Match Information
Opponent	Holy Cross Crusaders
Date	Saturday, November 11, 2023
Time	4:00 p.m.
Location	Worcester, Mass. | Blaney Gymnasium
Getting There	Directions
Watch	ESPN+ | International Video Stream
Live Stats	Click Here
Game Notes	Loyola

Closing The Regular Season

• The Loyola University Maryland volleyball team closes the door on the 2023 regular season this weekend when it heads to Massachusetts for its last game of the year.
• The Greyhounds will face College of the Holy Cross at 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 11, in the Crusaders' Blaney Gymnasium.

Almost There

• Lauren Link enters Saturday's game needing eight more kills for an even 1,000 in her Loyola career. She would become the 13th player in program history to meet or eclipse the plateau.

Even 200

• The Greyhounds' October 14 win over Lafayette College was the 200th of Loyola Head Coach Alija Pittenger's career. Pittenger is in her ninth season as the Loyola head coach after spending six seasons at Fairfield University.
• She has built the Loyola program into one that has reached the Patriot League Championships four times in the last five seasons after it had not qualified previously.

Last Time Out

• The Greyhounds split a pair of matches in their final home weekend, beating Army West Point on Friday night, 25-16, 25-23, 25-20 and falling to Colgate, 25-19, 25-20, 25-20.
• Lauren Link had a match-high 16 kills against the Black Knights, and Kacy Sekunda added her third triple-double of the season with 11 kills, 15 assists and 10 digs.

Link-ing The Kills

• Lauren Link broke out as a sophomore outside hitter for the Greyhounds in 2021, finishing second on the team with 3.24 kills per set, a mark good for fifth-best in the Patriot League. She had 17 matches with 10 or more kills, including each of the Greyhounds' last 13 contests. During that stretch, she averaged 14.1 kills per match and 3.6 kills per set.
• Last season, Link moved into a role as the Greyhounds' primary option on the outside, and she had the stats to back it up. In 24 matches, she put away 406 kills, an average of 4.56 per set. Link's 4.56 kills per set were tops in the Patriot League and ninth in the NCAA. She had seven matches with 20 or more kills, 16 with 15-plus, and she has put away 11 or more kills in all but two of the 25 matches Loyola has played this year.
• During the 2023 season, she has 14 matches with 10 or more kills and one with 20-plus, a season-high 21 coming against Robert Morris. Her 3.27 kills per set lead the Greyhounds and are sixth in the conference.

Settling In On The Outside

• Morgan Crawford had the best back-to-back matches of her freshman season, totaling 24 kills in a pair of matches earlier this year against Lehigh and Bucknell.
• The native of Richmond, Virginia, hit .210 from the outside and averaged 3.43 kills per set in the matches while finishing second on the team in total kills in those matches.
• She entered that weekend averaging 1.86 kills per set, but her most-recent games have moved that number to 2.02.
• Since the start of Patriot League play, Crawford is averaging 2.20 kills per set and has four matches with 10 or more kills. In non-conference matches, she averaged 1.76 per set. 

Churney In The Middle

• Caitlin Churney has led Loyola with a .282 hitting percentage since September 8, totaling 123 kills with only 41 errors in 291 attempts in the 16 matches that included the Jack Kaiser Volleyball Classic at St. John's and the Greyhounds' 15 Patriot League matches thus far.
• She has hit .400 or higher in five of the last 18 matches (Siena, Stony Brook, Navy) and had a .455 mark with 11 kills and one error versus Navy at home.
• Churney leads Loyola in blocks this year with 63 total, an average of 0.76 per set. Her season-high of seven came at home against Navy when she had two solos and was in on five others.

Back To The 5-2

• Loyola has played in both a 5-2 and 6-1 this season with Bryanne Soares and Kacy Sekunda splitting setting duties since Sekunda's return from an injury.
• Soares leads Loyola with 581 assists and 6.84 per set, while Sekunda has 274 with an average of 4.72.
• Soares is second on the team with 28 aces (0.33 per set) and digs (190, 2.41), while Sekunda has also made an impact as a front-row hitter. She has three triple-doubles and is averaging 2.17 kills per set (126 total) and 2.24 digs (130).

Up Next

• Loyola remains in the hunt for a Patriot League Championships bid. The Greyhounds can clinch a spot in the tournament as the No. 6 seed with a win at Holy Cross, as well as losses by Lehigh at Navy (Thursday) and by Lafayette at Colgate (Saturday).