Wolf Pack Volleyball goes 1-1 at Saturday’s home tri-match

Looking to bounce back from a 3-0 defeat at the hands of (RV) Mobile at home last night, the Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team returned to The Den on Saturday to host Faulkner University and Southern University at New Orleans in a tri-match.

The Wolf Pack were determined to get back on track following yesterday’s defeat – a loss that marked the first defeat for Loyola on its home court thus far this season (6-0 entering Friday’s event). Loyola started Saturday’s tri-match by taking the first set over Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) opponent Faulkner before dropping the next three-straight to the Eagles to fall 1-3 to kick off the afternoon. After Faulkner bounced SUNO in match two 3-0, the Wolf Pack (12-13, 2-7 SSAC) were able to collect a sweep over the Lady Knights to end the tri-match with a 1-1 record on the day.

MATCH ONE: FAULKNER 3 – LOYOLA 1

The opening set of the tri-match saw Loyola and Faulkner battle to eight ties throughout the duration. With the scored knotted at 22-22, a Eagles error paired with a kill from Natavia Mitchell (JR/Austin, Texas) would put the Wolf Pack up 24-22 and just one point away from victory. Faulkner’s Kirsten Carter collected a kill to make the score 24-23 before a ball handling error by the Eagles’ Tori Marchant would hand Loyola the 25-23 win to start the match.

Set two was another close affair in which both teams would exchange leads until the frame halted at 25-25. A Faulkner ace put the visitors up 26-25 before Maddie Huekels (JR/Dyer, Ind.) found Malea Howie (SO/Greenwood, Ind.) for a kill to square the set up at 26-26.  With the score knotted at 26 all, the set ended with two errors in favor of Faulkner to hand the Eagles to 28-26 victory to square the match at 1-1.

It was all Eagles in the third set as the visitors scored the first point of the frame and never looked back.  Up 20-11, Faulkner ended the set on a 5-2 spurt to clinch the third stanza 25-13 to go up 2-1 in the match.

Set four proved to be another dominating performance by Faulkner, with this set marking the second-straight that the visitors never relinquished the lead.  Down 20-24 late, back-to-back Loyola errors would hand the Eagles to 25-20 victory in the frame 3-1 win in the match.

Allison Hartmann (JR/Slidell, La.) led Loyola with 11 kills while Sunni Blanchard (SO/Pierre Part, La.)’s season-high 28 assists paced the Wolf Pack offense in match one. Defensively, Helene Masone (FR/Destin, Fla.) had a team-best 16 digs and Adelida Obioha (FR/New Orleans, La.) collected four total blocks to go along with eight kills in the loss.

Madelyn Cheatham’s 15 kills led three Eagles players with double-digit kills and Katie Musser powered the Faulkner offense with an impressive 44 helpers in the win.

MATCH TWO: LOYOLA 3 – SUNO 0

The opening set in match three proved closer than some might have thought as the teams traded the lead early on until the scoreboard read 11-11.  With the score tied, Loyola paired two SUNO errors with kills from Beatriz Agosto(SO/Miami, Fla.) and Mitchell to take the slim 15-11 advantage to start the frame. The Wolf Pack managed to build a six-point cushion at 22-16 before a service error and back-to-back aces from Allison Hartmann sealed the opener for the home team, 25-17.

With the score tied at 15-15 in set two, the Wolf Pack rattled off seven-unanswered points to race out to the 22-15 advantage.  Loyola was able to maintain the cushion for the duration of the set until back-to-back errors by the Lady Knights’ Tiffany Hector gave Loyola the 25-17 victory in the second frame.

The third set belonged to Loyola as the home squad was able to take the lead right off the bat and never look back. Up 23-18, back-to-back kills from Malea Howie paired with a kill by Tylar Beckham (SO/New Orleans, La.) would secure the clean sweep for the Wolf Pack, 3-0.

Agosto paced the Loyola offense with 11 kills off the bench while Huekels and Sunni Blanchard combined for 33 of the Wolf Pack’s 36 total assists.

Tiffany Hector’s nine kills were tops on SUNO and Marija Stojiljkovic 17 assists were a team-high for the Lady Knights in the loss.

Loyola returns to The Den on Tuesday, October 17, when the squad welcomes NCAA DII Spring Hill College to campus for a match at 6:00 p.m.