LEADING OFF 
In the last match of the regular season, No. 6 Loyola Chicago (21-3, 12-3 MIVA) hosts No. 17 Ball State on Saturday, April 12 at 5 p.m. inside Gentile Arena. The Ramblers are celebrating their seniors and inducting the 2014 and 2015 National Championship teams to the Hall of Fame.  

QUICK HITS 

• In Thursday's match at Lewis, Daniel Fabikovic tallied 12 kills on 18 swings for his career best .611 hitting while Parker Van Buren had the match-high 16 kills on .379 hitting and added two digs and an ace. After just one set Aidan Klein recorded four kills on perfect hitting and had the team-high two block assists. 
• Last week the Ramblers went 2-0 on the road against MIVA foe Queens in a balanced attack. Van Buren combined for 25 kills and 15 digs while Fabikovic added 20 kills, three aces and six block assists, and Ryan McElligott had 66 assists, nine digs and nine kills. Nicodemus Meyer totaled seven blocks, Jake Read recorded 14 digs and 14 kills, and Brad Bell had 10 kills and five block assists. 
• The Ramblers lead the MIVA in 10 categories: points (17.53/set), hitting percentage (.367), assists (12.36/set), kills (13.22/set), service aces (1.78/set), blocks (2.53/set) opponent hitting percentage (.222), opponent assists (10.28/set), opponent kills (10.77/set) and opponent service aces (1.00/set).    
• Individually in the league, Van Buren is No. 1 in kills/set (4.28) and points/set (5.09) while McElligott is the MIVA leader in assists/set (10.82) and Meyer ranks first in blocks/set (1.25).   
• Nationally as a unit, Loyola ranks second in hitting percentage, third in assists/set and in blocks/set, fourth in kills/set, and seventh in aces/set. Meyer is No. 1 in the nation in blocks/set while McElligott ranks third in assists/set, and Van Buren is third in points/set, fourth in kills/set and eighth in hitting percentage.  
• Head coach Shane Davis remains the winningest coach in program history with a 285-91 ledger and a .758 winning percentage.          

SCOUTING REPORT 
Ball State is 17-11 overall and 9-6 in conference play. The Cardinals are coming off two consecutive MIVA losses, falling 3-1 to No. 18 Ohio State and Purdue Fort Wayne. As a unit, Ball State ranks third in points/set (16.11) and in hitting percentage (.318), and second in opponent blocks, limiting teams to 1.64 blocks per set.  

Offensively, the Cardinals are led by Patrick Rogers with a 3.19 kills/set and facilitated by assist-leader Lucas Machado with 643 total assists (7.75/set). Defensively, Braydon Savitski-Lynde leads with 82.0 total blocks (0.87/set) and Rogers is also the team leader in digs with160 total, averaging 1.61 per set.    

SERIES HISTORY 
The Ramblers lead the series 30-13 overall with the Cardinals and Loyola is 6-4 in the last 10 matchups. Most recently, the two programs met in Worthen Arena (March 7) and the Ramblers came back to Chicago with a 3-1 win. Ball State is 2-20 inside Gentile Arena, securing its second road win last year.  

FOLLOW THE ACTION 
Stream the match on ESPN+ and follow men's volleyball on Instagram and X @RamblersMVB for in-game updates.