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CHICAGO - The Loyola University Chicago men's volleyball team improved to 11-0 after defeating Penn State in four sets (25-16, 25-19, 20-25, 25-19) on Saturday night. Ben Plaisted led the Ramblers with a match-high 14 kills while Thomas Jaeschke and Cody Caldwell added 13 and 12, respectively.

The Ramblers dominated the first set, hitting .308 while holding the Nittany Lions to a mere -.077. After falling behind 6-4 to begin the set, Loyola bounced back and scored six of the next seven points to take a 10-7 lead and force a Penn State timeout. The Ramblers rallied out of the timeout, scoring four unanswered points behind a block from Jeff Jendryk and Peter Hutz, a Caldwell kill and back-to-back service aces from Plaisted to increase the lead to 14-7. The Ramblers maintained a steady lead behind kills from Jaeschke, Owen McAndrews and Caldwell before ending the set with a 5-0 run. After two kills from Plaisted and one from Caldwell, Jendryk and Caldwell blocked back-to-back Nittany Lion attacks to end the set at 25-16, giving Loyola the 1-0 lead.

Penn State opened the second set with a 4-1 lead, but the Ramblers responded with four unanswered points, including two kills from Jaeschke, to take a 5-4 lead. The teams traded points until Loyola put together a 4-0 run behind a pair of Penn State errors and kills from Jendryk and Caldwell to increase the lead to 13-8, forcing a Nittany Lion timeout. The Ramblers stormed out of the timeout by scoring four of the next five points, including kills from Caldwell, Jaeschke and Plaisted, to make the score 17-9. The two teams battled back-and-forth to end the set, with Jendryk racking up three kills before a kill from Jaeschke ended the set at 25-19. The Ramblers tallied a match-high .522 hitting percentage in the second set while limiting the Nittany Lions to .074.

The Ramblers jumped out to a 10-7 lead to begin the third set, led by kills from Caldwell, McAndrews and Plaisted, as well as a Jaeschke service ace, but the Nittany Lions responded with a 4-0 run to take the lead and force a Loyola timeout. Penn State was able to run up the score to 21-16 before a pair of freshmen cut the lead to two, as Plaisted fired a kill and Jendryk recorded back-to-back blocks to force a Nittany Lion timeout. However, Penn State was able to hold off the Ramblers and ultimately win the set, 25-20.

Penn State continued its roll into the fourth set, taking an 8-5 lead to force a Loyola timeout. The Ramblers were able to score two points out of the timeout, a Jaeschke kill and a Penn State error, before the Nittany Lions put together a 4-0 run to take the 12-7 lead and force another Loyola timeout. Jendryk led the Ramblers out of the timeout, racking up three kills, before back-to-back blocks from Owen McAndrews tied the set at 14-14. Loyola then gave up one point before scoring another four unanswered, led by a Plaisted kill and two blocks from Jaeschke and McAndrews, to take an 18-15 lead and force a Penn State timeout. The Ramblers maintained the steady lead behind service aces from Hutz and Jaeschke, along with a Plaisted kill, before back-to-back kills from McAndrews and Caldwell increased the lead to 23-17. Loyola then ended the set with kills from Plaisted and Jendryk to win it 25-19 and claim the 3-1 victory.

Loyola continues its current homestand with a pair of conference matchups next weekend. The Ramblers will take on Quincy on Thursday, Feb. 26 before returning to Gentile Arena two days later to face Lindenwood.

Check out what head coach Shane Davis and junior Thomas Jaeschke have to say about the victory below: