BALTIMORE – Abby Hamilton put away a season-high 18 kills, hitting .277 from the outside in the process, on Friday afternoon, to lead Loyola University Maryland to a home-opening 25-19, 20-25, 25-23, 25-19 win over Canisius College in the Charm City Challenge presented by Residence Inn Owings Mills.
 
Hamilton also finished one off her career-high with 17 digs as one of three Greyhounds to log a double-double in the match.
 
Ashley Dwyer finished one off her season0-high with 28 assists, and she had 11 digs, defensively to go with two total blocks. Ann Ernst registered 10 kills, a season-high 21 digs and three total blocks. Molly Jarvis had 10 kills and was in on a pair of blocks, while Cat Vaccaro finished with nine kills and seven digs. Mackenzie Fedota came off the bench in the second set to post five kills in only nine swings along with a pair of blocks.
 
Loyola (3-5 overall) jumped out to an 18-7 lead with a 5-0 run that gave it a double-digit lead. Canisius scored two in a row out of a timeout, but Ernst and Adara Kellogg locked up a block to make it 20-9.
 
The Golden Griffins (2-5), however, came back to push the issue late in the match, getting within five, 24-19 before Hamilton sent her sixth kill of the set down to close the stanza.
 
Loyola went up 11-6 on a Jarvis kill early in the second set, and a Canisius attack error would make it 15-11 Greyhounds, but the Golden Griffins scores six of the next eight points to tie the set at 17-17 on an Andrea Diaz Lopez service ace.
 
Loyola regained the lead twice, the last time coming on a Jarvis kill at 19-18 after which the Golden Griffins scored three in a row and eventually tied the match with a 25-20 set-win.
 
The third set had eight tie scores and four lead changes. Canisius went ahead by one, 23-22, when Gabrielle Darnaby and Camille Vanleer posted a block for the Golden Griffins.
 
Loyola called timeout to regroup; after the break, Hamilton and Vaccaro had back-to-back kills before Fedota and Megan Bukala blocked Darnaby to put the Greyhounds in front, 2-1, in the match.
 
The Greyhounds then had just one hitting error, against 15 kills, for a .452 hitting percentage in the fourth set to cruise to the win. Loyola went up 19-12 on a Hamilton kill, but Canisius got within four, 19-15, with three points in a row. That was as close as the Golden Griffins drew, however, as Ernst and Jarvis finished the match with a block of Melina Woods to cap the victory.
 
Loyola will be back in action at 7 p.m. in Reitz Arena when it hosts Charlotte, a four-set winner earlier in the day against UMBC.