Aug. 31, 2007
Box Score
Charleston, Ill. - Memphis rode a high-powered offense to a 3-0 (30-21, 30-18, 30-25) sweep of Loyola this afternoon on the first day of the EIU/Pepsi Invitational in Charleston, Ill. Loyola slumps to 1-3 with the loss while Memphis improves to 2-3 with the win.
"For some reason, we just came out extremely flat today," said head coach Marcie Bomhack. "We got down by a couple of points early and it started to snowball and we could not stop their momentum. After losing earlier in the day (to Eastern Illinois in five games), we knew Memphis would come out on a mission and they certainly did that. I think we will come out with more fire tomorrow morning and, hopefully, gain some momentum of our own to carry into tomorrow night's match."
The Tigers took it to the Ramblers from the opening serve, hitting .337 for the match. Loyola's erratic hitting (14 kills but 11 hitting errors) proved to be the difference in game one but the Ramblers were able to regroup a little bit in game two. Continuing an alarming trend from the early portion of the season, Loyola dug itself early holes (5-0 and 7-2 in game two. The Ramblers battled back behind two Dana VanDiggelen kills and another from Keily Zins to pull within 10-8 and a Maria Schmitt ace later in the frame drew LU within 17-15. However, a service error followed and kickstarted a 13-3 Memphis burst to put the game away.
Game three was close throughout but, again, it was Memphis playing from the lead. An Ashley Liford ace gave the Tigers a 9-6 lead and consecutive kills later from Shelby Burton extended the lead to five, 13-8. Loyola's deficit grew to eight (20-12) before the Ramblers mounted a run on the service of Katie Johnson, reeling off five straight points to get within 20-17. Kills from Sarah Singer and VanDiggelen got LU a little closer (21-19) and another Singer put-away later made it a one-point game. However, another service error squelched the Rambler momentum and the Tigers were able to close out the sweep.
VanDiggelen led the way for Loyola with eight kills while Singer, who pounded down a career-best 24 kills on Tuesday against Western Michigan, totaled seven kills. Johnson, who was seeing her first collegiate action in game three, racked up five kills in a sterling debut performance.
Loyola wraps up tournament play tomorrow with a pair of matches. The Ramblers open the day with a 10 a.m. matinee against Iona before taking on host Eastern Illinois in the nightcap at 7 p.m.
