LEADING OFF 
The No. 6 Loyola Chicago Ramblers (21-2, 12-2 MIVA) take a quick trip to Romeoville, Ill. on Thursday, April 10 to take on the No. 14 Lewis Flyers in their penultimate Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association clash of the regular season.  

QUICK HITS 

• Last week the Ramblers went 2-0 on the road against MIVA foe Queens in a balanced attack. Parker Van Buren combined for 25 kills and 15 digs while Daniel 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. 
• Dating back to the CSUN match (March 22), Loyola is 6-4 in five-set matches over the last two seasons and 11-7 over the last 3 seasons.   
• The Ramblers lead the MIVA in 10 categories: points (17.52/set), hitting percentage (.365), assists (12.26/set), kills (13.12/set), service aces (1.80/set), blocks (2.60/set) opponent hitting percentage (.212), opponent assists (10.13/set), opponent kills (10.61/set) and opponent service aces (0.98/set).     
• Individually in the league, Van Buren is No. 1 in kills/set (4.24) and points/set (5.06) while McElligott is the MIVA leader in assists/set (10.73) and Meyer ranks first in blocks/set (1.29).    
• 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 fourth in assists/set and Van Buren is fourth in kills/set and eighth in hitting percentage.   
• Head coach Shane Davis remains the winningest coach in program history with a 285-90 ledger and a .760 winning percentage.         

SCOUTING REPORT 
Heading into its last regular season match, Lewis is 20-8 overall and 10-5 in MIVA play. The Flyers have faced conference losses against Ball State, Lindenwood, McKendree and Ohio State. They are coming off a 3-1 road loss to the Buckeyes. As a team, Lewis ranks second in the league in points (16.19/set), hitting percentage (.330) and digs (9.27/set) while coming third in services aces (1.59/set) and fourth in blocks (2.21/set). The Flyers limit their opponents to 1.49 blocks per set, good for first in the league, and hold them to a .245 hitting average. Offensively, the Flyers are led by Oguzhan Oguz with a 4.01 kills per set average, and instrumented by assist-leader Tyler Morgan who averages 9.56 per set. At the net, Shawn Baggs leads with 73.0 total blocks (1.09/set) and Nico Paula anchors the back row with 271 digs, averaging 2.61 per set.   

SERIES HISTORY 
The Ramblers hold the all-time series advantage, 41-30, over the Flyers with the first meeting ever in 1996. Most recently, Lewis upset Loyola after four sets inside Gentile Arena on Feb. 27 earlier this season. Prior to the loss, the Ramblers had won the previous six matchups against the Flyers. Loyola is 19-16 in Neil Carey Arena. This will be the second meeting between Ramblers' head coach Shane Davis and Flyers' head coach Dan Friend since the 2015 National Championship where the Maroon and Gold won it all for the second year in a row.  

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