Final Stats

EVANSVILLE, Ind. - After dropping Monday's match against Drake to snap an 11-game win streak, the Loyola University Chicago volleyball team bounced back on Friday night with a sweep (25-14, 25-17, 25-15) of Evansville. The Ramblers outhit the Purple Aces .238 to -.052 to improve to 13-3 overall and 2-1 in Missouri Valley Conference play.

Brittany Brown led the Ramblers offensively, racking up 11 kills without committing a single error to post a .786 hitting clip. Maureen Carls was also a force at the net, recording a season-high seven blocks to go along with six kills.

"This is a very hard working group that is versatile and loves playing with one another," said head coach Chris Muscat. "I thought that showed above all else tonight. We executed a clean game plan and did en excellent job of taking advantage of some favorable situations."

"We came in focused and ready to bounce back from our loss against Drake," added sophomore Caroline Holt, who tallied a match-high 18 assists in the victory. "We executed our game plan very well and kept a balanced approach on offense. We also had great intensity on defense, which kept us able to run our offense effectively."

After trading points to begin set one, Loyola scored three unanswered, including a Brown kill and a solo block from Carls, to take a 9-5 lead and force an Evansville timeout. After a kill from Morgan Reardon, the Purple Aces rallied to score five unanswered points and cut the Loyola lead to one, but kills from Carls, Brown and Amanda Cushen helped up the lead back up to 16-11 and force Evansville to use its final timeout. The Ramblers then put together a four-point run behind kills from Cushen and Hansen, along with a Maciagowski-Hansen block, to increase the lead to 20-11. A trio of kills from Maciagowski, a Kathleen Vogel service ace and a double stuff from Carls and Maciagowski then closed out set one, 25-14, to give Loyola the overall 1-0 lead. The Ramblers outhit the Purple Aces .250 to -.136 in the first set, limiting Evansville to a mere four kills.

The Ramblers jumped out to a 10-7 lead to begin set two, as three straight Evansville errors forced the Purple Aces to call a timeout. Loyola then rallied to score six of the next seven points, including four kills from Brown, to up the score to 16-8. The Ramblers built on the lead behind kills from Cushen and Maciagowski before a five-point run upped the score to 24-10. However, Evansville fought off set-point five times to cut the Loyola lead to 24-15 and force the Ramblers to use a timeout. The Purple Aces scored twice more before a Carls kill ended set two, 25-17.

The two teams traded points to open set three before Loyola scored three unanswered on a Carls kill and a pair of Evansville errors to take a 9-6 lead. The Purple Aces then managed to pull within one point, but Maureen Carls rallied to score three straight, recording a kill and a solo stuff before combining with Brown for a block, to increase the Loyola lead to 15-11 and force an Evansville timeout. Kills from Reardon, Brown and Carls increased the lead to 19-12 before the Ramblers put together a four-point run, including a pair of kills from Brown and one apiece from Cushen and Jackie Kocken, to up the score to 23-14. The Ramblers held on to claim set three, 25-15, and record their ninth sweep of the season.

Loyola is back in action tomorrow with a matchup against conference for Southern Illinois, with the match airing living on ESPN3 at 7:00 p.m. CT.