Boxscore (PDF)

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (February 16, 2018)
 
In Short
No. 6 Loyola University Chicago (10-2, 3-0 MIVA) received 18 kills from Collin Mahan and hit .357 as a team to earn a 27-25, 25-19, 23-25, 18-25, 15-12 victory at No. 14 Fort Wayne (9-3, 1-2 MIVA) tonight in a Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association match. The win is the Ramblers' 11^th in a row against the Mastodons and also extends their winning streak in Fort Wayne to 10.
 
How It Happened
Back-to-back Mahan kills gave Loyola a 25-24 lead in the opening set, but Pelegrin Vargas answered with a kill that knotted the score at 25. An errant Fort Wayne serve, immediately followed by an attack error, allowed the Ramblers to complete a 27-25 victory.
 
Loyola stormed out of the gate to a 6-1 lead in set two and never looked back en route to a 25-19 win that gave it a 2-0 lead in the match. After the Mastodons trimmed the Ramblers' lead to three, another Mahan kill, followed by a Paul Narup/Ricky Gevis block and a Will Tischler kill, extended the advantage to 15-9, and Fort Wayne never got closer than four points the rest of the way.
 
Mahan drilled a kill to draw Loyola even at 19 in the third set, but Fort Wayne reeled off three straight points to break open a 22-19 lead. The Ramblers fought their way back and got within a point on three occasions the remainder of the set, the last time coming on a Mastodon service error that made it 24-23, but the Ramblers misfired on a serve to provide Fort Wayne the final point in a 25-23 decision.
 
Fort Wayne sprinted out to a 7-2 lead in set four, but Loyola clawed back and closed within 9-8, thanks to a 6-2 run that was capped by a kill from Tischler. The Mastodons answered that spurt with three consecutive points to extend their lead to 12-8 and never allowed the Ramblers to get closer than three the rest of the set on their way to a 25-18 victory.
 
The decisive fifth set was back-and-forth until Loyola rattled off three unanswered points, capping that brief surge with consecutive blocks, to break open a 13-10 lead on the way to a 15-12 victory that ran its winning streak to eight matches overall.
 
A Look At The Numbers

• Mahan finished with 18 kills, four digs, four aces and a block, while hitting .516 (18-2-31), and Gevis totaled 13 kills and nine digs.
• Jeff Jendryk racked up 12 kills, matching his season high, and chipped in three blocks, and Tischler contributed 11 kills and 12 digs.
• Garrett Zolg notched his fourth double-double of the season, tallying 53 assists and 16 digs, both season highs.
• Avery Aylsworth added 12 digs and six assists.
• Pelegrin led the Fort Wayne offense with 24 kills.

Up Next
Loyola visits Ball State tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. Central.