Sept. 18, 2007

Final Stats

CHICAGO - Freshman Mallory Curran had a match-high 13 kills and Loyola (3-9) held Chicago State to a -.055 hitting percentage for the match en route to a 3-0 (30-22, 30-15, 30-16) sweep of the Cougars tonight at Aumni Gym. The win snaps Loyola's six-match losing streak and sends Chicago State to its 13th loss in 14 matches.

"It was nice to finally get a win at home as Dana (VanDiggelen) carried us early and Mallory helped us finish strong," said head coach Marcie Bomhack. "We have been looking for someone to step up and finish games for us and Mal did an excellent job of that tonight. Hopefully we can use this win as a stepping stone for the weekend."

After a slow start that saw four hitting errors contribute to an early 6-1 deficit, Loyola rebounded strong behind VanDiggelen. She had three kills in a 6-0 run that gave LU the lead but the erratic hitting continued and Chicago State was able to hang around through the midway portion of the game. Lauren Ditscheit capped a 5-0 run with a service ace to give Loyola an 18-14 lead and the Ramblers were able to keep the visitors at bay until another late run, again on the service of Ditscheit, closed out the game one win.

Kills from Curran and Keily Zins sandwiched a VanDiggelen ace as Loyola jumped out to the early lead in game two. A 5-0 moments later on Curran's serve helped the Ramblers open up a 13-5 lead and another VanDiggelen ace later pushed the lead to 10 (20-10). Loyola did not let up, as Katie Johnson hammered down a pair of kills in another LU spurt to make it 26-12 and it was Johnson again who found room on game point to close out a 30-15 win and give Loyola a 2-0 lead in the match.

The Ramblers took care of business early in game three, as a pair of Jen White aces coupled with five CSU errors gave the hosts an 8-1 lead. While Chicago State took advantage of sloppy hitting to eventually close within two (16-14), Loyola had too much firepower, mainly in the form of Curran. The freshman took over from that point, slamming five kills the rest of the way as a 10-point run on VanDiggelen's serve put the match out of reach.

Curran powered down eight of her 13 kills in the final frame, nearly tripling Chicago State's team output (three kills) in the final set. VanDiggelen, in contrast, had seven of her nine kills in the opening game and added 14 digs and five blocks in another solid performance. Johnson added some punch on the outside as well, finishing with a career-high nine kills on a .333 efficiency (9-2-21). Zins pitched in with eight kills and 10 digs while Ditscheit handed out 33 assists and tied for team-high honors with 14 digs.

Loyola returns to the court this Saturday afternoon (Sept. 22) when it travels to take on Valparaiso at 4 p.m.