Oct. 7, 2008
Final Stats
Milwaukee, Wis. - For the second consecutive night, Loyola found the road in the Horizon League to be a bumpy one as Milwaukee rallied to win the final three sets in a 3-1 (18-25, 25-22, 25-14, 25-23) win over the Ramblers at the Klotsche Center. Loyola drops to 13-5 (3-3 Horizon) with its second straight loss while the Panthers up their mark to 11-5 (4-1).
"I was more impressed with our focus and intensity tonight than I was last night," said head coach Marcie Wolbeck. "We really showed some fight and competed much better. That said, we just could not get over the hump at the end of the second and fourth set and, unfortunately, that cost us the match."
Loyola fell behind early in the opening set, trailing by scores of 4-1 and 8-4 before finally settling in. The Ramblers used a 9-2 scoring run, highlighted by two kills and an ace from Sarah Singer, to grab a 13-10 lead but UWM rallied to pull even at 14 on a Mary Beth O'Brien block. Consecutive kills from Katie Johnson gave LU the lead back and they would not relinquish it the rest of the way, rattling off the final six points of the set to grab the early lead in the match. Loyola came out hot, hitting .273 with just four errors (13-4-33) in the frame while forcing UWM into eight errors, four of which came in the set-ending spurt.
The second set featured five ties to get to 8-all before consecutive Dana VanDiggelen put-aways helped LU inch out to an 11-8 lead. UWM caught the Ramblers at 15 and the teams essentially alternated points to 22-all before the hosts took over. An O'Brien kill gave them a 23-22 lead and a LU error took the Panthers to set point, where a block from O'Brien and Maddie Sueppel closed out the frame. The set took on the same look as all three sets from last night in Green Bay, where LU struggled down the stretch.
Milwaukee used an 8-2 run to take control of the third set and Loyola was forced to play from behind most of the fourth set. A UWM service error and a hitting error helped the Ramblers get within a pair (17-15) but a Kellye Zaporski ace later gave the Panthers a seemingly comfortable 21-17 lead. However, Loyola showed its fight, rallying to within a point (22-21) after kills from Singer and Francis and a Lauren Ditscheit service ace. However, Loyola could not get over the hump down the stretch and Milwaukee was able to side-out to close out the match.
Francis had a terrific match, finishing with a team-high 16 points from 12 kills and eight block assists. Singer added a double-double of 11 kills and 11 digs while Johnson (nine kills, 11 digs) and VanDiggelen (eight kills, seven blocks) also contributed. Becky Peters had a match-high 15 kills to lead Milwaukee.
Loyola continues its long week on the road this weekend with a Saturday match at Butler.
