Volleyball’s season ends in NAIA Opening Round

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – The Loyola Wolf Pack's season ended against No. 16 St. Thomas (Fla.) on Saturday, losing a four-set match on the Bobcats' home floor in an NAIA National Championship Opening Round contest. 
 

Loyola finished the 2025 campaign with a 29-9 overall record and the program's second appearance in the national tournament in three seasons. 
 

Alexa Palmer collected two kills and Juliet Petruzelli served an ace in the early going of the first set, but St. Thomas won the next seven points to take a 10-5 lead. The Bobcats held a multi-point lead for most of the remainder of the set, however, the Wolf Pack put up a fight late in the game. Loyola won six of eight points, powered by three kills from Samantha Guilliotte, to cut it to a 22-21 deficit. After a St. Thomas timeout, the hosts won three of four points to claim the opening set. 
 

The second set was a different story, though. Besides a couple of small pushes by St. Thomas, the game was controlled by the Wolf Pack to even the match, 1-1. Loyola jumped out to a 7-2 advantage thanks to attacks from Palmer, Clarissa Dupree and Isis Harink, blocks by Katy Hollingsworth, Dupree and Palmer, and a service ace from one of the best servers in the NAIA, Belén Puche Laguna. The Bobcats clawed back to take a 10-9 lead, but Loyola used a 10-2 run to grab the momentum again, 19-12. Palmer had three more kills during that run, then a couple of attacks by Dupree made the score 23-15. St. Thomas won six of the game's next seven points to trim into the Wolf Pack lead a little, 24-20, and Ivana De Carvalho Peixe finished things off.  
 

After St. Thomas went ahead 4-1 to start the third set, the Wolf Pack went on a 10-2 run to push forward by five, 11-6. That run started with a couple of Bobcat errors, then kills by Dupree, Palmer and Peixe kept things going in Loyola's favor. Lola Blancher served an ace, too, and Hollingsworth and Palmer combined for a block. St. Thomas, however, responded with an 11-2 run to pull back ahead, 17-13. Two attacks each by Palmer and Dupree, as well as one from Harink, helped tie the set at 19-19, but the Bobcats would close things out to regain the match lead, 2-1. 
 

Kills by Palmer and Peixe, with an ace by Kala Emanuelli, too, kept Loyola in the lead early in the fourth set, 4-3. Harink added a couple of kills, and Blancher and Zoe Barnes each served aces to hold a 9-7 advantage. St. Thomas pushed ahead with a 6-0 run after that, 13-9, and it never relinquished the lead. Loyola kept battling to keep the deficit at four a couple of times, but eventually the Bobcats finished off the match. 
 

Pack Facts

• Alexa Palmer hit a new career high with 18 kills while hitting .371, finishing the season with a team-high 326 total kills with a career-best hitting percentage of .276 for the year. 

• Clarissa Dupree had 12 kills in the match, finishing the year with 253 total kills on a .246 percentage, which was the third best on the team. 

• Isis Harink had seven kills in the match to give her 307 for the season on a team-best .289 hitting percentage. She also led the team in total blocks with 113. 
  Samantha Guillotte's 2.5 kills per set this season led the team. She was also third on the team in total kills with 273 while hitting .234. Ivana De Carvalho Peixe (253 kills) also hit .234 for the season.

• Belén Puche Laguna had 18 assists and an ace against St. Thomas, bringing her to a team-high 669 assists and 87 service aces this season. That marks the fourth-most aces in a season in program history.

• Kala Emanuelli also served an ace to bring her to 73 aces, which ranks as the eighth-most in a season in program history. Her 669 total digs this season are also the sixth-most by any player in a season in program history. 

• Juliet Petruzelli led the Pack with three aces on Saturday, bringing her to 60 aces this season. 

• Ellie Connor's team-high 22 assists Saturday brought her to a career-best 644 assists for the season. Her 41 aces were also a career best. 

• Katy Hollingsworth had at least four blocks in each of the final four matches of the season to give her 104 blocks for the year, second most on the team. 

• Lola Blancher was second on the team in digs (255) and digs per set (1.9) as a freshman while also serving 49 total aces.