. A couple of kills by Boswell and Bazemore, and Guillotte blocking and attacking tied the set at 6-6. Trailing 16-9, the Wolf Pack scored five straight on Masiello's serve, 16-14, however, the Rams pulled back ahead en route to the third-set win.
"This was another incredibly tough weekend of competition for us. We set up our preseason to really challenge us and regardless of any outcomes, we know we're learning and growing. It's difficult to see our 1-7 record and not get discouraged, but we keep reminding ourselves of the bigger picture: we are young, we are learning, and we have so many good pieces to work with. We have also played some of the best NAIA teams in the nation in these first two weeks. And it doesn't stop now. We turn around for another weekend of highly competitive matchups at Xavier. Overall, I'm proud of how our team continues to turn around and do their best to show up for the next match. They have done a great job of taking ownership of the game, supporting each other, and giving everything they've got to the very end. Those attributes alone will serve us so well down the line."
Pack Facts
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With 13 digs in the first match and eight in the second, Simone Moreau has eclipsed 1,500 digs in her collegiate career, now with 1,511.
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Amaya Bazemore totaled 19 kills on the day, including 11 kills with seven blocks in the Webber match. She's now at 269 blocks at Loyola, which is the ninth-most in a career in program history.
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Gabriella Masiello recorded her first collegiate double-double in the Webber match, finishing with 17 assists and 12 digs.
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Clarissa Dupree had her best match of the season against Webber, scoring nine kills for the Pack with no errors and a .450 hitting percentage.
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Natalie Burkholder also committed no attacking errors in the first match, finishing with seven kills and a .583 hitting percentage.
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As a team, Loyola combined for 12 service aces in the match against Webber, a season high. Ellie Connor contributed four of those aces, while Katy Hollingsworth had three and Kala Emanuelli two. In the next match, Juliet Petruzelli led the team with three aces.
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