CHICAGO (February 1, 2023) – The 12th-ranked Loyola University Chicago men's volleyball team (7-0) rides a seven-game win streak to the West Coast with Thursday's match at Concordia University Irvine (3-3), before looking to snap No. 3 Long Beach State's (5-0) 14-match home win streak Friday night. First serve in both matches is set for 9 p.m. CT, with Friday's showdown against the Beach airing on ESPN+.
Loyola enters the fourth week of action ranked 12th in the NVA/AVCA national coaches' poll, and 10th in the Off The Block national media poll. The Ramblers have won their previous six road matches, dating back to last season.
The Ramblers are looking to start 8-0 for the second time in three years, after beginning the 2021 campaign with eight consecutive victories. A win Thursday night would equal the fourth-best start to a season in program history.
Loyola leads the nation in aces per set (2.65), ranks third in blocks per set (2.804) and ranks fifth in kills per set (12.74). The Ramblers are currently ranked eighth in the country in team hitting percentage (.359).
Individually,
Nicodemus Meyer is ranked second in the nation in blocks per set (1.67) while
Parker Van Buren ranks fifth in the nation in aces per set (0.882) and eighth in points per set (4.85). Van Buren joins
Cole Schlothauer as the team's leading attackers this season with 3.73 and 3.71 kills per set, respectively.
LAST TIME OUT
Loyola cruised to a 3-0 sweep (25-20, 25-14, 25-19) over St Francis Brooklyn at Gentile Arena to improve to 7-0 last Saturday. Van Buren and Schlothauer paced the Rambler attack with 14 and 12 kills, respectively, while
Dan Mangun dished out 33 assists. 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. 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.
SERIES STUFF
Loyola will meet Concordia for just the second time after falling to the Golden Eagles in the lone previous meeting in 2018 (26-24, 25-23, 17-25, 25-23), which was also hosted in Irvine. Both teams were nationally ranked in that match with Concordia snapping Loyola's five-match win streak at the time
On Friday, Loyola will seek its first win over Long Beach State in the seventh meeting between the two squads. The Beach won last year's Top 10 battle in Chicago and have swept the past five matches from the Ramblers. Loyola will make its first appearance in Long Beach since the 2017 season.
UP NEXT
Loyola will begin MIVA play on the road next week with back-to-back matches at Quincy (Feb. 10) and Lindenwood (Feb. 11). The Ramblers return to Gentile the following week to host Ball State (Feb. 16) and Ohio State (Feb. 18).
