March 30, 2007
Box Score
CHICAGO - Freshman outside hitter Krisjanis Berzins led the way with 12 attacks on only 13 swings to help the No. 14 Loyola University Chicago men's volleyball team cruise to a 3-0 sweep (30-24, 30-23 30-20) of Rutgers-Newark on Friday night at Alumni Gym.
Loyola (19-6, 6-4 MIVA Shondell/Dunlap) improved to 7-0 in non-conference matches in Alumni Gym thanks to a .455 hitting percentage, converting 51 kills on 77 attempts with only 16 errors while Rutgers-Newark could only manage a .203 mark (35-19-79). Four Ramblers hit above .500 on the attack with senior setter Brian Guntli giving out 37 assists.
Berzins tied for the seventh-highest hitting percentage in a match (with a minimum of 10 attempts) in school history by taking 13 attempts and committing only one error. This is the first match that Berzins has tied or led the Ramblers in kills while junior opposite hitter Ian Anderson had 12 kills to tie or lead the team for the 17th match this season.
The Ramblers out-blocked the Scarlet Raiders 9-5. Senior middle blocker James Grunst led the charge up front with a team-high six blocks while Anderson chipped in four and Joe Guntli and Nick Lamoureux added two apiece. Loyola got solid efforts from different sources in the back row as four different Ramblers (Nathan Gustus, Anderson, Joe Guntli and Zach Bailey) tied for team-high honors with four digs apiece.
Loyola took control early in the match by taking a 13-7 lead in game one thanks to five blocks by the Guntli brothers before closing the game with a block by Joe Guntli and Lamoureux.
Rutgers-Newark jumped out to a 9-6 lead early in game two before a 5-0 Loyola run tied the action at 12. The teams battled to a 20-20 standoff before another 5-0 Rambler run gave LU control of the match.
Game three mirrored game two with Rutgers-Newark gaining a slight 11-10 edge before the match became tied at 15. From this point, the Ramblers took over with a 4-0 run to put the game out of reach for the Scarlet Raiders.
Rutgers-Newark (2-22, 0-11 EIVA Tait) was led by Eric Honsberger who had a match-high 21 kills on 31 attempts (21-2-31) for a team-high .613 hitting clip. Honsberger also tied for match-high honors with four digs. Setter Peter Kolinsky dished out 30 assists and Clinton Haugan was the Scarlet Raiders with two blocks.
The Ramblers resume MIVA Shondell/Dunlap Division play against No. 7 Ohio State at 7 p.m. tomorrow in Alumni Gym.
