Oct. 27, 2006

Box Score

CHICAGO - Dana VanDiggelen had a match-high 13 kills and Keily Zins added 12 as Loyola recovered from a sluggish start to knock off Youngstown State, 3-1 (25-30, 30-21, 30-14, 30-20), tonight at Alumni Gym. The Ramblers snap a three-match slide and improve to 12-13 (5-5 Horizon) while the Penguins slip to 9-18 (0-10) with the loss.

Loyola struggled to find a rhythm in game one, as errors and erratic hitting proved to be too much to overcome. In fact, after an Ebony Barbosa kill on the first point of the game, Youngstown State proceeded to score its next 11 points on service aces or Loyola errors en route to a 12-all tie. Two more Rambler errors helped the Penguins to a 16-12 lead and three straight LU errors later helped the visitors extend to a 24-17 advantage. Kills from Shelby Henriksen and Courtney Ashley keyed a late run on the service of Jennifer White that saw the Ramblers close to within two (24-22), but three straight Penguin points helped squelch the momentum and a Linzie Evans kill closed out the frame, 30-25. Loyola had a 16-11 edge in kills in the set but 12 hitting errors, two service errors and four Penguin aces were the difference.

The Ramblers found their feet early in game two, and two early kills from Melissa Craig keyed a 5-0 run that gave LU a 5-2 lead. A Penguin error moments later pushed the lead to five, 9-4, and Loyola began to slowly pull away. A Henriksen ace made it 17-10 and, after a brief Youngstown State rally saw it close within four, the Ramblers responded with four straight points, capped by an Ashley ace, to make it a 25-17 lead and VanDiggelen closed it out shortly thereafter. Loyola improved its efficiency, finishing with just five errors in the frame and holding the Penguins to a .048 (10-8-42) hitting percentage.

Game three was all Ramblers, as they went on a 20-6 run to turn a 6-5 lead into an insurmountable 26-11 bulge. Loyola reeled off four straight on the serve of Sarah Elmer to start and a Youngstown service error immediately gave LU the ball back, and White served up three more points to create some separation. A four-point run behind Zins put the game out of reach and a Craig kill sealed the 30-14 win, Loyola most lopsided win of the season. VanDiggelen led the charge with four kills as Loyola took advantage of 11 Penguin errors (8-11-33, -.091) to take control of the match.

Poised to finish the match, Loyola was the first to pull away in game four. Leading 9-8, Loyola was able to side-out on a service error and Elmer served up the next four points, including two blocks from Craig and Henriksen, to help the Ramblers build a 14-8 lead. Henriksen teamed with Zins at the net later to stretch the margin to 18-10 and two straight kills from Zins minutes later gave LU a 21-11 lead and LU cruised from there, with Zins hammering another kill, her sixth of the set, on match point.

VanDiggelen and Zins were the leaders of an attack which saw all six front-row players record at least seven kills. Craig finished with nine kills, Ashley (17 digs) and Elmer (11 digs, 41 assists) added eight while Henriksen added seven put-aways. Ann Deelo finished with a match-high 20 digs to close to within 77 of Megan Knightly's Horizon League record.

Loyola closes out the weekend tomorrow afternoon when it faces Cleveland State at Alumni Gym. First serve is scheduled for 4 p.m., following a pregame ceremony to honor Loyola's three seniors, Ashley, Deelo and Elmer.