Box Score

QUINCY - After a nine-day break from competition, the Loyola University Chicago men's volleyball team returned to action with a three-set sweep (25-21, 25-19, 32-30) of Quincy on Friday night. Thomas Jaeschke led the Ramblers with 13 kills, while Ben Plaisted and Trevor Novotny added 10 and nine, respectively. Peter Hutz set career-highs in two categories, recording 11 digs and two service aces while adding a match-high 40 kills.

The Ramblers jumped out to a 6-2 lead to begin the first set after Jeff Jendryk fired back-to-back kills. After trading points, the Hawks fired two straight kills to pull within two, but Loyola scored three of the next four behind a pair of Quincy errors and a kill by Nicholas Olson to take a 15-11 lead. The two teams battled back-and-forth until the Hawks scored thee unanswered to cut the Rambler lead to 18-17 and force a Loyola timeout. After giving up a point out of the timeout, Loyola scored three straight, including kills from Jaeschke and Novotny, to increase the lead to 21-18. After a Peter Hutz service ace, the teams traded points until a Jendryk kill ended the set, 25-21.

The second set began with the two teams trading points until three straight Quincy errors gave Loyola an 8-5 lead. Quincy responded with a kill, but the Ramblers put together another 3-0 run behind back-to-back points from Olson, a block and a kill, followed by a service ace from Hutz to increase the lead to 11-6. The Hawks rallied to pull within two points, but an Olson kill followed by a shared block with Jaeschke made the score 19-15. From there, the Ramblers scored six of the next ten points behind kills from Plaisted, Jaeschke and Novotny to claim set two, 25-19.

Quincy took its first lead of the match in set three, scoring three unanswered points to take a 6-3 lead and force a Loyola timeout. The Ramblers slowly chipped away at the lead before back-to-back points, a service ace from Jaeschke and a Novotny kill, pulled them to within two points, but the Hawks responded by scoring three of the next four to increase the lead to 14-10. The teams battled back-and-forth until Plaisted and Jaeschke fired back-to-back kills to cut the Quincy lead to 19-17. After a Plaisted kill, a Quincy error and two straight kills from Jendryk tied the set at 21-21. The two teams traded points until Trevor Novotny scored two straight, a kill and a service ace, to give Loyola a 29-28 lead and force a Quincy timeout. Novotny continued to carry the team out of the timeout, firing two more kills to give the Ramblers the 32-30 third-set victory.

The Ramblers are back in action tomorrow with a matchup at Lindenwood beginning at 7:00 p.m.