Loyola readies for 2026 SSAC Volleyball Championship

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The 2026 Southern States Athletic Conference Volleyball Championship begins this week, and the Loyola Wolf Pack will begin the tournament early Thursday morning as the second overall seed. 

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Taking place from Nov. 12-14, this year's tournament will involve all 12 teams in the conference competing at the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl. The teams will be divided into four pools of three teams each, with the winner of each pool advancing to a 5:30 p.m. semifinal on Friday. The championship is scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m.
 

The No. 2 seed Wolf Pack will be the top team in Pool B, joined by No. 7 seed Blue Mountain and No. 11 seed Andrew College. Loyola will play at 9 a.m. on each of the first two days of the tournament, facing Andrew on Thursday and Blue Mountain on Friday. Pool C includes No. 3 seed Life, No. 6 seed Tennessee Southern, and No. 10 seed Faulkner. If Loyola were to advance out of Pool B, it would play the winner of Pool C in Friday's semifinal. 
 

The Wolf Pack will head into the competition with the conference's best record at 14-2 under first-year head coach Jenna Ibieta. Mobile, which leads Pool A as the top seed, went 13-3 but won the SSAC regular season title due to a new points system for the conference standings. 
 

Like last year's tournament-winning team, Isis Harink and Alexa Palmer are the team leaders in kills. Harink has 271 kills this season, averaging 2.5 kills per set with a .294 hitting percentage. Palmer is the team's leader in kills per set, averaging a career-best 2.6 kills per set with a hitting percentage of .260. 
 

Freshman Caroline McKinney's strong start to the season still has her at third on the team in total kills (189) and kills per set (2.2), while graduate student Mel Beachnau's strong finish to the year has her fourth on the team with 179 kills and 2.0 kills per set. Both are hitting around .220 this season. 
 

Tyler Alcorn has averaged 1.9 kills per set while ranking second in the SSAC in hitting percentage (.321). Clarissa Dupree has become a dual threat, averaging 1.8 kills and 1.7 digs per set. 
 

Setter Ellie Connor is averaging a career-best 5.2 assists and 1.7 digs per set per set. Belén Puche Laguna is averaging over 4.0 assists per set for the third year in a row, and Loyola has also gotten contributions from freshman Ava Labat has averaged 3.6 assists per set across 25 matches. 
 

Defensively, Lola Blancher leads the SSAC in digs with 536 at 4.8 digs per set, and Harink's 126 blocks also lead the conference. Olivia Smith also ranks in the top 15 in the conference in total digs with 274, while Alcorn is ninth in the conference in total blocks with 79. Harink and Alcorn each average 1.1 blocks per set, which puts them both in the top five in the conference in that category. 
 

Loyola is seeking its second straight conference title after winning the program's first SSAC tournament championship last season. The team would also earn an automatic berth in the NAIA National Championship.
 

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