BALTIMORE – Loyola University Maryland finished a Patriot League weekend road sweep on Saturday, holding off the U.S. Military Academy in five, 25-23, 17-25, 22-25, 25-23, 15-13.
 
The Greyhounds (13-14 overall, 8-6 Patriot League) scored the last eight points of the first set to take an early lead in the match, but the Black Knights (12-15, 7-7) took a 2-1 lead after winning the second and third.
 
Loyola held Army West Point to a .041 hitting percentage in the fourth, squeezing out a 25-23 victory, forcing a decisive fifth set. The Greyhounds used a 7-4 run in the fifth to take a 14-9 lead on an Ann Ernst kill, but the Black Knights tallied four-straight to get within one, 14-13, on a Lisa Sullivan swing.

On the ensuing point, Army West Point turned back an Ernst swing, but Katie Forsythe covered the block to keep the point alive for Loyola, and Alaina Acchione again set Ernst who this time rolled a shot over the Army West Point block and in front of its back line for the match-clinching point.
 
Ernst had a match-high 18 kills to lead the Greyhounds' offense.
 
Forsythe, Loyola's freshman libero who set the Patriot League single-season record for digs in Friday night's win at College of the Holy Cross, set the school record for digs in a season against the Black Knights, finishing with a match-best 23. She eclipsed the mark of 626 set by Brittany Born in 2007 when the Greyhounds were members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
 
On the offensive end, Haley Puddy hit .320 from the right-side while logging 11 kills, Cat Vaccaro had 10 kills, and Abby Hamilton added nine to go with 12 digs. Molly Jarvis totaled eight kills without an error on 16 swings.
 
Vaccaro also led the Greyhounds' blocking efforts, putting away four total, while Jarvis had three. Molly Werts dished out 28 assists, while Acchione added 20 and 10 digs.
 
Army West Point looked destined for an early lead in the match when Courtney Horace put away a kill to make it 23-17 Black Knights in the first set, but the Greyhounds sided out on an Army West Point hitting error before a bad set got them within four.
 
Jarvis then had a kill before Ernst put away two in a row to close the gap to 23-22. Hamilton served an ace to tie the score, and Ernst had a go-ahead kill to put Loyola in front for the first time in the set, 24-23. An Army West Point attack error then sealed the first-set win for the Greyhounds.

After the Black Knights won the second and third sets, Loyola pushed out to a trio of four-point leads early in the fourth. An Army West Point attack error made it 11-7 Greyhounds, and after Monica Eckford sided out for the Black Knights with a kill, a solo block by Jarvis started a 4-0 Loyola run that saw Jarvis and Hamilton have kills to make it 15-8 Loyola.
 
The teams traded sideouts before Brianna Hartman and Emmy Barnhorst locked up a block to sideout for Army at 16-10. That was the start of a 5-0 Black Knights' run that closed the gap to 16-14 on an Allie Strong ace.
 
Jarvis sided out to stop the scoreless stretch for Loyola, but Barnhorst responded with a kill for Army West Point, jumpstarting another run. The Black Knights tallied six-consecutive points to lead 20-17 and go five points from winning the match in four.
 
Ernst had back-to-back kills to get Loyola within a point, 20-19, but Horace sided out with a kill for Army to spread the margin back to a pair. Puddy then reeled off consecutive kills to tie the frame at 21-21, and a Black Knights attack error gave the lead back to Loyola. Sullivan had a kill for Army West Point, evening the set at 21-21, but Hamilton and Jarvis connected on swings to give the Greyhounds set-point.
 
Strong and Eckford kept the stanza alive for Army West Point with a block, but an Army West Point attack error gave the Greyhounds' their 25^th point of the set, sending the match to a fifth frame.
 
Loyola, which is tied for third place in the Patriot League with Colgate University at 8-6, will finish the regular-season with a pair of matches on the road, first heading to Bucknell University for a 5 p.m. contest on Saturday, November 10. The Greyhounds then face the Raiders in Hamilton, New York, at 2 p.m. on Sunday, November 11, to close the regular-season.