Match Information
Opponent	American Eagles | Patriot League Quarterfinal
Date | Location	Tuesday, November 16, 2021
Time	7:00 p.m.
Online Media	ESPN+ | Live Stats | International Video Stream
Location	Washington, D.C. | Bender Arena
Getting There	Directions | COVID Information
Follow Us	Facebook | Twitter
Game Notes	Loyola

Playoff Time    

• Loyola University Maryland volleyball opens play in the Patriot League Championships on Tuesday, November 16, 2021, with a quarterfinal match at American University in Washington, D.C.
• The Greyhounds, who are the No. 5 seed in the tournament, will play the fourth-seeded Eagles in a 7 p.m. match at Bender Arena that will stream live on ESPN+.
• Tuesday's winner will advance to the Patriot League Semifinals on Saturday at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.

Patriot League Championship History    

• Loyola is making its third all-time appearance in the Patriot League Championships, all of which have come in the last four years. The Greyhounds, who joined the conference prior to the 2013 season, qualified for the 2018 tournament and lost in the semifinal round to eventual champion Navy. They then faced Army West Point in the 2019 quarterfinal round.

Best In 15    

• The Greyhounds go into the Patriot League Championships with their best overall record in 15 years, finishing the regular-season at 17-10. The .630 winning percentage this season is the best at Loyola since the Greyhounds went 22-12 (.647) during the 2007 season. In fact, it is the first time that the program is guaranteed to finish above .500 since that year.
• Loyola's 9-7 mark in the Patriot League also ties a program best for wins in the conference with the 2018 team.

Postseason Accolades    

• Two Greyhounds were named to the All-Patriot League Team as Abby Hamilton garnered first team recognition and Katie Forsythe was named to the second.
• Forsythe was named the conference's Libero of the Year for the fourth-straight year, marking the first time a volleyball player has earned a postseason major award all four years. She joins former Loyola men's lacrosse All-American as one of five players in conference history across all sports to turn the feat, and she could become the first to earn five as she is returning for a fifth-year of eligibility available due to the COVID-shortened 2020 season.

Killing It    

• Abby Hamilton has been putting up career highs on offense for the Greyhounds this year, averaging 4.26 kills per set through 27 matches. She is also hitting at a percentage, .211, that is higher than her career mark of .191.
• Her 12.88 attack attempts her sit at sixth in NCAA Division I; her kills per game average is second in the Patriot League, and she is 28th nationally with 4.26.
• Against UMES on September 10, she recorded her 1,000th career kill in just her 75th career match. She is currently seventh in school history with 1,315 career kills, and with six more, she will move in to the top-five all-time.
• The native of Colgate, Wisconsin, has averaged 3.59 kills per set in 94 career matches, and her kills per set average is tied for fourth all-time at Loyola. During her career, she has logged 10 or more kills in 79 of 94 outings with 10 of those contests of nine or fewer coming during her freshman year of 2018.

All Of The Records    

• Katie Forsythe became the Patriot League and Loyola all-time record holder in digs on October 23, matching her previous status atop both the conference and school lists for digs in a season and a match.
• Against American that day, Forsythe had her 2,013th career dig early in the contest, passing the Eagles' Kristen Largay (2016-19) for tops in the conference; late in the match, she moved past Brittany Born's mark of 2,042 to set the school record. Through the regular-season, she has 2,177 digs in her career.
• In 2019, she set the school record, and tied the Patriot League mark with 45 digs in a match, and her 753 digs that season stand as a school and conference mark.
• Forsythe is the NCAA Division I active career leader in digs per set with 5.95, a mark that ranks fourth all-time in NCAA history.
• The four-time Patriot League Libero of the Year has finished in the top four of Division I players in digs per set during all three of her collegiate seasons, ranking fourth in 2018, third in 2019 and fourth in 2020. Her averages of 5.86, 6.17 and 6.04 are the three highest in Patriot League history. This year, she ranks second in NCAA Division I.

Partner In Kills    

• Lauren Link has come on this season as a strong second option for the Greyhounds and is averaging 3.21 kills per set.
• She has averaged 15.3 kills per match over the Greyhounds' last 12 outings with an average of 3.5 kills per set during that stretch.
• Link is also hitting at a high clip, putting away balls at a .201 mark from the outside after hitting .140 last year as a freshman.

Both Sides of the Net    

• The Greyhounds are near the top of the Patriot League in both hitting percentage and opponent hitting percentage this season,. They are holding other teams to a Patriot League-best .162 mark through 27 matches, a percentage that ranks No. 28 in NCAA Division I this year. Loyola is sixth in all of Division I in digs per set (18.29) with a dig total of 1,774 that is 15th.
• Their success has not been limited to the defensive side of the net, as the Greyhounds are third in the Patriot League in hitting percentage, swinging at a .205. They are first in the conference, and are 33rd in Division I in kills per set with 13.74.

Freshman Dishing Out Assists    

• Freshman Kacy Sekunda has moved into the role of the Greyhounds' primary setter, posting 924 assists through 27 matches with an average of 9.83 per set. She is second in the Patriot League in assists per set and No. 12 in Division I amongst freshmen. She also is hitting .272 with 89 kills on 246 attempts.
• She was named the Patriot League's Rookie of the Week three weeks in a row from September 14-28 and again on November 15, and she was also named the conference's Player of the Week on September 21.

How Things Change    

• When Alija Pittenger took over as Loyola head coach prior to the 2015 season, Loyola had finished a season in which it went 0-16 in the Patriot League. The Greyhounds won eight conferences matches in her first three seasons, but they have won 24 in the last four full years (not including the shortened 2020 season).
• The Greyhounds' NCAA RPI has risen from 326 in 2014, the year before Pittenger took the job, to 170 this year.