CHICAGO (January 28, 2023)
 
In Short…
The 11th-ranked Loyola men's volleyball team cruised to a 3-0 sweep over St Francis Brooklyn Saturday evening inside Gentile Arena to improve to 7-0 on the season. Parker Van Buren and Cole Schlothauer paced the Rambler attack with 14 and 12 kills, respectively, while Dan Mangun dished out 33 assists. With the win, Loyola's 7-0 start to the season is the fifth best start in Rambler history.
 
How it Happened
Colton Brook's opening kill set the tone as the Ramblers and Terriers played a tightly contested first set. Neither team led by more than two points until Loyola went ahead 16-14, and the Ramblers finally extended the lead off a 5-0 run and grabbed the 1-0 lead in the match on Schlothauer's set-clinching kill.
 
The trend continued in the second set as both teams traded points and leveled things up at 10-10. Then, the Ramblers grabbed three straight including an ace from Schlothauer for a 13-10 lead. SFC responded to pull back within two points, before Loyola opened things up with an impressive 8-0 run. That stretch was powered by the Ramblers' net presence with blocks recorded by Nicodemus Meyer, Mangun, Jimmy Meinhart and Brooks. Loyola closed out the second set on an ace delivered by Mangun, along with four kills in the stanza from Van Buren.
 
Loyola came out sluggish in the third, falling behind 9-3 in the early portion of the set, but the Ramblers proved resilient. Back-to-back points off a Schlothauer kill and Van Buren block sparked a rally as the Ramblers worked all the way back, pulling even at 10-10 and eventually taking a 13-10 lead thanks to the 10-1 spurt. The Terriers hung around with a point deficit at 16-15, but the Ramblers never trailed again in the match, pulling ahead 21-16 before closing out the contest on a Van Buren kill.
 
Inside the Numbers

• The Ramblers were firing on all cylinders offensively, hitting .423 as a team while limiting St. Francis Brooklyn to a .108 hitting percentage. In the third set alone, Loyola connected at a .667 clip.
• Parker Van Buren had a season-high .583 hitting percentage in the match, registering 14 kills on 24 total attempts with no errors.
• Of the seven Loyola aces, two came from Van Buren while an additional two were off the serve of Jimmy Meinhart.
• Dan Mangun's 33 assists are the third-most by the redshirt sophomore this season and second-most in a 3-set match.
• Bartek Zielinski led the Terriers with 14 kills on a .320 hitting percentage.

Up Next
Loyola heads out west for a two-match swing through California. The Ramblers will first take on Concordia (Calif.) on Thursday, Feb. 2 before rounding out the trip on Saturday, Feb. 3 against Long Beach State. Both matches are scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. (CT).