Box Score DES MOINES, Iowa – The Loyola Ramblers volleyball team rallied to win a five-set thriller over the Drake Bulldogs on Saturday night (Sept. 20) at the Knapp Center.
The Ramblers won by scores of 18-25, 25-23, 25-14, 23-25 and 15-13 over the Bulldogs to earn their first Missouri Valley Conference victory and improve to 5-6 overall. The loss drops Drake's overall record to 9-4 and 1-1 in the MVC.
After cruising to an opening set decision of 25-18, the Bulldogs dropped the next two sets to find themselves in a 2-1 hole.
“I am really happy with our team tonight,” said head coach Darrin McBroom. “It may not be a win in the win, loss column in the standings, but it is a win for our program and shows how we want to play. We showed so much heart, coming back in the fourth set. We kept gutting it out and playing a great match. It is a loss, but it shows tremendous growth of this young team.”
However, a resilient Drake squad stayed patient in set four as Loyola overcame an 18-13 deficit to get within one point, 24-23, late in the frame. The Bulldogs responded with a big block assist by Amanda Platte (Mount Vernon, Iowa) and Katie Dulek (Lenexa, Kan.) to get the clinching point and force a deciding fifth set.
In the fifth set, Drake raced to a 7-5 advantage as Loyola called its first timeout. The Bulldogs later extended their margin to 11-9 after an attack error by Morgan Reardon. Two-straight points evened the score at 11-11 as Drake called its first timeout of the frame. The teams traded points after the timeout as each squad looked to claim the match, but it was Loyola who finally pulled away with the 15-13 victory. Reardon, who finished with a match-high 32 kills, had her final kill of the night to give the Ramblers the road win.
Freshman Kyla Inderski (Urbandale, Iowa) smashed a team-leading 16 kills in the loss, while sophomore Makena Schoene (Seattle, Wash.) came off the bench and connected for a career-best 13 kills.
“I was very pleased with Makena on her performance tonight from the right-side,” McBroom said. “She hit over .300 and had a precise game for us.”
Schoene paced the offensive attack in set one with a team-high five kills. Drake smashed 17 kills with just four attack errors. Reardon had eight kills for the Ramblers.
Trailing 16-12 in set two, the Bulldogs battled back to even the score at 16-16. The teams swapped points until an attack error by Schoene pushed Loyola's advantage to 22-20. Drake trimmed the deficit to 24-23, but Reardon connected for her 16th kill of the evening to give Loyola the set, 25-24.
Drake will play just one match next week as it welcomes UNI to the Knapp Center on Sept. 27 with first serve against the Panthers set for 7 p.m.
