In Short…
No. 10 Lewis snapped Loyola's seven match winning streak by delivering a four-set loss to the home team. Collin Mahan led all players with 19 kills to reach 1,000 for his career.
 
Coach Hulse's Thoughts
"We know what we need to do. We've got to get better and we're going to play good teams," head coach Mark Hulse said. "How hard we work at that will have all the impact on what comes out on the back end of the season."
 
How It Happened
An epic first game saw the Ramblers clip the Flyers in extras and give the home team its only set lead in the match. The contest opened with each team recording a 3-0 run to set the table for a back-and-forth frame. The Flyers' additional 3-0 run was the difference in the first half, as they led 15-13 at the media timeout. That lead was later widened to 19-15, but the Ramblers posted an epic comeback by collecting seven of the next 10 points that knotted it up at 22-22 – capped off by Garrett Zolg and Kyle Piekarski teaming up for a block. Back-to-back kills from Collin Mahan brought it to set point, but the Flyers battled back and forced extras. After Paul Narup and Luke Denton's block put Loyola up 27-26, Mahan finished the wild set off with an ace to capture the opening stanza.
 
A pair of 3-0 Flyer runs gave the victors a 10-7 lead early, a lead that was later extended to 15-11 at the media timeout. The Ramblers chipped away and cut it to three with a Denton service ace, but Lewis kept its foot on the gas pedal and tied the match up with a dominant 25-17 set two win.
 
With plays that had Mahan's fingerprints all over them, the Ramblers jumped out to leads of 5-2, 8-3 and 9-4 early in the swing-set. However, a 4-0 Lewis run got them back in the game and narrowed Loyola's lead to 9-8. With the score knotted up at 12-12 later on, a 4-0 run gave Loyola another four-point lead at 16-12. The point explosion got kills from Mahan and Devin Joslyn, as well as a block from Narup and Dane Leclair. Despite the four-point disadvantage, Lewis hung around and trimmed the lead to 20-19 after a 4-1 run. The Ramblers held steady to the 23-21 mark, but the Flyers captured the next four points to take the third set.
 
Lewis took an 8-1 lead early in the fourth set and never looked back. The Ramblers' first 3-0 run came with a block and an ace by Leclair bookending it, but it came at a time when Lewis was already up 19-8. The 19-11 Flyer lead allowed them the luxury to point swap the rest of the way and leave Rogers Park with the four set win.
 
A Look at the Numbers
-Collin Mahan is the 13^th player in program history to record 1,000-plus career kills.
-Friday was the first time all season Loyola recorded more digs in a match it lost.
-Paul Narup tied his season high in kills with 11. He tied his 2018 total for most matches in a season of 10-plus kills (3).
-The loss is Loyola's first home MIVA loss since March 31, 2017, ending a 10-match streak.
 
Up Next
Loyola heads to Arizona for its annual Spring Break trip for a back-to-back against Grand Canyon University. The slate is on for March 8-9 with both contests beginning at 7 p.m. central time.