BALTIMORE – Loyola University Maryland volleyball ended the 2021 regular-season on a high note, earning the No. 5 seed in next week's Patriot League Championships by virtue of a four-set win over visiting Colgate University in Reitz Arena.
 
The Greyhounds (17-10 overall) delivered a 19-25, 25-12, 25-20, 25-21 win over the Patriot League Regular-Season Champions and matched their best record in conference play (9-7) since joining the league in 2013.
 
Loyola will go into the Patriot League Championships as the No. 5 seed and will play at fourth-seeded American University on Tuesday, November 16, in a 7 p.m. match.
 
Five Loyola players had 10 or more kills, and the Greyhounds hit .327 in the match. Abby Hamilton had 20 with just three errors to hit .354, while Cecylia Guye banged 13 kills and hit .458. Lauren Link posted 14 kills, while both Cat Vaccaro and Kacy Sekunda added 10.
 
Sekunda had a double-double with a match-high 52 assists, and her career-high 10 kills came in just 15 attempts for a .667 hitting percentage.
 
Guye led Loyola with five total blocks that included two of the solo variety.
 
Colgate won the first set by hitting .500, but Loyola turned the tables on the Raiders by hitting .444 and holding them to .081 in the second as Colgate had just seven kills in the frame.
 
Link (6), Hamilton (5) and Guye (4) combined for 15 kills in the third set, while Vaccaro and Sekunda had three each – as Loyola's passing stepped up. The Raiders did not have a hitting error in the stanza, but behind the strength of Katie Forsythe's 10 digs, Loyola kept the ball in play to go up 2-1 in the match.
 
Colgate appeared headed to a third-set win when it went up 20-18 on a Libby Overmyer kill, but Sekunda put away an overpass for a kill to sideout for Loyola, and tricky serving by Rose McDremott helped Loyola pull in front.
 
McDermott served her second ace of the night to tie the set at 20-20, forcing a Colgate timeout, and Guye then had a kill and a solo block on back-to-back points to put Loyola up 22-20. McDermott's third ace came on the next point, and Loyola had a three-point lead, needing only two to close out the match.
 
Colgate sided out, but the Greyhounds got the point back immediately after a Raiders' attack attempt went long, and Hamilton's 20^th kill of the night sealed the win.
 
Four Greyhounds had 10 or more digs, led by Forsythe's 24. Corinne Filograna added 19, while Link had 19 and Hamilton added 10.