October 28, 2006 - Loyola 3 Rider 2
October 28, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Volleyball
Loyola College 3, Rider University 2
BALTIMORE, MD—With both teams dogged by four match losing streaks, something had to give Saturday afternoon.
Hounded by playing its fourth match in a row on the road, Rider (7-16, 5-9 MAAC) fell to the Greyhounds in five games with Loyola winning by scores of 30-27, 19-30, 32-34, 32-30, 16-14.
“It was high intensity,” said head coach Emily Ahlquist. “Both teams focused the entire time. It was fun and it was some great volleyball. It was unfortunate that we didn’t come out on top.”
The last three games of the match all went to extra points play.
Senior Megan Smith (Webster, N.Y./Webster) who compiled career kill 1,000 on Friday night, kept up her intense play with a ‘double-double’ of 27 kills and 10 digs. Smith also added four blocks. The 27 kills tied a career-high set Friday night against Marist.
“We definitely rebounded from yesterday’s loss and played better,” said Smith. “The whole team was involved and everyone stepped it up and played a good match. It was just an unfortunate end to a good day.”
Sophomore Lacey Johnson (Aurora, Colo./Grandview) [17 digs and 11 kills] and junior Katrina Stehle (Greensburg, PA/Hempfield) [17 digs and 10 kills] also posted ‘double-doubles’.
Freshman JoAnna Winter (Hamburg, MN/ Mayer Lutheran) had 62 assists and 11 digs, with fellow first-year player Amy Jeary (Depew, NY/St. Mary's) adding 26 digs for the Broncs. Freshman Alex Chapla (Aliquippa, Pa./Center Area) had 14 kills for Rider.
“It was nice to see our team back,” Ahlquist said. “We were attacking the ball and communicating and today showed our potential of what we can do if we play the right way. You’re never happy with a loss but we can take a lot out of the effort today and the things that we experienced.”
“We will get better if we use what we did today going forward through the rest of the schedule,” Ahlquist added.
The Broncs are now 1-3 in five-set matches in 2006.
“If we continue to play like today, we will start getting the wins as we finish the conference schedule,” Smith added. “There are teams that we can beat and if we do what we did today, we’re going to start winning the close matches.”
Rider travels to Fairfield on Friday for a MAAC match at 7:00pm and for those looking for the rematch, the ‘Hounds visit Alumni Gym on November 9.
-RU-
