Final Stats

ITHACA, N.Y. - The Loyola University Chicago volleyball team increased its winning streak to eight games on Friday with a 3-1 (25-20, 17-25, 25-17, 25-21) victory over Seton Hall as part of the Cornell Invitational. With the win, the Ramblers improve to 9-2 on the season and currently ride the longest win streak since 2008, when the team opened the season with an 8-0 record. Amanda Cushen led the squad with 12 kills, while Morgan Reardon and Maureen Carls added 11 and eight, respectively.

After trading points to begin set one, Loyola scored four unanswered, including back-to-back service aces from Carls, to take an 8-4 lead. After kills from Sami Hansen and Reardon, Loyola scored four of the next five points behind blocks from Reardon and Amanda Cushen, as well as a Carls kill, to up the lead to 16-11 and force a Seton Hall timeout. The Ramblers then rallied out of the timeout behind three Cushen kills and a service ace from Maddy Moser, increasing the lead to 20-13. The Pirates were able to pull within four points, but a Reardon kill ended set one, 25-20, to give Loyola an overall 1-0 lead.

The two teams traded points to begin set two, with Hansen, Maciagowski, Reardon, Cushen, Carls and Holt scoring points for the Ramblers, until Seton Hall scored six straight to take an 18-12 lead, forcing Loyola to use both timeouts during the stretch. Despite kills from Brown and Cushen, as well as a double stuff from Cushen and Hansen, Seton Hall held on to claim set two, 25-17.

After kills from Hansen, Carls, Brittany Brown and Cushen, a Reardon block gave Loyola a 12-7 lead to force a Seton Hall timeout. The Ramblers continued to build on the lead behind a handful of Pirate errors and kills from Carls, Brown, Hansen and Reardon, eventually upping the score to 22-16. A pair of kills from Carls then sealed the third-set victory, 25-17, to put the Ramblers back on top.

After battling back-and-forth to open set four, a Reardon kill and a service ace from Stephanie Kinane put the Ramblers on top, 10-9. Brown then led a Loyola rally, firing four kills to help increase the lead to 16-13, forcing a Seton Hall timeout. After upping the score to 21-15 behind a service ace from Moser and a pair of kills from Maciagowski, the Pirates rallied to score six of the next seven points and cut the Loyola lead to 22-21, forcing a Rambler timeout. However, kills from Maciagowski and Reardon and a Pirate error ended set four, 25-21, to give the Rambelrs the four-set victory.

Loyola is back in action at the Cornell Invitational on Saturday, facing off against Binghamton at 10:00 a.m. CT before taking on host Cornell at 6:00 p.m. CT.