Aug 30, 2013
Box Score
Toledo, Ohio - Freshman Morgan Reardon ripped 18 kills in her collegiate debut and sophomore Kathleen Vogel added 14 as Loyola held off Eastern Illinois, 3-2 (25-20, 23-25, 28-26, 14-25, 15-13), in the season opener for both teams at the UT Blue/Gold Volleyball Invitational in Toledo, Ohio.
"There were certainly peaks and valleys throughout the match but I am proud that we were able to deal with the pressures that come along with opening the season with a five-set match," said head coach Chris Muscat. "There were times that we played extremely well and others when we had to overcome some challenges and I thought we responded to those situations pretty well."
Loyola got off to a strong start as three kills from Reardon and a Kelly Feigh ace staked the Ramblers to an early 6-2 lead. Eastern Illinois managed to chip away, eventually catching Loyola at 11, but a kill and block from Olivia Akin helped LU reopen a three-point lead. The Panthers kept pushing and took their first lead of the match, 15-14, after a pair of Chelsea Lee kills. Two Vogel kills helped Loyola inch out to a 21-18 lead and an EIU error closed out the opening set.
Eastern Illinois jumped out to a 6-3 lead in the second set but a five-point Loyola scoring run later, highlighted by a kill and block by Maureen Carls, gave LU a 10-9 advantage. The teams battled back and forth the rest of the frame, with neither leading by more than two points. A Vogel kill gave the Ramblers a 14-12 edge but EIU managed to hang in there and eventually grabbed a two-point lead of its own, 22-20, on a Stephanie Arnold kill, and the Panthers were able to side-out the rest of the way, evening the match with a 25-23 win.
Trailing 10-8 in the third set, Loyola used kills from Reardon and Laura Purcell to rattle off five consecutive points to take a 13-10 lead. A Vogel kill later had the Ramblers in control with a 17-13 advantage but Eastern countered by scoring the next six points to snatch a 19-17 advantage. Loyola struggled to string points together and EIU earned a pair of set points at 24-22. However, Vogel came up big, racking up a kill and a solo block to take the set to extra points and, after erasing two more Panther chances, a Reardon kill, a block from Akin and Brittany Brown and an Akin kill gave LU a 28-26 victory and a 2-1 lead in the match.
The fourth set was all Eastern, as the Panthers scored 11 of the first 12 points and never looked back, sending the match to a fifth set with a 25-14 win. Loyola's block came up big early in the final set, as Libby Bresser notched a solo block and teamed first with Purcell and then Brown for a pair of stuffs to propel the Ramblers to a 6-2 lead. A Bresser kill made it an 8-4 game at the changeover but Eastern refused to go away, eventually drawing even at 11 after two Loyola errors. A Vogel kill stemmed the tide and Bresser followed with a kill and a block to give the Ramblers three match points. After seeing the first two go by the board, Brown came up with a kill to give Loyola the season-opening victory.
"I think it is very important that we won our first match," said Vogel. "It shows that even when we have adversity or struggles that we can still succeed and work together as a team."
Reardon led the way with her 18 kills while Vogel recorded three of her 14 put-aways in the fifth set. Purcell added nine kills while Bresser came up big when it mattered, notching three of her eight kills and four of her six blocks in the final frame. Brown doled out 48 assists to go with nine digs and three blocks while Stephanie Kinane added 20 digs from her libero spot.
Loyola closes out the day with a 6 p.m. match against host Toledo.
