Wolf Pack claims three-set SSAC win Friday

NEW ORLEANS – The Loyola Wolf Pack volleyball team remains in second place in the Southern States Athletic Conference standings with a three-set win over Tennessee Southern on Friday. The win sets up another important match on Saturday, as the Pack (21-7, 9-3 in SSAC) welcomes Blue Mountain Christian to The Den for a 1 p.m. match. 
 

Loyola will also hold Senior Day festivities before the match. 
 

Juliet Petruzelli got the match started with two straight aces, then an ace by Belén Puche Laguna made it a 5-2 lead. Clarissa Dupree collected three early kills, 7-3, and Ivana De Carvalho Peixe found the floor a couple of times to keep Loyola in the lead, 9-7. The Firehawks kept things close, 15-13, however, Loyola used a quick 6-1 run to grab control of the set. Alexa Palmer, Isis Harink and Samantha Guillotte each had kills during that run, and a kill by Katy Hollingsworth helped close things out, 25-19. 
 

UT Southern got off to a good start in the second set, taking a 5-3 lead. Peixe got a kill and a block with Hollingsworth to tie it, though. Ellie Connor served an ace to keep Loyola ahead, 8-6, and Palmer and Dupree went back-to-back on the attack to extend the lead even more, 11-7. Harink had three kills in four points, and another attack by Peixe prompted a UT Southern timeout, 18-11. The Pack closed things out with ease, using two kills from Guillotte and two from Peixe to take a 2-0 lead in the match. 
 

The early going of the third set was close with Loyola taking a lead, 5-3, after a block by Harink and Lily Clemmer-Gillum. UTS took a lead at 11-9, then Palmer notched a kill before Laguna served another ace, 11-11. The Firehawks expanded their lead, 18-14, then the Wolf Pack fought back. Hollingsworth found the floor before Palmer and Dupree notched kills, 19-17. Back-to-back Tennessee Southern attack errors led to Laguna's fourth ace of the match, 20-20. Dupree earned a kill to tie it back at 21-all, then Guillotte got three more kills to seal the deal on Friday's SSAC matchup.
 

Pack Facts

• Loyola's 45 kills in the match are tied for the team's most in a three-set match this season. 

• Including the match winner, Samantha Guillotte posted a total of 11 kills, her most since having 11 against Life on September 20. With only one error, she did it with the best hitting percentage of her career (.500). 

• Clarissa Dupree also put together her most efficient attacking performance in her two years at Loyola, with nine kills in 16 attempts with no errors to post a career-best .562 hitting percentage. 

• Isis Harink also tallied nine kills, plus three blocks and an ace.
  Ivana De Carvalho Peixe made the most of her two sets played, putting up six kills in only eight attempts to lead the match in hitting percentage (.625) and reach 200 kills on the year.  

• Alexa Palmer also only committed one attacking error with her six kills (.333). 

• Belén Puche Laguna nearly averaged seven assists per set in the match with 20, her highest total in a match since September, adding a match-high four service aces and two digs. Ellie Connor also had a solid setting performance with 17, plus an ace and six digs. 

• After a brief stint at second place in total aces in the NAIA, Puche is now back on top of the league with 65 total aces.

• As she approaches 500 digs on the season with 480, Kala Emanuelli's 17 digs led all players Friday. 

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