Nov. 17, 2006
Box Score
Dayton, Ohio - Senior libero Ann Deelo became the Horizon League's all-time digs leader but sixth-seeded Loyola never recovered from letting the opening game slip through its grasp in a 3-0 (30-28, 30-17, 30-21) loss to third-seeded Cleveland State this morning in a Horizon League Quarterfinal match at Wright State's McLin Gymnasium. The Ramblers, who lost in the quarterfinals for the first time since the 1992 season, end their year with a 14-16 mark while the Vikings improve to 19-8 and advance to tomorrow's semifinals.
Loyola started out hot, taking it to the Vikings in game one. Trailing 6-4, the Ramblers reeled off five straight points and nine of the next 10 to grab a 13-7 lead. Two Keily Zins service aces and some erratic Cleveland State hitting contributed to the spurt but consecutive Rambler hitting errors helped the Vikings regain their feet and pull within three, 13-10. Loyola continued to push forward and back-to-back kills from VanDiggelen pushed the lead back to five (20-15) heading into the late stages. However, Cleveland State slowly began to chip away and a run of four points later actually gave the Vikings a 26-25 lead and the teams traded points to 27-all after a Sarah Elmer kill. A Liz Fazio kill allowed CSU to side-out and libero Jordan Bateman delivered the biggest play of the frame, diving to dig a Rambler attack and seeing her effort go over the net into open space in the back corner to push Cleveland State to game point. The Ramblers erased the first game point courtesy of a Melissa Craig kill and had a chance to send the game to extra points but Courtney Ashley hit just long to give Cleveland State a 30-28 win.
Games two and three followed similar blueprints, as Cleveland State was able to build a lead in the middle portions of each set. Three Zins kills early in game two helped the Ramblers to an early 7-5 lead but it proved to be short-lived, as a pair of errors helped the Vikings rally to take a 9-7 lead. Loyola's offense struggled to find holes and CSU was able to slowly open its lead. A Kathryn Langheld kill pulled the Ramblers within 19-14 before a 6-0 spurt put the game out of reach. A couple of Craig kills early in game three helped Loyola stay close but the Ramblers were never able to string points together and an 8-0 Vikings spurt on the service of Mel Snyder put them in a 16-8 hole. A Van Diggelen kill and a pair of Cleveland State errors later in the frame made it 22-15 but the Ramblers would get no closer the rest of the way.
After hitting a respectable .208 in game one, the Ramblers hit a paltry -.055 over the final two games, mustering just 17 kills against 21 hitting errors.
Zins, Elmer and Ashley each had six kills to lead Loyola. Despite tying her season-low with nine digs, Deelo pushed her career total to 1,742 digs to break Megan Knightly's previous Horizon League record of 1,737 digs.
