BALTIMORE – Loyola University Maryland won the final three sets on Thursday night against visiting Bucknell University, claiming a berth in the Patriot League Semifinals with a 23-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-15 win over the Bison in the quarterfinal round.
The fourth-seeded Greyhounds will now play No. 1-seed Colgate University on Saturday, November 19, in a 3 o'clock match in Hamilton, New York. The semifinal bid is the second for Loyola since joining in the Patriot League in 2013, following a trip to the final four in 2018.
Bucknell (15-11 overall), the tournament's No. 5 seed, took the opening set after hitting .317 with 17 kills and just four errors, but the fourth-seeded Greyhounds tightened their defense in the following sets, holding the Bison to just a .046 hitting percentage in the final three.
Loyola had 60 of its 79 digs in the final three sets, led by
Katie Forsythe who had 21 of her match-high 25 after the first set.
During the contest, Forsythe moved into a tie for ninth all-time in NCAA Division I in career digs, raising her total to 2,707.
Four Greyhounds had nine or more kills, led by
Lauren Link's 17.
Cecylia Guye added 13,
Megan Bukala had 12, and
Sophie Brenner tallied nine.
Ashley Dwyer directed the Greyhounds offense with 49 assists, and she also had 13 digs.
Rose McDermott posted 14 digs, and Link added 10. Guye also had four blocks, while
Adara Kellogg, Dwyer and Link each posted three.
Bucknell led 11-9 in the second set, but Loyola took the advantage with a Link kill at 14-13. After the Lisa Zoch sided out for the Bison with a kill, Loyola reeled off five of the next six points to lead 20-15 on a Link service ace.
The Greyhounds (11-13) stretched out to a four-point lead early in the third, but Bucknell squeezed back to get within a point, 17-16, after a Greyhounds attack error. Loyola sided out after a Bison hitting miscue, and Bukala then put away a kill. Another Bucknell attack error gave Loyola a 20-16 lead before Guye had a kill and she teamed with Dwyer for a block at 22-16.
In the fourth, Bucknell used its two timeouts within two points of each other, calling the second after a Link kill on an overpass made it 14-8 Loyola.
The Bison sidedout after the second timeout with a Catherine Jamison kill and eventually closed to 14-11, but from there Loyola scored four in a row, highlighted by Bukala and Brenner kills to make it a seven-point lead, 18-11.
Bukala pushed the lead to eight, 22-14, with a kill, and then after a Bucknell attack error, she had another to get to match-point. The Bison held off one clinching point, but Guye put a ball away in the middle to score the contest's final point.
