Loyola volleyball falls in both matches at Southwestern

Posted: October 31, 2009 for Women's Volleyball

Georgetown, Texas - The Loyola University New Orleans volleyball finished play at the Southwestern Tournament on Saturday, dropping both matches against East Texas Baptist University 3-0 (23-25, 22-25, 20-25) and host Southwestern University 3-1 (28-26, 20-25, 14-25, 16-25).

In the first match in game one, ETBU (19-8) held a five point lead early before Loyola’s Taylor Jones scored a kill to make the score 6-10. Down 14-20, the Wolfpack rallied back to even the score at 21-21 after an ace by Ashley Abendschein. Loyola grabbed the lead at 23-22 on a kill by Rachael Roth, but ETBU answered back with two kills before taking the game 25-23 on an ace.

In the second set, back to back kills by Abendschein put Loyola up 6-3. The Wolfpack continued to stay ahead, extending their lead to 17-10 on a kill by Lindsey Mullinix. The Lady Tigers made another comeback, scoring five straight points, which included two aces. After a kill by Jones gave Loyola a 19-17 lead, ETBU put together another five point run and then held on to win 25-22.

In the third set, ETSU broke a 6-6 tie with three straight points. Loyola kept closing the gap, coming within one point several times, but were never able to even up the score. Down 16-20, Loyola had two consecutive attacks blocked and ETSU went on to take the game 25-20, winning the match 3-0.

Rachael Roth led the Wolfpack with 11 kills, with Abendschein, who had three aces, next with seven kills. Samantha Worsham led with 28 assists, and Amanda Oldani finished with 16 digs.

Against #12 Southwestern, Loyola (16-13) took a 9-5 lead before the Pirates tied the game with four straight points. After taking back the lead, the Wolfpack extended their advantage to three at 23-20 on a kill by Abendschein. Southwestern evened up the score, and after a few ties, Loyola would win the first game 28-26 after a kill by Mullinix and an attack error on the Pirates.

In the second game, Southwestern (29-3) started out with two aces en route to a 7-1 lead. Loyola’s Worsham was able to bring the deficit to 13-16 on an ace, but Southwestern evened the match with a 25-20 win.

The third game was dominated from the start by the Pirates, taking a 9-3 lead after two consecutive aces. Loyola came within five at 6-11 on an England kill, however, Southwestern would cruise to a convincing 25-14 win.

The final game started out close, with Loyoal being down 9-10. The Pirates were then forced to call a time out after a kill by Rachael Roth made the score 15-13 Southwestern. The Pirates, looking to extend their winning streak to 24 games, outscored the Wolfpack 10-3 down the stretch to take the game 25-16, and the match 3-1.

Abendschein led the Loyola attack with 13 kills. Mullinix added 8 kills, and Worsham assisted 33 points. Oldani led defensively with 29 digs, while Roth had five blocks.

The Wolfpack start their final week of the regular season when they head to Alabama on Tuesday, Nov. 3 to take on the conference leading Mobile Lady Rams at 7:30 p.m.

Become a fan of Wolfpack Athletics on Facebook at
http://facebook.com/loyolawolfpack.

###