BALTIMORE – Abby Hamilton had a career-high 28 kills for Loyola University Maryland on Friday night, but Lafayette College rallied to win the final two sets for a 22-25, 25-23, 17-25, 22-25, 15-12 Patriot League victory in Reitz Arena.
 
Hamilton was one of two Greyhounds with 20 or more kills as Lauren Link added an even 20 to go with a career-high 28 digs. Hamilton's 28 kills eclipsed her previous best of 23 from a 2019 match at Lafayette.
 
Kacy Sekunda paced the offense with 58 assists, a career-high of her own, and Katie Forsythe led the defensive effort with 39 digs.
 
Loyola opened up the match with a win in the first set, holding Lafayette, a team that entered the match leading the Patriot League in kills per set with almost 14, to just nine.
 
The Leopards, however, came back to pick up a win in the second, despite trailing 15-10 after a Lafayette attack error.
 
Lafayette came back to take an 18-17 lead on a Abby Nieporte kill, but the Greyhounds regained advantages at 20-19, 21-20 and 22-21 on two kills by Link and another by Hamilton.
 
After Hamilton's kill, Leanna Deegan sided out for the Leopards to tie the set, but the teams traded points on a couple of errors. Madi Wahrmund and Grace Tulevech, however, scored the last two for Lafayette, evening the set at 1-1.
 
Loyola broke open a 13-11 lead in the third with four of the next five points to go up 17-12 after a Leopards attack miscue.
 
Hamilton had two kills amongst the last three points to put the set away for Loyola, but Lafayette came back to control most of the pace in the fourth, forcing a decisive fifth set.
 
The Leopards jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the fifth, but Loyola closed to within a pair at 9-7 on a Link kill.
 
Moments later, Cat Vaccaro had kills on back-to-back kills to draw Loyola within one, 12-11, but Abby Nieporte sided out with a kill from the middle after a Lafayette timeout.
 
Vaccaro then had another kill on the right side, one of her 12 during the match, to again make it a one-point margin, but Deegan put away the last two points with kills to win the match for Lafayette.
 
The Greyhounds will be back in action Saturday at 4 p.m. when they host Lehigh University.