Final Stats

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - The Loyola University Chicago volleyball team dropped its regular season finale on Saturday night, falling to Northern Iowa, 3-1 (25-19, 25-27, 24-26, 18-25). Morgan Reardon led the Ramblers with 14 kills, while Amanda Cushen and Sami Hansen added 13 and 10, respectively. With the loss, Loyola ends the regular season with an overall record of 20-11, marking the program's first 20-win season since 2004. In addition, Loyola's nine conference wins are the most since joining the Missouri Valley Conference in 2013.

"We executed at a high level and were able to establish leads early," said head coach Chris Muscat. "This was a weekend where we saw some growth in our players. We are excited to be representing Loyola in the MVC Tournament next week."

Loyola raced out to an early 5-2 lead to begin set one, led by a trio of kills from Amanda Cushen, one from Maureen Carls and an Alex Nunez service ace, to force a UNI timeout. The Ramblers continued to rally, scoring four of the next five points to up the lead to 9-3 and force the Panthers to use their final timeout. Loyola held on to the steady lead behind kills from Reardon, Gabi Maciagowski and Cushen until back-to-back UNI kills cut the Rambler lead to 15-11, forcing a timeout. Cushen and Reardon each fired a kill out of the timeout, and the teams then battled back-and-forth until Sami Hansen led a four-point Rambler run, firing a kill and combining with Reardon and Maciagowski for a pair of blocks, to up the score to 22-14. The Ramblers then went on to claim set one, 25-19, after outhitting the Panthers .316 to .154.

The second set began with the teams trading points until UNI scored four of six to take a 15-12 lead, forcing a Loyola timeout. The Ramblers managed to tie the set at 17-17 after scoring three unanswered points, as Cushen fired a kill before teaming up with Hansen for a block, forcing UNI to call a timeout. After the Panthers managed to up the score to 23-21, the Ramblers scored three straight points, including a Hansen kill and a Reardon block, to reach set point, but UNI rallied to score four of the final five points and claim set two, 27-25.

The Ramblers took a 6-2 lead to begin set three, led by kills from Hansen, Cushen and Reardon, along with a pair of blocks from Maciagowski, Carls and Cushen. UNI responded by scoring five of the next seven points to pull within one, but back-to-back points from Cushen and Kinane upped the lead to 13-9, forcing a Panther timeout. Caroline Holt led Loyola out of the timeout, firing a kill before combining with Carls for a block, and the Ramblers continued to hold on to the lead, eventually upping the score to 20-14 and forcing a UNI timeout. However, the Panthers then rallied to score seven of the next nine points to cut the Loyola lead to one and force a Rambler timeout. The teams then battled back-and-forth until UNI scored three unanswered points to end set three, 26-24, and take a 2-1 overall lead.

UNI opened set four by scoring four of the first five points, but a Cushen kill and a pair of Panther errors then tied the set at 4-4. The two teams then battled back-and-forth, with Hansen, Reardon and Carls recording kills for the Ramblers, until the Panthers scored seven of the next nine points to take a 17-12 lead, forcing Loyola to use both timeouts during the stretch. A three-point Rambler run, including a Hansen kill and a block from Carls, cut the lead to 20-16 and forced a UNI timeout, but the Panthers went on to take set four, 25-18, to claim the overall victory.

Loyola has captured its first ever MVC Volleyball Championship berth and will be the No. 6 seed at the tournament. The Ramblers will take on host No. 3 Missouri State in the quarterfinals, set for a 7:30 p.m. start on Thursday, Nov. 26, with the winner advancing to take on No. 2 Southern Illinois the following night.