Final Stats

DES MOINES, Iowa -- With a 3-1 (30-32, 25-14, 25-20, 25-16) victory over Drake on Friday night, the Loyola University Chicago volleyball team improved its overall record to 20-10, marking the program's first 20-win season since 2004. Maureen Carls led the Rambler offense, matching her career-high of 19 kills on a .444 clip, while Morgan Reardon and Sami Hansen added 13 kills apiece. Maddy Moser led a defense that held the Bulldogs to a .128 hitting percentage as she recorded a career-high 30 digs, which is tied for the most digs in a four-set match in the Valley this season, while Reardon added a season-high 25.

"We did a great job of responding and finding a rhythm to the match as it went on," said head coach Chris Muscat. Maureen and Sami played big and Maddy had a great defensive nigh for us."

"As a team I think we had a really good defensive night," added Maddy Moser. "We focused on defense a lot in practice this week and applied it in the game tonight. Everyone was working hard and our offense took advantage of it."

The two teams traded points to begin set one until Drake scored three unanswered to take an 8-4 lead, forcing a Loyola timeout. The Ramblers then rallied to score six of the next eight points out of the timeout and tie the set at 10-10, and the two teams continued to battle back-and-forth until a three-point Drake run gave the Bulldogs a 19-16 lead, forcing Loyola to use its final timeout. The Ramblers then scored three straight points, led by kills from Carls and Gabi Maciagowski, along with a Hansen-Maciagowski block, to tie the set at 19-19. After trading points, Loyola scored back-to-back on a Drake error and a Reardon kill to take a 24-23 lead, forcing a Bulldog timeout. The two teams continued to battle back-and-forth, with Reardon and Maciagowski recording kills for the Ramblers, until Drake scored back-to-back to take set one, 32-30.

Loyola jumped out to an early 7-4 lead to open set two, led by kills from Carls and Caroline Holt and a double-stuff from Maciagowski and Hansen, to force a Drake timeout. After a pair of Drake kills, the Ramblers scored six straight points, including a trio of kills from Reardon and a Carls service ace, to up the lead to 13-5 and force the Bulldogs to use their final timeout. A five-point Rambler run, led by kills from Carls and Holt and a Maciagowski-Carls block, then gave Loyola a 20-9 lead, and the Ramblers held on to claim set two, 25-14, after outhitting the Bulldogs .438 to .132

After trading points to begin set three, Loyola scored four unanswered behind kills from Carls and Amanda Cushen to take a 16-13 lead. Loyola maintained the steady lead behind a handful of Bulldog errors and a pair of points from Carls, as the senior fired a kill and teamed up with Holt for a block to up the score to 21-17. A trio of kills from Hansen, along with one from Maciagowski, then ended set three, 25-20, to give the Ramblers an overall 2-1 lead.

The Ramblers took an early 7-3 lead to open set four, led by kills from Carls, Cushen and Reardon, to force a Drake timeout. Loyola then scored seven of the next 10 points, including kills from Reardon, Carls and Hansen, as well as a Reardon service ace and a Maciagowski-Hansen block, to increase the score to 14-6 and force the Bulldogs to use their final timeout. Drake slowly chipped away at the lead and pulled to within three points, but a trio of kills from Carls and a Bulldog error upped the Loyola lead to 19-12, and the Ramblers held on to win set four, 25-16.

Loyola plays its final match of the regular season tomorrow night at Northern Iowa, who currently ranks 13th in the nation in average home attendance.