In Short
After leading 2-0, Ball State won three sets in a row to defeat the Loyola University Chicago men's volleyball team, 3-2. Cole Schlothauer led Loyola with 20 kills, while Kyle Piekarski registered a career-high 18 kills and Jake Freeman added a career-high 13 digs.
 
Coach Mark Hulse's Thoughts
"You do some things well enough to win, maybe a couple sets but even then, we just we weren't that sharp," Hulse said. "The set scores go up and then they go down three in a hurry. But even in the second set I don't know how good we were. Ball park, big picture to play real well on a Friday and not feel like we played real well on a Saturday is a bummer. We'll go back to practice and we'll work harder, we'll watch the video, we'll get better, we'll get a little tougher, no doubt."
 
How It Happened
Loyola started off with a lead, eventually moving ahead 6-2 after a Devin Joslyn ace. Ball State slowly crept up, coming back for a 16-14 lead. Joslyn came up with a back-row kill to make it 16-15, before both teams battled and exchanged points. Schlothauer slammed an ace to tie it 18-18 before Luke Denton came up to serve and crushed another ace to give the Ramblers a 22-20 lead and force a Ball State timeout. To finish out the set, Piekarski launched two kills from the middle to give the Ramblers a 25-23 victory.
 
In set two, Ball State went on a 3-0 run to take a 6-4 lead early, but the Ramblers came back to tie it 10-10. Both teams tied it four more times before Ball State took a 18-16 lead. After a Loyola timeout, the Cardinals came back strong from the break, taking a 21-18 lead. The Ramblers were able to come back, 22-20 after a service error from the Cardinals and a Piekarski kill. Loyola then went on a run, as Schlothauer posted back-to-back kills for a 23-22 lead. The Cardinals tied it again but Schlothauer put down another kill from the outside to keep the Ramblers in it, 24-23. Andrew Lyons and Denton sealed the win for the Ramblers as they both went up for back-to-back combined blocks and Schlothauer posted one more kill for the 26-24 win.
 
Ball State took an 8-3 lead in the third set and the Ramblers struggled to come back as the score moved to 11-4. Loyola made a huge comeback with back-to-back kills from Schlothauer, a service error and Lyons kill for a 20-15 score. Loyola later went on a 3-0 run to close it in, 23-21, but the Cardinals ended up holding their lead, 25-22.

In the fourth set, the Ramblers took a huge 11-5 lead with another kill from Piekarski followed by an ace. Ball State started to come back, but Joslyn completed another back row kill to keep the Ramblers in it, 15-11. The Cardinals went on a 3-0 for a 17-14 lead and eventually tied it 22-22 and were clutch with the final points, upsetting the Ramblers, 25-23. 

In the final set, the Cardinals jumped ahead with a 8-2 lead and the Ramblers struggled to catch up. The closest the Ramblers came was 12-6 before Ball State snagged a 15-8 win.
 
A Look At The Numbers
- Cole Schlothauer led the Ramblers with 20 kills, nearly reaching his career-high 21 kills.
- Kyle Piekarski recorded a career-high 18 kills on .586 percent hitting (18-1-29).
- Jake Freeman posted a career-high 12 digs.
 
Up Next
The Ramblers continue their homestand, hosting McKendree on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m.