CHICAGO – Behind another strong defensive performance, No. 6 Loyola Chicago (19-2, 10-2 MIVA) swept Lindenwood, 3-0, for the second night in a row on Friday, March 28 to claim its 10th conference victory and improve to 13-1 inside Gentile Arena.  

"It's really important to slow down the opponent and last night Lindenwood made a ton of errors, and we knew coming in tonight that they were going to put more pressure swinging into the court and forcing us to play volleyball," said head coach Shane Davis. "They did a good job of attacking our right-side blockers with their left pin, but I was happy that our middle blockers were able to slow them down by the end of it." 

How It Happened  
Set One: Both sides exchanged points early before Loyola broke away on a 4-0 service run by Daniel Fabikovic, putting the Ramblers ahead, 17-12. A number of attack and service errors allowed the Lions to close the gap at 22-19 and force a Ramblers timeout. After the break, senior middle blocker Nicodemus Meyer made a clutch kill, set up by junior setter Ryan McElligott and outside hitter Parker Van Buren sealed the set, 25-20, on a decisive kill that was assisted again by McElligott.  

Set Two: Set two started off neck-and-neck with five tied scores in the first 10 points. More miscues at the service line and attack errors on both sides kept it tight before the Ramblers pulled away with a slight edge at 16-12. Junior middle blocker Brad Bell delivered a fierce kill that kept Loyola's momentum going with Fabikovic and Van Buren adding on two more. Lindenwood went on its own scoring run to decrease the deficit to 23-22. Meyer recorded a kill to put the Ramblers at set point and a Lions service error gave up the second set, 25-23. 

Set Three: Loyola opened the third and final frame with back-to-back kills by Bell and Jake Read, both set up by McElligott. The service and attack errors stayed consistent on both sides, surrendering a number of points. With the Lions up 16-14, Fabikovic notched another kill before a score from Read put the Ramblers back in the lead, 18-16. Loyola added four more kills from Bell, Van Buren and Fabikovic to set up match point, which was clinched by the redshirt senior captain, 25-21.  

Inside the Box Score 

• Fabikovic had the match-high 13 kills on .480 hitting and added three block assists. 
• Bell ended the night with eight kills on .462 hitting and two block assists.  
• The Ramblers hit .447 as a unit and held the Lions to just .200.  
• Loyola dominated the defense with nine blocks while Lindenwood had zero.  

Up Next 
The Ramblers hit the road to Charlotte, N.C. for a pair of matches against MIVA opponent Queens on Thursday, April 3 at 5 p.m. CT and Saturday, April 5 at 12 p.m. CT.