Final Stats | Highlights

CHICAGO, Ill. -- After dropping a five-set heartbreaker to Southern Illinois on Friday, the Loyola University Chicago volleyball team bounced back with a 3-1 (25-13, 25-21, 25-18, 25-13) victory over Evansville on Saturday night. Maureen Carls led the Ramblers with a season-high 14 kills, committing just two errors to post a match-high .632 hitting clip, while Amanda Cushen added 12. Sephanie Kinane and Sami Hansen led a Rambler defense that held the Purple Aces to a .108 clip, as Kinane tallied 22 digs and Hansen recorded a team-high five blocks.

The Ramblers raced out to a 9-3 lead to begin set one, led by kills from Carls and Gabi Maciagowski, as well as a service aces from Kinane, Morgan Reardon and Maddy Moser. Loyola continued to rally out of the timeout, scoring four straight points behind kills from Carls and Cushen to up the score to 13-3. The Ramblers held on to the steady lead, eventually increasing the score to 18-8 behind back-to-back kills from Reardon and Hansen to force an Evansville timeout. Loyola carried the momentum out of the timeout to score four straight points, including a Reardon service ace and blocks from Cushen, Hansen and Haley Hoffman, to up the lead to 22-8 before going on to claim set one, 25-13. Loyola outhit Evansville .323 to .000 in the first set, with eight different Ramblers recording kills.

Loyola jumped out to a 6-1 lead to begin set one, with a Cushen kill capping a four-point run to force an Evansville timeout. The Ramblers rallied out of the timeout, scoring three of the next four points, but the Purple Aces responded with a run of their own to cut the Loyola lead to 9-5. Evansville continued to chip away at the lead, eventually pulling to within one point, but the Ramblers scored four unanswered on a trio of errors and a Hansen/Maciagowski block to make the score 18-13 and force an Aces timeout. Evansville then scored the next six points, including four kills, to take a 19-18 lead, but a kill from Caroline Holt then tied the set. Evansville went on to score six of the last eight points to take set two, 25-21, and tie the match at one set apiece.

The third set began with Loyola taking an early 11-6 lead behind kills from Reardon, Cushen, Carls and Holt, but Evansville responded with a three-point run to pull within two. Kills from Carls and Cushen upped the score to 17-13 before Reardon fired three kills to up the Rambler lead to 21-16, forcing an Evansville timeout. Loyola then rallied to score five of the final seven points of the set to take it, 25-18, and reclaim the lead. The Ramblers recorded a match-high hitting percentage of .351 in the third set, led by a combined 10 kills from Reardon and Carls.

After trading points to begin set four, Loyola scored four unanswered, including a pair of kills from Carls and one from Reardon, to take an 8-4 lead and force an Evansville timeout. After an Alex Nunez service ace, the Ramblers scored five straight points, including kills from Cushen and Hansen, a Reardon service ace and a solo block from Hansen, to up the lead to 21-7. Loyola held on to claim set four, 25-13, behind points from Carls, Moser and Jackie Kocken.