Oct. 25, 2008
Final Stats
CHICAGO - Sophomore Katie Johnson slammed 16 kills to help Loyola sweep UIC, 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-18), tonight in a loud and boisterous Alumni Gym. The win gives the Ramblers (16-7, 6-5 Horizon) a sweep of the season series and runs their Alumni Gym winning streak to 15 over their crosstown rival. UIC drops to 11-13 (4-7) with the loss.
"I think we took a big step forward tonight with how we finished," said head coach Marcie Wolbeck. "We won the first two sets at their place earlier this season and had to rally to win in five. I was proud of how we pulled together and were able to put it away tonight."
UIC jumped out to an early 8-5 lead in the opening set as Loyola missed four of its first five serves. Three straight Flames errors, the last a block from Colleen Francis and Mindy Rees, pulled the Ramblers even at 8-all and kills later from Sarah Singer and Dana VanDiggelen gave LU its first lead at 12-11. UIC responded by scoring the next three points to regain the lead and the teams were tied three more times to get to 19-19. Johnson took over from there, scoring Loyola's last six points on six kills, including three straight to give LU some separation, to give the Ramblers the opening set.
An early 4-0 run, capped by a Singer ace, gave the Ramblers an early lead in the second set. A UIC error helped push the lead to 12-8 before the visitors began to chip away. They pulled within one on two different occasions before back-to-back Mallory Curran kills helped the Ramblers extend to a 19-14 advantage. The lead was still five (21-16) after a UIC ball-handling error before the Flames rallied to pull within one at 23-22 on a Katerina Hanackova kill. The teams traded points to 24-23 before VanDiggelen found the floor to give LU a 25-23 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.
With the opportunity to close out the match, Loyola put UIC on its heels early in the third set, racing out to leads of 4-0 and 13-4 in the early stages. Johnson had a pair of kills and teamed with Curran on a block in the opening spurt. UIC slowly battled back and three Christin Hunt kills helped the Flames draw within three, 15-12. Singer responded with two big kills to boost the lead back to five but UIC had one last rally, using two LU errors to get within 20-17. However, VanDiggelen came up big down the stretch, putting down two key kills as the Ramblers rattled off four of the last five points to secure the win.
Johnson's 16 kills were one short of her career high set earlier this season. Singer added 12 kills of her own and VanDiggelen finished with seven kills and nine digs as Loyola's offense outhit the Flames .255-.140 for the match.
Alyse Serritella had a match-high 14 digs to lead LU's defense.
Loyola returns to action on Tuesday night when it travels to Macomb, Ill. to face Western Illinois in its final non-conference match of the season. The Ramblers then travel to Dayton for a key Horizon League match on Halloween at Wright State.
